Cover Letters for Dummies

By Joyce Lain Kennedy

Book Overview

A great cover letter is Written to a target job So intriguing that a reader makes room in a busy schedule to meet you An electrifying personal advertising tool that short-circuits the competition A great cover letter is not Bland and indifferent Littered with dry facts What the hiring manager's kid uses as scratch paper Your cover letter should spark the reader's interest as a dynamic introduction to your resume. This is your chance to personalize your resume. Here's where you make yourself into a living, breathing human being and set your accomplishments aglow. How do you achieve this? Let the second edition of Cover Letters For Dummies be your guide. In this book, you'll gain understanding of why you need a cover letter, what the different types of cover letters are, what myths surround them, and how to break out of writer's block. You'll figure out how your letter should look and sound, with tips on language, content, and image. You'll get ideas for writing a dazzling opening line. And you'll work through a checklist to make sure that the best of you lives in your cover letter. What's more, you'll Explore the changing rules in the workplace and how they impact the way you find work Identify where your skills fit in today's workplace through a number of self-assessment worksheets Sum up surefire tips for working with recruiters, answering job ads, avoiding the salary question, handling negative references, and creating letters that even a computer can love See examples of successful cover letters, from which you can model your own. Each is a candidate for reformulation as an e-mail cover letter. A well-written cover letter can make your ideal job a reality. So get this book and start writing.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0764552244
• ISBN13: 9780764552243
• Release Date: April 2000
• Publisher: For Dummies
• Length: 312 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 7.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Not just cover letters--a wealth of information!

This book is valuable not only for the great cover letter examples. It also contains a warehouse of tips about the entire process of getting hired. I know professional resume writers, recruiters, and career coaches who keep this volume handy. In the current economic climate it is an important tool for getting your resume to stand out and nailing that job interview. Highly recommended!

Cover Letter Basics by the Industry's Best

This book contains all you need to know about cover letters, and in a pretty digestable format (a la the dummies series). The author cuts to the chase, throws in some humor, and gives plenty of options for ways to grab your audience's attention. Works for me. I've actually read quite a few books on cover letters (lots of free time while unemployed) and this one stands out to me--at least it's the one I keep on my bookshelf.

Great Lines for Success - Do you get stumped with opening sentences?

Joyce Lain Kennedy knows how to start a paragraph. In "A Sampling of Grand Openers", she includes about 30 opening lines that get right into grabbing the attention of the recruiter or supervisor. She gets to the point of the letter and resume and the best you are offering. Such as: "The Breakthrough research being conducted by ...", "Chances are excellent that I'm the multi-talented graphic designer you seek". And she says "Avoid Leadoff Loosers" such as "I was recently let go due to a reduction in force" ... I am currently in search of a job" ... "I am writing in response to the." Boring, I agree -- why dwell on the negative and the total obvious. I like her "Power Phrases to Use Anywhere", such as "What you're asking for and what I can delivery sound like a match!" ... As my resume shows, I have substantial and successful experience in ..." I agree, be VERY positive and upbeat! The quick list of "Words that stick when you're stuck" are great: "played a key role in, project managed, restructured, supervised, took the lead in". With Joyce Lain Kennedy's years of writing to job seekers in her Syndicated Column, Careers Now, she has thousands of cover letter angles. Her comprehensive list in this book will help your resume stand out in a stack of hundreds. I am Kathryn Troutman, Author of Ten Steps to a Federal Job. I am currently recruiting a full-time writer-editor for my business. I am receiving resumes via email from my [...] job announcement. MOST of the resumes I am receiving, do NOT have a cover letter, or even a simple TEXT BOX email note. I open the resumes that have a cover letter in the textbox! Joyce's book is important right now, where jobseekers have to write clever, informative and energetic notes to indicate interest and passion in certain jobs. Get inspired with this book. Kathryn Troutman, President, [...]

A tremendous job hunting resource

This is not just a book on cover letters; it's a wealth of knowledge on the entire job-hunting process. Joyce Lain Kennedy has put together a tremendous resource for the current or soon to be job hunter, which is really most of us. I know people scoff at Dummies books, especially for highly technical subjects, but this book is the perfect format for the vast collection of job-hunting facts, ideas and wisdom in this book. The author does an excellent job of presenting a lot of material in a way that is clear, entertaining and extremely readable.I highly recommend this book, and liked it so much I went out and bought her other two books, Resumes' and Job Interviews for Dummies, which I will be reviewing as I finish them.

Terrific, terrific, terrific!

I just finished reading "Cover Letters for Dummies." It was terrific. I laughed and I cried when I saw some of my writing habits as the things not to do. When this book is revised, perhaps Joyce could address these questions: Should I write the cover letter on the fax cover sheet, or write a traditional cover letter, with resume, and put a fax cover sheet over it? Further, after faxing a resume, should I follow-up witha letter and resume in the mail if I haven't heard back from the recruiter or employer? What's best?