Cover letter help?
Asked by ♥Sweet Ape
My husband is currently working as a residential construction superintendent. Due to the fall of the residential economy, he has opted to apply for commercial construction. We are having some difficulties trying to generalize the first paragraph to a certain position. Every job has a different title for the position he wants. How should we construct a more general cover letter that can be submitted to numerous contractors as opposed to sending different cover letters to match the position/title in the ad?

Best Answer:
The purpose of a cover letter is to identify your intent to apply for a position within a company. The problem you face is that the more general you make the cover letter, the less likely it is to attract the reader's attention and the more you rely upon that reader to "connect the dots" between what you have written and the positions the company needs to fill. While it is better to be more specific, I understand the reality of having to mail out a large volume of letters. If you are using a word processor to merge names and addresses into a letter template, my suggestion would be to add one or more additional merge fields for "position title" and the like. That way you can simply merge the company's specific position title into your template's first paragraph. Good luck with the job search...

I would recommend that you tailor each cover letter to the individual job. A HR guy reviewing applications for a position will be able to see a "form" letter immediately, and probably toss it aside without even reading the attached resume. Happy hunting!
Answered by cusefan