Cover letters
 

Ok, I'm not really this scatterbrained normally. I'm having an off day. I can't for the life of me write a cover letter for my resume! It's been so long since I've had to (gotten the last interviews through job banks and such). Anyone got any helpful hints to start me off?

Check out Monster.com - they have lots of advice for writing resumes and cover letters.

I just purchased The Complete Idiot's Guide to The Perfect Resume. It has some really good tips on the different types of resumes, and there is also a chapter on cover letters. There is also an idiot's guide to cover letters that was written by the same woman, so I would imagine that it's pretty good as well.

I find the key is not to psych yourself out too much and just do it. Anyway, the standard format is:
Hi, I'm such and such. I found your advertisement on site X. I was really excited to apply because you're such an awesome company. (Major paraphrasing but you get the idea.)
Next paragraph can be done either in bullets or sentences. First you list all the qualifications in their ad then you list how you have those skills plus some. If you don't have something it's better to mention related stuff plus how quickly you learn rather than skip it.
Then to finish up thank them and mention that you'll call in a few days to follow up. You might also include the best times and numbers to contact you at.

That's it. Keep it short but sweet. You also want to word everything so that a little of your personality comes through but stay professional at the same time.

Good Luck!!

I remembered the woman's name who wrote the book: Susan Ireland. Her website is http://susanireland.com/ and it looks like it has some good stuff on it.