A First Look at Cover Letters

A cover letter has never gotten anyone hired, but the right one does get your resume read with something like serious attention. During your job search, circumstances will arise where you have the relevant experience, but your resume doesn't really match you to a particular opportunity, and where there is no time to adapt it. Fortunately, there is a little- known type of cover letter, called an Executive Briefing, that allows you to update and customize that old resume without delaying the rest of your job search or missing out on the opportunity. It is also a very powerful approach when your resume does match; as you'll see, the only restriction on its use is that you must have details about the job opening.

Like many great ideas, the Executive Briefing is beautiful in its simplicity. It is a cover letter on your standard letterhead or e-mail, with the company's requirements for the job listed on the left side, and your skills-matching point by point the company's needs-on the right. It looks like this.

To: rlstein@McCoy.com From: top10acct@aol.com Date: February 18, 2005 10:05:44 PM EST Re: Accounting Manager Dear Ms. Stein: I have nine years of accounting experience and am responding to your recent posting for an Accounting Manager on CareerBuilder.com. Please allow me to highlight my skills as they relate to your stated requirements.
Your Requirements	My Experience
Accounting degree, 4 years exp	Obtained a C.A. degree in 2000 and have over four years' experience as an Accounting Manager
Excellent people skills and leadership	Effectively managed a staff of 24 with proven ability to motivate teams
Computer and analytical skills	Assisted in the development of a base reference skills-library with Microsoft Excel for 400 clients
Good communication skills	Trained new supervisors and staff via daily coaching sessions, communication meetings, and technical skill sessions.
My resume, pasted below and attached in MSWord, will flesh out my general background. I hope this executive briefing helps you use your time effectively today. I am ready to make a move, hope we can talk soon. Sincerely, Joe Black

Here's another example, this time in response to newspaper recruitment ad for an Assessment Coordinator:

From: A1coordpro@earthlink.net Subject: Assessment Coordinator Date: February 28th, 2005 11:18:39 PM EST To: jobs@pepsi.com Dear HR Staff, Your advertisement in the New York Times, on February 27th, 2005, for an Assessment Coordinator seems to perfectly match my background and experience. As the International Brand Coordinator for Kahlúa, I coordinated meetings, prepared presentations and materials, organized a major off-site conference, and supervised an assistant. I believe that I am an excellent candidate for this position as I have illustrated below:
YOUR REQUIREMENTS	MY QUALIFICATIONS
A highly motivated, diplomatic,	Successfully managed project teams involving different flexible, quality-driven professional business units. The defined end results were achieved on every project.
Exceptional organizational skills and attention to detail	Planned the development and launch of the Kahlúa Heritage Edition bottle series. My former manager enjoyed leaving the "details" and follow-through to me. Coverdale project management training.
College degree and 6yrs exp	B.A. from Vassar College (1998). 6+ years relevant business experience in productive, professional environments.
Computer literacy	Extensive knowledge of Windows & Macintosh applications.
I'm interested in this position because it fits well with my new career focus in the human resources field. Currently, I am enrolled in NYU's adult career planning and development certificate program and working at Lee Hecht Harrison. My resume, pasted below and attached in MSWord, will provide more information on my strengths and career achievements. If after reviewing my material you believe that there is a match, please call me. Thank you for your consideration. Sincere regards, Jane Swift

An Executive Briefing not only enables you to customize your resume quickly to any specific job, it is helpful in the screening process on the other side of the desk. Especially for overworked admin staff and HR people who may not understand all the niceties of a specific job function. Its ability to graphically match needs with skills, and as an introduction to your resume, will greatly increase the odds that your submission will be picked out of the slush pile in the Human Resources department and hand-carried to the appropriate manager.

This combination of an Executive Briefing and resume provides a comprehensive picture of a thorough professional, with a personalized, fast and easy-to-read synopsis that details exactly how you can help with current needs. It works, in short, because it makes life easier for the reader.

It helps in yet another way too, you may have noticed that when you have multiple interviews for a position that not all of your interviewers seem to know what job they are talking to you about. Now because an Executive Briefing so clearly matches requirements with needs, it assures that every interviewer at the company will be interviewing you for the same job; this could be just the edge you need. Always take copies of your Executive Briefing with you to interviews along with your resume, it will insure those additional interviewers have the right focus.

An Executive Briefing (one of six types of cover letters) won't get you hired, but as you can see, it will get your resume read with something like serious attention, and advance your candidacy during the selection process. In addition to the cover letter, there are a number of other ways you can use written communication to improve your odds in the job search and interview cycle: broadcast and networking letters, follow-up letters after telephone interviews and face-to-face meetings, negotiation, rejection and acceptance letters, along with resignation and thank you letters; there are 175 pages of such examples in Cover Letters that Knock 'em Dead.