Cover Letter

Your cover letter should communicate the following five items:

1. An introduction of yourself.
2. How you are currently employed or what you were doing.
3. The purpose for writing this letter.
4. Some career highlights
5. Your contact information.
6. Thanking the reader for their time.

You can add additional information, but only when it is requested.

Four things to know about cover letters:

1. To get a cover letter read, it needs to take about 15 – 20 seconds to read, approximately 150 – 250 words in length.
2. This letter should be used as the body of an email when emailing your resume to a specific individual and your resume sent as an attachment. The recipient will read the email (and thus the cover letter) BEFORE opening the attachment to ensure that a computer virus will not be downloaded.
3. This letter is written broadly and its intentions is so that you can apply for anything.
4. Getting your cover letter read is arguably the most difficult part of a job search. Your best bet is to keep it brief, going light on information that is already in your resume.