Resume Guide

SUNY Westchester Community College • Career Services Resume/Cover Letter Guidelines 2022-2024 26 C OVER L ETTERS “A resume without a cover letter is like an unannounced salesperson showing up at your door. If you are going to let in a perfect stranger, you at least want to see their credentials. This is exactly what a cover letter does – it introduces you, a total stranger, to the reader. It must be compelling, personable, and brief. It needs to specifically relate to the position in question. Remember, you only have eight seconds to convince the reader to invite you in”. Barbara B. Vinitsky and Janice Y. Benjamin, How to Become Happily Employed Content Ugh! The dreaded cover letter; hated more than the resume itself, yet an integral part of any serious job search. The cover letter answers the most important question on the hiring manager’s mind: Why is this applicant the best-qualified candidate for the job ? Therefore, a dynamically written cover letter needs to be part of every job search. The letter should be a brief introduction that demonstrates your fit for the position and motivate the employer to read your resume. The cover letter is another chance to sell yourself to a potential employer as the best candidate for a specific position. How well you write the letter will determine how effective your resume will be. A good cover letter will help you get an interview; a bad one will cause your resume to be virtually ignored. The cover letter serves a different purpose from the resume and should not be used to repeat information from your resume, just introduce it. The resume is about you, your experience and your skills. The cover letter is about the type of position you are seeking, how you are qualified for that position and what you can do for the employer. The cover letter highlights the aspects of your background that are most useful to the potential employer; the skills, talents and experience the employer is seeking (so you will need to do some research before you write it). The cover letter can sometimes explain negative parts of your background in a positive way that your resume cannot, like large gaps in your employment history, changing the focus of your career or reentering the job market. An effective cover letter should accomplish three things:  Introduce you to the reader and explain your reason for writing  Sell you to the prospective employer  Indicate what you would like to happen next