THE PERFECT COVER LETTER Once in a while I get something from a job candidate that is truly impressive and I want to share this with all of my readers. Even though it probably will not be read until my one reader returns from his skiing trip in Utah. Please ski carefully Rex, I cannot afford to lose any readers.
In an earlier posting, I mentioned that when writing a resume an Objective is not needed on the resume because it can better be handled by a Cover Letter. I currently have a posting on Careerbuilder for a Plastic Pipe Manufacturing General Manager. I stated in the jobs requirement section what the successful candidate must meet.
1. Profit and Loss Management Experience.
2. Profile extrusion extrusion experience with plastic pipe.
Excerpts follow from what the candidate wrote on his cover letter.
- "Currently I am Plant Manager for a polyethylene pipe plant in south Georgia producing 3/4 inch to 24 inch diameter pipe."
- "I have full P&L responsibility for my operation including budget preparation and adherence, conversion cost development and vendor price negotiation."
- "I am fully knowledgeable in technical aspects of HDPE production Including installation of new equipment, establishment of production parameters, and actual startup and running of production lines."
- "Finally I have multi-plant experience having previous plant management responsibility for two HDPE plants located 200 miles apart."
- He gave his work number.
Here is an individual who wants the job and is willing to spend a little time improving his chances of getting the position. I was so impressed that I pasted most of his cover letter to the Email I sent to the owner of my client company. Not only did the candidate answer the must haves from the job requirements section, he read between the lines in the Job Description to demonstrate why he is such an excellent match to my client company's needs. Needless to say, this is the candidate I am going to work hard to place with my client company.
Writing a cover letter consists of little more than looking for the spoken and unspoken job requirements in the job posting and responding accordingly. If you cannot write an acceptable cover letter, maybe you should not be responding to the job offering. Anyone can Email or fax a vanilla resume.
9:41:39 AM 
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