Let me begin by saying, I truly enjoy the way your write! It’s funny, I can hear your voice in my head as I’m reading your words (they say that’s what makes a good writer)

However, for a cover letter….I have to agree with Ryan…it’s too wordy and too informal. A cover letter should really be no longer than 3-4 BREIF paragraphs. That being said, you don’t have a lot of time to tell the employer a lot about yourself, but you do want to get across to them what’s important. For someone who’s reading your resume means answering: can you do the job, what skills do you have, what education do you have, what experience you have, how it all applies to the position your going for, why you want to work for their organization, and most importantly why you’re the best man for the job. I know, I know….a lot of that information is on your resume….but take a look at this website, (http://www.soyouwanna.com/site/syws/coverletter/coverletter3.html) it will help you format your cover letter.

I understand your desire to be creative with your cover, and that you want your personality to shine through, however, I think you can do that AND adhere to a more professional format. Like Mike said, “witty is good”, but you still want to come across as professional as possible.

Remember, a lot of resumes and cover letters are not read by humans first. They are run through computers that are looking for those “key words”. It’s important to include them when you write your cover.

Good luck brother! XOXOX!

I was on AOL today and came across this:

http://findajob.aol.com/findajob/articles/article.adp?id=698

Most of, if not all, is common knowledge but I figured I’d post it.

Talk to you soon,
Chris

Perhaps the likes of Palahniuk and Gibson can capture sharp, incisive wit on paper in the span of a few minutes, but brevity for me is an iterative process. My first pass (at anything, really) is to shotgun-spray my thoughts onto the screen first. Only after that do I start to trim and prune and weed out the passage, saturating the remaining words with meaning in the process. This version is pretty much that first draft, with some minor edits so I could post it in public without totally embarrasing myself.

That said, I’m really more interested to hear thoughts on the content: Is it trying to sound too brazen? Am I hitting the points that hiring managers really want to hear? Is there any usable content at all, or should I just throw this version away?

Keep it short, and respectful. Be very forward about yourself – this isn’t the time to be reserved about your abilities.

As a side note, don’t use the word “chat” – I have never had someone ask to “chat” where it didn’t come off sounding as though they were angry at me, or otherwise negative. Dunno why. I’d much rather get together and talk.

I’m sure I’ll think of more, but I think I’ll wait and see what draft 2 looks like

no more than a page. but that may even be too much. The cover letter is to give your resume and application some personality. But, follow all of the advise ryan gave you. Strong and determined … but don’t come off as cocky or arrogant.

The cover letter is the only thing that sets you apart from all the other applicants that know 10 programming langauges, mysql, any other number of skills, and good references. Character is important … but you have to do it in a paragraph or 2, not a page or 2.

Don’t say anything that might be construed as ‘cheesy’ or ‘inappropriate’ or ‘cute’ by some someone. But witty is good. There is a fine line there.

Dear Sir or Madam?

Yo, Ken Walker Rocks?

This Concerns You, so listen up?

Oh, Hi… sorry… I didn’t see you there. You see, I’m so busy kicking ass as the perfect candidate for your job, that I just didn’t notice you start reading?

Ok. All of those except maybe the Dear Sir… one sucked.

But if I’d noticed your “Oh, Hi� sorry� I didn�t see you there. You see, I�m so busy kicking ass as the perfect candidate for your job, that I just didn�t notice you start reading?” I definitely would have used it.

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