Something happens to people when they get online. Maybe it's
the instant access, maybe it's the "I-could-be-naked" anonymity,
but when people get online they sometimes get overly casual
and informal. This might be fine when your talking to your buddy
in Omaha or the sweetheart you just met in a chatroom, but it
doesn't work well when you're trying to get business done.
Just because you're communicating
online does not mean you should consider yourself exempt from
any of the formalities of paper-based communication. Online
cover letters are notoriously awful, poorly written throwaways
of fewer than three lines whose only purpose is to say "I'm
applying, this is my resume, have a nice day."
When formatting the cover letter,
stick to left-justified headers and four-inch wide text lines
in your paragraphs. You never know when the address you're mailing
to has a small e-mail-page format that will awkwardly wrap text
around the screen. Also, many e-mail systems cannot handle text
enhancements like bolding, bulleting or underlining, so play
it safe by using CAPITAL LETTERS -- or dashes -- if you need
to make an emphasis. For more expert advice on cover letters,
check out the
Vault
Job Search Survival Center .
Proper E-mail Cover Letter
Etiquette
Anil Dash, the former chief information technology officer for
an online music video production studio in Manhattan, lost his
job this January when the company fired nearly all its employees.
Since then, Dash figures he's applied for more than a dozen
jobs, contacting every one of the potential employers - befitting
an out-of-work CIO - through e-mail.
But every time he prepares another e-mail, he faces a choice.
Should he bother to write an e-mail cover letter, the sort of
thing he'd do if he were mailing the resume, or should he merely
dash off a few lines to the effect of, "Hi, I'm interested in
your job, and I've attached my resume as a Word file. Thanks."
"I do cover letters for jobs I really want," Dash says. "For
ones I don't care about, I just spam them."
Why cover letters still
matter
According to recruiting experts,
Dash is doing the right thing by writing extensive e-mail cover
letters. Even though cover letters came of age in the age of
pen and paper (or typewriter and paper), they still have a place
in the 21st century, when want ads, resumes, and interviews
all fly over virtual networks. "It's going over the Internet,
but it's the same product," Madeline Miller, the manager of
Compu-Type Nationwide Resume Service in upstate New York, said
of e-mail cover letters. "The cover is very important and it
should be the same quality if you were to mail it."
Since e-mail messages generally
tend to be conversational and quickly written, many people aren't
used to drafting carefully written e-mail cover letters. But
Miller said any applicant who creates a fully-fleshed e-mailed
cover letter has an advantage over an applicant with a more
slapdash cover letter.
"There is a tendency to
jot off a few lines, and people might write, "I'm applying for
this job, here is my resume," Miller said. "But if there is
a cover letter, that could put somebody over the top." But at
the same time, make sure your e-mailed cover letter isn't a
chore to read. If brevity is a virtue with conventional cover
letters, it's a necessity for e-mailed cover letters. You can
find out more about cover letters with Vault's
expert career advice.
Appropriate cover letter
length
Reesa Staten, the research director
for OfficeTeam, a staffing service firm, says e-mailed resumes
shouldn't run more than two or three paragraphs.
"You want to include the
same type of information, albeit in a shorter version," Staten
said. "What you don't want to do is rehash your resume. There's
no need to restate what you've done in the past. What you want
to do is tell them where you learned about the listing, why
you're right for the job, and how they can reach you."
Tips for sending cover
letters and resumes
If you really want the job, follow
up an e-mailed cover letter and resume with a hard copy you
mail. Make sure this hard copy includes a cover letter, too,
that restates who you are and why you're qualified. Somewhere
in the cover letter, be sure to write, "I recently e-mailed
you my resume and I'm following up with this hard copy."
Why should you do this? A hard
copy gives your resume another chance for exposure and makes
it easier for a potential boss to pass around or file your cover
letter and resume. In cases where your e-mailed cover letter
and resume have been overlooked in someone's in-box or rendered
inaccessible by a computer glitch, a hard copy may be your only
chance for exposure.
If you're including a resume
as an attachment, first make sure the prospective employer accepts
attachments. Then, in your cover letter, mention the program
you used to create your attachment. ("I've enclosed a cover
letter written in Microsoft Word 2000.") It's also a good idea
to include a cut and paste text version of your resume in addition,
in case the person reading the resume doesn't have the software
to open your attachment.
With any resume file you're attaching,
open it first to make sure it's updated, error free, and the
version of your resume you want to send. Sending a virus is
tantamount to sealing your job-doom. Save a copy of whatever
you send by including your own e-mail address in the "BCC" field
or by making sure a copy goes to your "Sent mail" folder. This
allows you to resend the letter if a problem pops up. Lastly,
don't fill in the "to" field with the recipient's e-mail address
until you've finished writing and editing the cover letter and
resume. This prevents you from accidentally sending off the
message before it's ready.
