A cover letter is your first impression upon a perspective employer. It is your firm handshake, your introduction, you need to make it count. Before a perspective employer even looks at your resume, they are going to look at your cover letter, and if you can't hook them with this, then your resume will never even get a glance.

Over the years, there have been many tactics tried to get the attention of the hiring managers. One such tactic involved a man who wanted to "get his foot in the door" so he sent his cover letter and resume stuffed inside a shoe that was mailed in a shoebox. This was imaginative, and creative, but he wasn't applying for a position at an advertising agency, so the humor was lost on the employer and his resume went into the pile with the rest of the rejects.

A cover letter should not be a personal autobiography on who you are. The prospective employer will not care if you have two dogs and a cat, have been married twice and have three kids. It is not that type of an introduction. What the cover letter is all about is making a connection. The cover letter connects your skills to the position that is being applied for in a brief manner. It's a teaser- a professional teaser. This is you listing your core skills and matching those up to what the employer needs. Here is a sample of what I am speaking of, if an ad for a software engineer is requesting someone who can "develop custom applications and off the shelf products" plus they want two to three years of programming experience, a degree in computer sciences, and the ability to program in .NET, C# then you should put something like this in your cover letter:

Dear Sir or Madam:

I saw your advertisement for the position of Senior Software Engineer in the Sunday Paper and I know that I am the right person to get the job done.

Upon graduation from the University of Alabama six years ago, I have been working in the software industry. Some of my accomplishments include writing off the shelf applications, web applications and P to P file sharing applications in .NET and C#.

I look forward to further discussing employment possibilities with you at your earliest convenience.

Regards,

John Doe

You need to make your cover letter a business proposal that exudes confidence in yourself and your ability. There is no need for fancy designer paper and hard to read cursive fonts. Your best bet is clean cut and to the point. Lay out your goals, out line your strengths, for every

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