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Cover Letters
4

Cover Letters

Cover Letters

(OP)
How to Write a an excelant cover letter?

what are HR personnel looking for?

Mfgenggear

 

RE: Cover Letters

Grammar.  Punctuation.  Coherent sentences.

RE: Cover Letters

The mention of the position applied for in the company.  Mention your attached resume.  

Addressed to someone specific, not just HR.  Do your research here.

An very brief introduction as to who you are and why you are applying for the position.  How you can help the company.  

Inclusion of your contact information, to include your personal website, and I do not mean Facebook.

 

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
http://mmcengineering.tripod.com
 

RE: Cover Letters

Are they even really in vogue anymore?  I certainly only get given candidates resumes.

Even 12 or so years ago you could have a generic CV/Resume and just customize the cover letter each time pointing out your relevant experience & interests etc.

Now it seems like they expect the resume to be customized and many places don't really allow for a cover letter as such on their online applications etc.

Of course, if you're managed to find a 'name' to contact rather than a faceless HR inbox etc. then it may still have merit in which case do as Zdas & M^2 say.  Don't make it too long just a few short paragraphs to show you have some idea what the company does and how you could help them/fit in etc.

Though I'm not in HR so what would I know.

Posting guidelines FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm? (probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?

RE: Cover Letters

(OP)
Thanks Pat

I take constructive advice well.
Yes I get in a hurry or to much sugar in my Tea.
Lol

Thanks
Mfgenggear

RE: Cover Letters

Mike

Written English was never my strong point. I can but try. I expect my limitations in that regard limited my career opportunities at times. I guess it was offset by other aspects when I made successful applications.

Regards
Pat
See FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on use of eng-tips by professional engineers &
http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm
for site rules
 

RE: Cover Letters

I would always send a cover letter if given the opportunity.  All the advice above is excellent.  Live it & breathe it if you want your paperwork to survive the initial screening process.

Consider the modern conundrum:  hiring managers must wade through a tsunami of resumes.  The filtering process is no longer surgical, it's done with a bulldozer.  Craft yours so that it stands out from the herd.  I had a discussion with a hiring manager and he told me for every position posted, the HR Weasels get 2000 electronic resumes.  HR filters the stack to 200 for review.  The hiring manager opened each resume and pressed the F7 key for spellcheck.  If ANYTHING popped up, he deleted the resume without looking.  I informed him that most spellcheck dictionaries find fault with engineering terminology.  <deer in headlights>  And THIS level of chowderheadedness is everywhere in the management ranks.  Beware.

I keep a quote from "Elements of Style" by Strunk & White, a journalist's bible of sorts, recommended by my journalist-parents:

Eliminate needless words.  Vigorous writing is concise.

I love that quote.  But I violate it all the time.  Good writing is darn hard work.

TygerDawg
Blue Technik LLC
Virtuoso Robotics Engineering
www.bluetechnik.com

RE: Cover Letters

(OP)
OK I deserved the thrashing I received in the first, few post.
I agree my posting should have been more correct & better explained.
I am limited on the time I can spend typing, & my typing skills are not really that great, I do use spell check but it does not catch it all.

I do appreciate all the replies,

I will follow up later with more in depth questions.

Thanks

Mfgenggear

RE: Cover Letters

Do HRs work for them and answer every requirement in the ad with your qualifications.
  

RE: Cover Letters

(OP)
some time I believe I do make my cover letters too technical. so there is a good chance it's popping up as misspelled words.

secondly it use to be that an applicant would put his or hers accomplishments on the cover letter. is that still applicable?

It's easier said than done to explain 33 years of experience in one cover letter so there's the question.
I purposely made the question vague as not to narrow the amount of responses, & not lose thinking out of the box.
This may not have been the best approach. LOl.

Sincerly

Mfgenggear

RE: Cover Letters

Mfg, the cover letter is not intended to explain your 33 years of experience.  The cover letter is meant to state: this is the position I am applying for, this is when I am available for an interview, this is how you contact me.  It should be no longer than 1-2 short paragraphs.  It should be tailored to each specific company to which you are applying.  Some would disagree, but I feel that a well-written email would suffice as a cover letter.

Work experience goes in a resume.

If you are able to secure an interview, that is when you wow them with your experience :)

RE: Cover Letters

(OP)
Steellion

I appreciate your comment.

Most of all of my past employers had hired me by reference from previous co-workers & Friend "word of mouth"
thats why I am having difficulty with this now.

the manufacturing industry is leaving my area so it's harder
to obtain work locally.

Mfgenggear

RE: Cover Letters

At the request of "guidance counselors", I started out adding cover letters to my resume, tailored for each job.  Man, what a pain, and I know they were usually tossed without a single word being read.  I stopped doing it wholesale shortly after, and may have only done it once or twice since.  It has probably been 10-15 years since I wrote a cover letter, and from what I can tell it has made zero difference in response rate/style.

