Companies that advertise job vacancies online can expect to receive hundreds (sometimes thousands) of responses from applicants.
If the company staff (typically it’s an Human Resource clerk, Office Manager or Executive Assistant who does the first screening) spent 5 minutes reviewing each resume and cover letter submitted for that one opening, they could easily spend one full week doing NOTHING but reviewing resumes and cover letters for that ONE job posting (500 resumes & cover letters x 5 minutes is 2,500 minutes = 42 hours.)
That’s not going to happen.
The company employee reading the resume has two goals:
- To look as good as possible to their boss by finding the ‘best qualified’ candidates
- To get through that stack of resumes and cover letters as quickly as possible so they can get back to their other job responsibilities
That means you MUST develop a cover letter that makes it EASY for HR professionals, recruiters and hiring managers to QUICKLY see why you’re a strong candidate – even though you’re making a career transition.
Here’s exactly how you can do that…