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We bring you another excerpt from an excellent blog post entitled Never underestimate the importance of your companions by Kelly Blokdijk of TalentTalks, which discusses — by offering real-life examples — the important role that cover letters and thank-you letters can play in the job search:

Hailey was one of those “do without a cover letter” job seekers, until one day when she noticed quite a few employers were requiring them. Suddenly, she decided that her chances of attracting attention would be improved if she followed the application instructions by submitting a comprehensive cover letter. The letter she started with could have been used by any other job-seeker. There was nothing unique or original about its content.

After we finished building a compelling, focused summary of her experience, there was no mistaking just how qualified Hailey was for her target opportunities. She immediately noticed a better response rate.

Read more examples of how cover letters made a distinctive impression on employers.

Not sure how you could benefit from a professional resume writer? Check out Joan's experience: "I cannot believe what a difference this made. I have had 3 calls for interviews and just accepted a job that pays me 15% more than I made before!" See Joan's resume before -- and after -- the pros at Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters transformed it into a powerful marketing document. Get a FREE resume evaluation from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service. Or order a resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document.

Here’s another excerpt from an excellent blog post entitled Never underestimate the importance of your companions by Kelly Blokdijk of TalentTalks, which discusses — by offering real-life examples — the important role that cover letters and thank-you letters can play in the job search:

Kate applied online for a position through an employer’s applicant tracking system (ATS). While she remembers uploading her MS Word resume in the appropriate step, the cover-letter portion only allowed a cut and paste process. Apparently, a technical glitch prevented the resume from being received by the employer. But, what was receieved (by Kate) was a personal call from the recruiter handling that search.

Kate’s cover letter effectively communicated her qualifications for the position of interest, so the recruiter took the time to place a call to request her resume. She even provided her email address so Kate could send it directly to her attention. That call and evaluation of Kate’s resume later resulted in a phone interview. Without the cover letter, Kate’s application likely would have been skipped over entirely due to being “incomplete.”

Not sure how you could benefit from a professional resume writer? Check out Joan's experience: "I cannot believe what a difference this made. I have had 3 calls for interviews and just accepted a job that pays me 15% more than I made before!" See Joan's resume before -- and after -- the pros at Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters transformed it into a powerful marketing document. Get a FREE resume evaluation from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service. Or order a resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document.

A blog post entitled Never underestimate the importance of your companions by Kelly Blokdijk of TalentTalks discusses the important role that cover letters and thank-you letters can play in the job search. The post isn’t new, but it offers powerful evidence of how job-seekers can succeed with these letters. Over several days, we’ll be running excerpted anecdotes that illustrated this point:

Julie was called by a hiring manager who was so impressed by her customized letter that she “had to meet her.” What Julie did to produce that strong reaction was to tailor her letter so that the hiring manager recognized an exact match for her position. Not only that, but Julie’s letter was creative, interesting and clearly showed that she researched the company’s culture and linked several of her previous accomplishments to their mission and values. Not only did Julie get interviewed, but she got an offer.

See also our white paper, Cover Letter Reboot.

Not sure how you could benefit from a professional resume writer? Check out Joan's experience: "I cannot believe what a difference this made. I have had 3 calls for interviews and just accepted a job that pays me 15% more than I made before!" See Joan's resume before -- and after -- the pros at Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters transformed it into a powerful marketing document. Get a FREE resume evaluation from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service. Or order a resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document.

Test your cover-letter knowledge about cover letters with our quiz. Here’s one quiz where it’s OK to “cheat;” feel free to refer to the Quintessential Careers Cover Letter Tutorial to find answers.

Not sure how you could benefit from a professional resume writer? Check out Joan's experience: "I cannot believe what a difference this made. I have had 3 calls for interviews and just accepted a job that pays me 15% more than I made before!" See Joan's resume before -- and after -- the pros at Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters transformed it into a powerful marketing document. Get a FREE resume evaluation from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service. Or order a resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document.

Career expert Kevin Donlin offers a number of great cover-letter tips. Here’s a sampling:

1. Cut down on sentences that begin with “I” and adopt a “you” perspective. Note how ad copy is liberally sprinkled with “you.” Your cover letter, after all, is an advertisement for your resume.
2. Use your cover letter to convey enthusiasm for the job you’re applying for. Enthusiasm sells.
3. Using a proactive closer in your letter, in which you state that you’ll follow up to schedule an interview will set you apart from the crowd with its determination and confidence.
4. Instead of just relating what you did in your jobs, tell what the outcomes are. Impress employers by telling them what positive things happened as a result of what you did.

Not sure how you could benefit from a professional resume writer? Check out Joan's experience: "I cannot believe what a difference this made. I have had 3 calls for interviews and just accepted a job that pays me 15% more than I made before!" See Joan's resume before -- and after -- the pros at Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters transformed it into a powerful marketing document. Get a FREE resume evaluation from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service. Or order a resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document.