Dan - Owner
http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

RE: Cover Letters

(OP)
After receiving constructive advice, this is how the biggining of this post should had been written.

Dear Friends & co Engineers

I have a question for you all, I have been considering on how to write an effective cover letter.

1st) How to get the attention of that HR person so he or she does not trash that resume of mine.

2nd) What should be the context of the letter. an other words what should it state.

3rd) Finally what is the best format.

Yes I understand spelling & grammar are a must!

Thank You Very Much in Advance

Senior Manufacturing Engineer

Mfgenggear

RE: Cover Letters

(OP)
"You're kidding, right?"

maybe I'm maybe I'm not :>)
Happy Easter have a good weekend

Take Care

Mfgenggear   

RE: Cover Letters

Quote:



After receiving constructive advice, this is how the biggining of this post should had been written.

Dear Friends & co Engineers

I have a question for you all, I have been considering on how to write an effective cover letter.

1st) How to get the attention of that HR person so he or she does not trash that resume of mine.

2nd) What should be the context of the letter. an other words what should it state.

3rd) Finally what is the best format.

Yes I understand spelling & grammar are a must!


If that where your first post my first reply would be that you already seem to have it pretty well under control.

Remember HR typically have a short attention span (maybe due to huge numbers of inappropriate applications to wade through) and they have limited ability to understand technical details or resultant implications.

Use a very few critical points that they should see as a real advantage for you.

It should be in well spaced short points form like your last post

It should simply state I feel I have good reason to bring this to your attention. Bla bla bla.

For more details please review my attached resume or call me to discuss.

 

Regards
Pat
See FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on use of eng-tips by professional engineers &
http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm
for site rules
 

RE: Cover Letters

This is all good advice, but perhaps you may consider stepping up the game a bit.  

If you follow the route of Cover Letter etc., you are certainly still part of the herd and may get lost in the tsunami.  I always thought the more direct approach is better.  But it is exceedlingly hard to navigate past the gatekeepers and violate protocol by bypassing "normal procedures".  If you can contact the hiring authority directly, you are well ahead of the pack.  To do this requires effective skills in research, schmoozing, phone tag, dodging the gate keepers, sincerity, cleverness, and tenacity.  And a skin thick enough to shrug off rejection.  If you actually contact the Hiring Authority, then you must then use highly-developed cold-call sales techniques to get your message across in the available 47 milliseconds.  But this is a very fine line to walk because you could either be seen as a hyper-agressive anarchist or that real go-getter they've been looking to hire.

If successful contact is made, THEN the cover letter becomes much more effective becuase they actually remember you and have a personality connection.

This has been discussed elsewhere on this forum.  Perhaps you would dig deeply and find more posts on this topic for insight.  But I have always found that this approach, coupled with honesty & sincerity about my situation, was more successful.

TygerDawg
Blue Technik LLC
Virtuoso Robotics Engineering
www.bluetechnik.com

RE: Cover Letters

After receiving constructive advice, this is how the biggining beginning of this post should had been written.

Dear Friends & co Fellow Engineers

I have a question for you all, I have been considering on how to write an effective cover letter.

  • How to get the attention of that HR person Weenie so he or she does not trash that resume of mine.
  • What should be the context of the letter. an In other words, what should it state
  • Finally what is the best format.?


  • Yes I understand spelling & grammar are a must!
    And a certain facility will the available textural enhancements used in moderation and not so it looks like a poster for the junior prom night; no flashing flower chain borders or any of the other crap Microsoft include, but some subtle enhancements to readability may help and demonstrate that you are familiar with some of the features of the programs you use. So essential in an engineer but for some reason, excusable in a media studies student.

    Thank You Very Much in Advance

    Senior Manufacturing Engineer

    Mfgenggear

    wink

    JMW
    www.ViscoAnalyser.com

     

    RE: Cover Letters

    General MacArthur believed that mastery of English was the most important element of any career.

    RE: Cover Letters

    I recently reviewed 34 resumes for two senior engineer openings in my department.  About a quarter of them had cover letters, and I found them very helpful.  They definitely improved the applicant's chances and, as it turned out, both people we hired had good cover letters.  Correct spelling and grammar on both the cover letter and the resume are critical.  Always have someone proofread for you.

    Spelling errors, random capitalizations, non-agreement of subject and verb, wrong punctuation, etc. landed many resumes in the trash.  I could picture myself having to deal with the person's bad reports and specifications and said, "no thanks."

    RE: Cover Letters

    When Ike was elected president, MacArthur said to his wife "he was the best clerk I ever had."

     

    RE: Cover Letters

    Like the others said, a cover letter is a personal note.

    You write 2 versions.  1 is a generic version that can be passed around with your resume at job fairs/conferences/job posting sites.

    The 2nd version, you constantly update and give to companies...where you talk about what they do, and how your skills will fit into it and help them further their goals.

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