What is a resume cover letter? Itis a piece of paper that is submitted along with your resume or curriculumvitae. Like its name indicates, a resume cover letter is a letter that isaddressed to a person, and serves several important purposes related to yourjob hunting experience.

Contrary to common belief, thecover letter is not just an adornment or decoration to liven up your resume. Curiously,people think that because it has all the detailed information in it, resumeseclipse the cover letter in terms of importance, which is very, very wrong.

Resumes serve these purposes inrelation to your application:

To further contradict themisconception of the resume being more important, it is actually the coverletter that decides whether your application goes into the ?For Interview? stack,or to the paper shredder and the trash bin. Cover letters that recruitmentofficers don't find satisfactory surely ends into the latter.

It is important to give aconsiderable amount of time to writing a cover letter instead of just typing aletter. A cover letter is not something you give to your parents, friends orboyfriends. It is a letter that ends up in the hands of professionals, and thusshould sound professional and not conversational.

First, the cover letter should bebrief. A typical cover letter is only a page long. Any longer than that and therecruitment officers lose interest and toss your application to the trash whilethey move on to the next. In addition to being brief, the cover letter shouldbe descriptive and informative about your intention to work for the company. Toaccomplish that, cover letters follow a specific structure.

A cover letter, because it isonly a page long, covers only three paragraphs. Through those three paragraphs,you are supposed to answer three questions in the reviewer's mind since therecruitment officer is trained to follow the letter's structure.

First, introduce yourself andyour intent to apply for the position. This is done in the first paragraph. Introduceyourself formally, and explain how you landed on the information that theposition is vacant and needs to be filled up. Don't go into broad details, justspecifics.

Next, the resume cover letter?ssecond paragraph explains why they should hire you for the position. Includeinformation like relevant college education as well as past experience that canprovide merit to your qualifications.

Finally, the third paragraph willshow how interested you are in the company itself and not just the job. Pointout facts like company background, and how you can fit into the company?smission and vision.

When writing a cover letter, keepin mind the common structure. However, you need not sound robotic. Introducesome creativity or personal flair while still sounding professional. As long asyou take these considerations into mind, you will soon be landing the job thatyou have been seeking.