Cover Letter?

Question

I have been told by one of my professors that a cover letter is not necessary. But if they ask for one give them one. What is the best way to write a cover letter? I do not exactly have great writing skills. Should I stay strictly business or should I put a little humor and arrogance in it?

Answer 1

What's better? To have a cover letter and if it's not necessary to have it tossed, or not to have a cover letter and be taken for an ignorant?
A cover letter is a complementation of your CV. You can't have a 6 pages CV right? No one will read it. But if you attach a cover letter to it, you will show you are really interested in the specific job, especially that the cover letter should mold perfectly to the nature of that job.

About the humor or arrogance...DO NOT USE EITHER THEM. No slang, no humor, no arrogance, no shallow thinking. It's the mirror of your personality and you should have your personality revealed by your words...I don't think you are arrogant, right? Maybe you are confusing arrogance with seriousness. The second is necessary, of course

Here's something very useful. Try to read it. It will open your eyes.

http://www.cvtips.com/cover_letter_tips.html

You can also check some cover letter samples if you're not sure on how to write one. Good luck!

Answer 2

A cover letter is not required when submitting your resume to a company. Some companies will toss the cover letter and file the resume. Others will read the cover letter. If you do not want to be considered for employment put some arrogance and humor in your cover letter.

An honest cover letter would look like.
Dear sirs,
I am looking for employment because, I would like to better my life by getting larger pay checks, I heard you may be hiring and willing to pay more then the butt-heads that currently write my checks. If this is true, I want to be one of the first you hire so I can draw from the trough as soon as possible.

Sincerely,

John Q. Applicant

If you write the above, I guarantee you will not get the job.
Before you write a cover letter, do some research about the company and state you wish to work for a company that specializes in what they do and you wish to progress in that area.
You can find examples that might get some positive attention by searching the key words "cover letters".

Good luck.

Answer 3

I would not put "arrogance" in a cover letter...confidence though would be a better route. Humor can be good depending on the type of job and company you are applying for...use your better judgement.

What i generally do in my cover letters is give your career objective (what you plan to accomplish), how you think you will fit in with the company, what you have to offer the company and a brief over view of your skills (Dont restate youre entire resume though) Try to stress skills they said they were looking for in thier job ad into the letter...show them you are right for the position.

I think the most important thing is what you have to offer the company...do some research on where you are applying and tailor your letter to it. They will be impressed that you took the initiative to learn about thier company before applying (and if you get an interview it will be helpful then as well)

Answer 4

A well written cover letter could get you a job interview for a job you are slightly under qualified for. Sad to say, your professor is an idiot if he/she thinks cover letters are not necessary. Most likely you attend a community college or a specialty school. If your writing skills aren't strong stick to the basics. Write a strictly business like letter. Humor should be used only by those who write well and are able to get the point cearly across.

Answer 5

Studies show that regardless of how long you labor over your resume, most employers will spend 10 seconds looking at it. That's it.

Because of the masses of job searchers, most managers and human resource employees receive an enormous number of resumes. Faced with a pile of paper to wade through every morning, employers look for any deficiency possible to reduce the applicant pool to a manageable number. Thus, your resume must present your information quickly, clearly, and in a way that makes your experience relevant to the position in question. That means condensing your information down to its most powerful form.

So distill, distill, distill. Long, dense paragraphs make information hard to find and require too much effort from the overworked reader. If that reader can't figure out how your experience applies to the available position, your resume is not doing its job.

Solve this problem by creating bulleted, indented, focused statements. Short, powerful lines show the reader, in a glance, exactly why they should keep reading.

Think about how to write up your experience in targeted, clear, bulleted, detail-rich prose.

Here is a good format for a cover letter:

http://www.vault.com/nr/main_article_detail.jsp?article_id=20934&cat_id=0&ht_type=9

Answer 6

complicated situation. check out on the search engines. that may help!