Covering Cover Letters

Cover letters go hand-in-hand with resumes. While a resume presents a candidate's general skills and qualifications, cover letters go into more detail regarding qualifications for a particular vacancy. Therefore, in most cases a cover letter should accompany a resume mailing, and should be tailored for each job opening whenever possible. There are two basic types of cover letters. A letter that is written in response to a job posting or want ad is a solicited cover letter, while an unsolicited cover letter is written to an individual or organization for consideration regarding possible future job vacancies.

Regardless of type, keep the following four rules in mind when composing letters:

1.