Good Cover Letter

Address it to the person who can hire you. Resumes sent to the personnel department have a tougher time of it. If you can find out (through networking and researching) exactly who is making the hiring decision, address the letter to that person. Be sure the name is spelled correctly and the title is correct. A touch of formality is good too: address the person as "Mr.," "Ms.," "Mrs.," "Miss," "Dr.," or "Professor." (Yes, life is complicated).

Call attention to elements of your background relevant to the position: Select and highlight the education, leadership, experience that are relevant to a position you are seeking. Be as specific as possible, using examples. If you are applying for an advertised position, use the requirements in the ad and put them in BOLD type.

Reflect your attitude: Employers are always looking for good attitude professionals and want to see since the begging some aspects of your personality, motivation, enthusiasm, and communication skills. Cover letter is the first (and the best) opportunity to show it!

Use terms and phrases that are meaningful to the employer. This is where your industry research and networking come in.

Write it in your own words so that it sounds like you, not like something out of a book. Employers are looking for knowledge, enthusiasm, focus and pro active personality.

Being "natural" makes many people nervous. And then even more nervous because they are trying to avoid spelling errors and grammatical mistakes.

Show that you know something about the company and the industry. This is where your research comes in. Don't go overboard: just make it clear that you didn't pick this company out of the phone book. You know who they are, what they do and you have chosen them!

Provide to any information specifically requested and not covered in your resume: Read the job offer carefully and make sure to provide or refer to any information specifically requested in a job advertisement that might not be covered in your resume, such as availability date, or reference to an attached writing sample.

Be brief and to the point. That's it.