Having an amazing cover letter can be critical to your success in search for a job. The average American's search for a job can statistically last up to nine months, which makes it now more critical than ever that you shine above all the others and get in the door before that door gets slammed in your face. The perfect cover letter can do wonders towards achieving that goal.

When employers are sifting through a ton of resumes, looking for just one person for the job, the cover letter is your primary means of attack. It's the first look they're going to get at you, and it's your first opportunity to look better than the rest of the applicants.

Getting through this first challenge is essential to getting the position. This first culling can determine right now if you have a shot at the job you're after. Resumes with a great cover letter will go to the next round, while the applications with weak cover letters (or worse--none at all!) will be filed in the trash can.

Now, chances are good you didn't somehow find the time to go to college for four years to get a degree in Cover Letter Writing, so you might feel at a slight disadvantage. The good news is that you don't have to be an expert in the field to do well. All you need is a teacher.

There's no better teacher than looking at examples. Learning an important skill by talking to experts in the field and seeing what they've done has always been a good technique. Sadly, getting in touch with these sorts of people seems to only be easy in the movies, which can cause a few bumps in the road.

Lucky for you, the person you need here isn't a person at all, it's the actual cover letter! You don't need to go hunting for the people behind the successful cover letters. All you have to find is the cover letters themselves! They're a lot easier to come by, and from them you can learn more than you could from any person.

You'll actually be getting double benefit from this, since not only will you be learning how to get an awesome cover letter that can increase your likelihood of getting the job, but you'll also be building analysis skills that could prove valuable to employers. A lot of people take the easy way out and just copy other peoples' letters, but that's plagiarism and generally it doesn't work anyways. In other words, don't do that, just take the time to learn the skill and you'll be very happy you did later.

Never forget the real purpose of the cover letter...it needs to do two things above all else: tell why you're qualified, and set up an interview opportunity. While the first point is important, the biggest goal of the cover letter is always to increase your likelihood of getting an interview. If you can get the interview, it's up to you to get the job...but without a strong cover letter, you may not even make it to the interview stage.