A job-search letter technique that can be effective during tough times is what Marky Stein, calls a “Q” or qualifications letter. “This document is a short letter that compares your qualifications with the employer’s requirements for the job,” writes Stein on WSJ.com. “It’s brief and concise enough to catch the reader’s eye with highly relevant material within those first crucial seconds. When you compose a Q letter, list only those qualifications that you meet or exceed. Requirements that you don’t meet or exceed may be omitted from the letter. Q letters can be especially effective for qualified candidates who haven’t succeeded with traditional direct-mail methods,” notes Stein in an article. Our version of a sample Q letter appears here.

Not sure how you could benefit from a professional resume writer? Check out Joan's experience: "I cannot believe what a difference this made. I have had 3 calls for interviews and just accepted a job that pays me 15% more than I made before!" See Joan's resume before -- and after -- the pros at Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters transformed it into a powerful marketing document. Get a FREE resume evaluation from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service. Or order a resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document.

Has this ever happened to you? You’ve been instructed to list your career accomplishments, and you can’t think of any. Or you’re asked in a job interview, “What accomplishments are you most proud of?” — and you freeze up. You know you have had accomplishments, but you just can’t dredge them up. The inability to come up with accomplishments happens to lots of job-seekers. We know because we ask our resume and cover-letter clients to list accomplishments as part of the process of preparing their job-search documents. Although we stress that accomplishments are far more important than duties and responsibilities, a surprising number of clients are unable to articulate beyond the day-to-day tasks they performed in their jobs. Accomplishments are the points that really help sell you to an employer — much more so than everyday job duties, and you can leverage your accomplishments for job-search success at all stages of the process: resume, cover letter, interview, and more. Find out more about why and how to use your accomplishments in our article, For Job-Hunting Success: Track and Leverage Your Accomplishments.

Not sure how you could benefit from a professional resume writer? Check out Joan's experience: "I cannot believe what a difference this made. I have had 3 calls for interviews and just accepted a job that pays me 15% more than I made before!" See Joan's resume before -- and after -- the pros at Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters transformed it into a powerful marketing document. Get a FREE resume evaluation from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service. Or order a resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document.

“The most effective technique career changers can use in their resumes and cover letters is TRANSFERABLE SKILLS, TRANSFERABLE SKILLS, TRANSFERABLE SKILLS,” writes regular contributor Maureen Crawford Hentz. “I gave a workshop specifically on this topic for career changers at the National Environmental Careers Conference. I was shocked at the number of competent, successful individuals who kept referring to themselves as ‘totally unqualified for a job in the environment.’ These were adults with four to 12 years of experience as managers, editors, and engineers.” Read Hentz’s full article, Career Changers’ Most Powerful Resume and Cover-Letter Tool: Transferable Skills, on how you can use transferable skills to portray yourself as qualified for a new career.

Not sure how you could benefit from a professional resume writer? Check out Joan's experience: "I cannot believe what a difference this made. I have had 3 calls for interviews and just accepted a job that pays me 15% more than I made before!" See Joan's resume before -- and after -- the pros at Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters transformed it into a powerful marketing document. Get a FREE resume evaluation from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service. Or order a resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document.

You’ve heard the adage in real estate and retailing that success centers on three things: location, location, location. With cover letters, success is also tied to three things: specifics, specifics, specifics. In our roles as resume and cover letter writers, we often get requests from customers that go something like this: “Just give me a general cover letter that I can use for any kind of job.” Sorry. No can do. Well, we can do it, but we certainly don’t recommend it. A cover letter needs to be specific in every way. Otherwise, it’s a fairly pointless document. Some experts say even a resume should be specifically tailored for each job. While we feel that a degree of resume tailoring is sometimes desirable, extensive tailoring is unnecessary if you’re specific with your cover letter. Find out how to make your cover letter specific — and thus effective — in our article, Cover Letter Success Is All About Specifics.

Not sure how you could benefit from a professional resume writer? Check out Joan's experience: "I cannot believe what a difference this made. I have had 3 calls for interviews and just accepted a job that pays me 15% more than I made before!" See Joan's resume before -- and after -- the pros at Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters transformed it into a powerful marketing document. Get a FREE resume evaluation from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service. Or order a resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document.

Should you include a cover letter when you send your resume via e-mail? Unless an employer specifically states no cover letters, you should always include a cover letter. You wouldn’t want to eliminate a key selling tool in your job-search portfolio. The whole point of a cover letter is to draw interest in you and motivate the employer to look over your resume. For some great tips on writing a dynamic cover letter, visit our cover letter resources page, which includes some great links, such as to a cover letter tutorial (for those who need a lot of help with writing cover letters) and a cover letter formula. Send your cover letter in the body of an email when applying electronically. (You can also attach your cover-letter document for good measure).

Not sure how you could benefit from a professional resume writer? Check out Joan's experience: "I cannot believe what a difference this made. I have had 3 calls for interviews and just accepted a job that pays me 15% more than I made before!" See Joan's resume before -- and after -- the pros at Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters transformed it into a powerful marketing document. Get a FREE resume evaluation from Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters, powered by About Jobs Resume Writing Service. Or order a resume, cover letter, or other career-marketing document.