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Cover Letter Myths That Could Stop You Cold
"Cover Letters For Dummies(r)" by Joyce Lain Kennedy.
Include salary history and expectations in your cover letter
False! Save the salary discussion for the interview. You can be eliminated at this stage if your salary history is considered too high, too low, or too static. Don't get into it. If an ad requests such information, write that your salary is negotiable and that you'd be happy to discuss the issue during an interview. See Chapter 16 for more information about how to handle the salary issue.
Once you send a letter, the employer carries the ball
False! No matter how terrific you are, most employers have no time for hunting you down unless they need you right this very second. Call to be sure that your letter and resume arrived. If you are sending unsolicited marketing materials, ask for an interview. If you are responding to recruitment advertising, ask if you are a match for the open position and when an appointment can be scheduled.
The never-say-die telephone strategy of years past - which requires you to doggedly call back every 10 days or two weeks - no longer works well. Companies are understaffed; interviewers are overworked. Harried interviewers resent you for breaking into their days with excessive telephone calls. Remaining connected through well-written postal letters, e-mail, and faxes that offer information the employer can use is a much better idea.
Sending your letter by courier is an attention-getter
False! Unless time is of the essence, save your money. Anyone who cares how your letter arrives usually doesn't have the power to hire you. Mail usually filters through office staffers before reaching hiring managers. Even a courier envelope that costs you a meal is likely to be opened by nonhiring hands. In many offices, however, e-mail and faxes still get the hiring manager's attention, because they often route straight to your target.
When mailing, use a standard business envelope
False! Before the dawn of electronic magic, folding a letter for a 4" x 9.5" envelope was standard. Now that your documents face a good chance of being scanned and stored by job computers, inserting your letter and resume flat and unfolded into a 10" x 13" envelope is safer. Creases from folding may damage your document's text in scanning systems. By using a larger envelope, you have a huge edge over thousands of other job seekers who don't know that their marketing materials should arrive scanner-ready.
Paper quality always has a great effect on your image
False! And True! Cover letters and resumes are read both by
humans and by computers. For a finger-friendly read, paper quality
counts. And the more rag content, the better.
For a computer-friendly read, the quality of paper doesn't matter at all - the finest paper becomes just another pretty electronic face. Your cover letter and resume paper should match, be white or off-white
smooth paper, sized 8.5" x 11". Avoid glossy or coarse textures that can cause scanners to misread. Don't use colored paper - especially blue, green, and gray, which may scan in as shades of gray that obscure your letter's text.
Copyright (c) 1996 Joyce Lain Kennedy. All rights reserved. Reproduced here by permission of IDG Books Worldwide, Inc. For Dummies is a registered trademark of IDG Books Worldwide, Inc.
For more information about this and other titles published by IDG Books Worldwide, call 1-800-762-2974 or visit their website at
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