One of the major differences between resume’s and cover letters is that cover letters are in essay style. They are not a collection of bulleted items which are optimized to be scanned, but instead cover letters are meant to be read from beginning to end. This offers the candidate additional techniques for presenting themselves. As mentioned in instructor blog #3, unlike a resume, a cover letter has a tone. Instead of simply conveying a series of facts, the candidate can tell a story which paints a mental picture of the candidate in the eyes of employer. They can also argue why they are a good fit for the position advertised.
In many ways, a cover letter is harder to write than a resume. Items in a resume can be completely unrelated and ordered in many different ways. A cover letter must be organized in a paragraph form with well connected sentences. Personalizing a cover letter well involves more than just changing a few words; often times the entire letter must be rewritten. A cover letter reveals your writing style. Although for some jobs, good writing skills are not as important, the writing in the cover letter still makes an impression on its readers. If the cover letter is not written well, the employer might doubt the overall competence of the applicant: “If they can’t even produce a well-written cover letter, then how can I expect them to engineer X?” Some employers are more forgiving than others, but why take the chance?
Another piece of advice that I certainly agree with in the readings was that the cover letter should be about the company and how you can serve them. The company really does not care about you. Its primary focus is to make more money and the candidate that seems to increase its chances of making more money the most will get the job.
Harder than a resume...
I agree with you when you said that a cover letter is harder to write than a resume. With a resume you can just change a few words here and there to personalize it, but a cover letter has to be completely re-worked for each company to make it functional. Another good point you made was towards the end of your response. This last paragraph mentions that you need to make sure to gear your writing towards the company as much as you can and not just talk about yourself. There has to be some sort of concrete evidence that hiring you can help their company more than the next average Joe.
Giving Off Personality
As you said, cover letter allows you to present your tone and writing style. I feel that this gives recruiters a glimpse into what your personality is like. This is especially true in instances where you have not met the recruiters prior to them going over your resume and cover letter. So when you are writing your resume, you should consider the type of personality you are giving off. Looking at some of the examples in Kairos and The Cover Letter, it is clear that it is possible to reflect negative personality traits in cover letters. So while crafting your cover letter, I fell you should be sure to take this into consideration.
cover letter advice
I definitely have to agree with you that I believe writing a cover letter can be much more difficult then writing a resume. I have never had to write one yet but am not looking forward to writing the one for this employment project. Because it is more then just a list of bullet points and information I think it also gives you more chances to mess things up and make a bad first impression on the HR recruiter. The readings did do a good job of showing examples of good and bad cover letters which I think will be very helpful for when I am trying to write mine.
Patrick Griffin
pgriffin@purdue.edu
Me Fail English That's Unpossible
Yes, one must be able to form a cohesive sentence if they want to get their message across. “If they can’t even produce a well-written cover letter, then how can I expect them to engineer X?” It is very important to work on your cover letter if you are including it with your resume. A bad cover letter will overshadow your good resume and vice versa. A potential employee must work hard to bring all the pieces together when applying for a job. If they do not give one hundred percent then they might not get that dream job they wanted.
Jeff
cover letters
After reading your comments about the cover letter articles, I agree with everything you had to say. Writing a cover letter is more challenging to write than a resume. However, I would rather turn in a resume with a cover than without one. A cover letter is a great opportunity to set the tone of your personality, other than straight forward information as you mention in a resume. Unfortunately, it's critical to make sure your cover letter is perfect. Otherwise you might lose points in their eyes for not being able to write properly. It's frustrating in general writing a cover letter to making sure you are appropriately demonstrating everything you have to offer, in order to sell yourself.
You hit the nail right on the
You hit the nail right on the head here. I might add, in terms of negative consequences, that a poorly written cover letters say something about the writer as well. Employers have to assume that getting a job is important to the applicant. Thus, the cover letter must be an important document for the applicant. The reader must assume that this is best the applicant has to offer, and that the amount of time and attention the letter evidences is the time and attention he or she gives to important documents.
What happens, then, when the boss assigns you a report that you don't think it is important. "If this terrible letter is what you do when you care, I don't want to see a report you don't give a #$% about!" Given how much communication is a part of any career (whether engineers and scientists want to admit it or not), a poorly written letter reveals who you are as worker. Letters reveal your work habits.
essay style
I think it can be kind of nice to have a cover letters in essay style. Sure I don’t like writing essays but you already have your resume which is designed for quick glancing to get a view of you. I think that the use of the cover letter though allows the employer to see that you have more to you than some key words that go well together with that job title. It also gives you that chance to explain more about your knowledge and how that would help you be successful in the position that you are applying for.
-Chris