Table Of Content01 6/27/03 9:20 AM Page i
201
Killer Cover Letters
CD-ROM Edition
Sandra Podesta
Andrea Paxton
McGraw-Hill
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DOI: 10.1036/0071424997
01 6/27/03 9:20 AM Page iii
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Contents
Introduction v
Acknowledgments ix
How to Use This Book and CD-ROM xi
1. Jobhunting in Today’s New World 1
A Personal Note from the Author
2. The Top Ten Rules for Writing Killer
Cover Letters 10
The Basic Do’s and Don’ts for Cover Letters and All Your
Jobhunting Correspondence
3. How to Identify and Sell Your
Strengths 21
How to Identify Your Unique Skills and Talents and What They
Offer Your Next Employer—Worksheets 3-1, 3-2, and 3-3—
Sample Constructions
4. The Networking Letter 35
The Advantages of Networking—Letter Outline—Sample Letters
5. The Ad Response/Resume Cover
Letter 59
How to Create a Letter That Sets You Apart from Your
Competition—Letter Outline—Killer Openings and Closings—
How to Respond to Salary Queries—Sample Letters
6. The Follow-Up Letter 187
How Follow-Up Letters Differ from Thank-You Letters—Letter
Outline—Killer Openings and Closings—Sample Letters
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7. The Thank-You Letter 208
When to Send a Thank-You Letter—Letter Outline—
Sample Letters
8. The Make Something Happen Letter 221
How to Jumpstart a Stalled Candidacy—Letter Outline—
Sample Letters
9. Additional Jobhunting Letters 244
Reference Request Letters—Meeting Confirmation Letters—
Letters for Negotiating, Accepting, and Rejecting a Job Offer—
Letters of Resignation—Sample Letters
10. Killer Resources 257
Words and Phrases to Avoid and What to Use Instead—The
Cover Letter Checklist
Index of Letters That Address Specific
Issues 261
Index of Letters by Industry and Job
Title 262
Alphabetical Listing of Letters 267
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Introduction
Of course, writing is tough. And writing about yourself is even tougher. Assess-
ing your own strengths—honestly and accurately—is one of the most difficult
tasks you’ll ever face. When you’re unhappy at work or out of work altogether,
not feeling particularly good about yourself, it’s even harder to do. Even if you
muster up some terrific talents to talk about, like most people, you may be sur-
prisingly shy about “tooting your own horn.” You list your course work. You list
your jobs. You list your job responsibilities. You list your hobbies. Finally, all
you’re sending prospective employers is a list!
But employers don’t want to hire a list; they want to hire a person. They want
to hire a living, breathing human being. Apersonality. Ahumorous co-worker or
a serious one. Ateam player or a self-starter. An intuitive thinker or someone who
takes direction well. Sure, they want to hire a candidate with the appropriate
skills, but they’ve got to like that person (YOU) too. After all, they’ll be working
together on a daily basis—and the better everyone gets along, the more produc-
tive the work will be.
What this means is that you must project your personality, or some aspect of
it, from the very first ad you respond to and in the very first letter you write. The
reason is that, to make a hiring decision, your next employer is looking for an-
swers to three vital questions:
1.Do you have the skills this job requires?
2.Will you be compatible with my team?
3.Are you honest and willing to work, and do you have the right atti-
tude?
Your resume will answer the first question. Your letters, interviews, and ref-
erences will answer the other two questions. Thus, your jobhunting letters are an
essential opportunity to make yourself stand out as a unique and interesting per-
son, someone an employer would like to meet, interview, hire, and work beside.
To take advantage of this opportunity, you must write well. And to get an
edge over the competition you should not only write well, you should write often.
Why? Most job applicants—your competition—never follow up after an inter-
view. Of those who do, many write letters so inadequate that they actually impair
what might have been a perfectly acceptable candidacy. Furthermore, most job
search letters are forgotten after a quick review. What this means is that just writ-
ing your potential employer at all can put you ahead of other candidates. Writing
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a strong, impressive letter can put you miles ahead. And writing frequently can
give you what advertisers call “top-of-mind awareness;” it can keep you on your
next employer’s mind no matter how long the hiring decision takes.
Unfortunately, for most jobhunters, facing that blank sheet of paper induces
a terror matched by few other tasks. Be honest. Have you, at one time or another,
ever found yourself following any of the Ten Most Common Steps to Writing?
Step 1. Panic: Your brain says, “I have to write.”
Step 2. Procrastinate: You attempt your first escape by remembering
that there is some equally pressing task that must be attended to, such
as walking the dog, doing the dishes, calling Aunt Bella, or sorting the
recyclables.
Step 3. Divert: You belittle the custom of writing such letters, wonder-
ing, “Why can’t I just send my resume?” or “Why can’t I just call and
say thank you?”
Step 4. Delegate: You attempt your next escape by trying to get some-
one else to do it for you. “My sister’s great at this; maybe she’ll write
it for me” is a common ploy.
Step 5: Panic again: You realize that you’ve got to get that resume in the
mail today, and it’s already 3:00 P.M.
Step 6, 7, 8. Shake, rattle, and roll: You stare at that cursed blank page,
envision the finished product, and visualize all the heartache and
strife you’ll have to go through to get to that point. Then you picture
yourself not getting the job because your letter sounded simple,
unimpressive, unbusinesslike (“Whatever that is,” you moan). So fi-
nally you go on a roll, recalling all the big business power jargon
you’ve ever heard: “effectuate”...“implement”... “empowerment”...
“strategic envisioning”...“global perspective.”
Step 9. The mad dash: You furiously type these tired clichés on your last
sheet of good paper, making your first draft your final one. As a re-
sult, in the end, all you can do is...
Step 10. Mail, hope, and pray: And the greatest of these is pray.
Sound familiar? Don’t despair, there is good news! Writing effectively is not
as hard as you think. You don’t have to be a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist. You
don’t have to use eight four-syllable words per paragraph. You don’t have to make
your correspondence any longer than it needs to be; writing voluminous letters
won’t guarantee you’ll get hired. You have only to make yourself understood. You
need to know what you want to say, and you need to say it clearly, accurately, con-
cisely.
And that is precisely what this book will help you achieve.
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This book is the product of our successful jobhunting seminar, Jobhunter’s Corre-
spondence Workshop, in which participants of all ages and professions secured a
vital edge in their job searches. They discovered how to create more effective job-
hunting letters and how to use letters more productively in their search for em-
ployment.
Many seminar participants wrote to let us know that they were using our
techniques and achieving results. They were being selected more often for inter-
views and being offered desirable positions. Frequently, we heard that a major
benefit our seminar delivered was the simple encouragement to try something
different in a letter. Openings that intrigue. Body copy that boasts. Formats that
fascinate. We’re delighted! We hope this book will do the same for you.
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Acknowledgments
We offer our heartfelt thanks to friends, colleagues, and family members who
helped us in the preparation of this book. Your support enriched our undertaking
by making our efforts seem significantly less taxing and infinitely more fun!
Sandra Podesta
Andrea Paxton
ix
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