Quintessential Careers Press:
Surefire Resumes for New Graduates and Other Entry-Level Candidates
Chapter 2: Forget About the One-Size-All Resume and Cover Letter
Page 15
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Specific tailoring to a want ad: If you're answering an ad, the
specifics of your cover letter should be tied as closely as possible
to the actual wording of the ad you're responding to. I've had
students express concern that it's plagiarism to use the words of an
ad in one's cover letter, but here's a case where using someone
else's words is a plus rather than a minus. In his new book, Don't
Send a Resume, Jeffrey Fox calls the best letters written in
response to want ads "Boomerang letters" because they "fly the want
ad words -- the copy -- back to the writer of the ad." In employing
what Fox calls "a compelling sales technique," he advises letter
writers to: "Flatter the person who wrote the ad with your response
letter. Echo the author's words and intent. Your letter should be a
mirror of the ad." Fox notes that when the recipient reads such a
letter, the thought process will be: "This person seems to fit the
description. This person gets it."
A particularly effective way to deploy the specifics of a want ad to your advantage is to use a two-column format in which you quote in the left-hand column specific qualifications that come right from the employer's want ad and in the right-hand column, your attributes that meet those qualifications. The two-column format is extremely effective when you possess all the qualifications for a job, but it can even sell you when you are lacking one or more qualification. The format so clearly demonstrates that you are qualified in so many areas that the employer may be willing to overlook the areas in which you lack the exact qualifications. One of our former students describes her success in using the two-column format: "Several months ago, you referred me to your Web site where there was a sample of a cover letter using a 'you require/I offer' table format. Believe it or not, I sent in my resume along with a cover letter in this format to a job that was posted on Monster.com, and I actually got an interview!! The position is with [name of company], and I can't even imagine how many applicants they had. When I went in for the interview, the person that I met with complimented me on the cover letter and actually said that that's what got me in the door ahead of so many others!"
You can see three sample letters in a two-column format: Sample 1, Sample 2, and Sample 3.
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