You have probably heard that you should be careful when taking free advice or using free samples. The understanding is that more often than not when you get something free you are getting exactly what you paid for. There are, however, exceptions to every rule. This means that there are times when a free sample resume cover letter is very well worth sending with only a few minor adjustments to make it suit your specific needs.

The very first thing you are going to want to do is make it personal to the person you will be sending it to. While it is all nice and good, not to mention time saving, to send a generic greeting it also shows lack of preparation on your part when a little bit of research could very well result in you knowing the name of the hiring manager for the company to which you are applying and adjusting your greeting to include that person by name. You also should make an effort of mentioning the company by name at some point in the cover letter so that the potential employer doesn’t feel as though you are in fact using a form cover letter. We now live in the information age. It is difficult to imagine that you can’t find out to whom the cover letter should be addressed. Failing to do so only makes you appear as though you were not willing to make the effort, which in many companies will land you in the toss rather than the keep pile.

Be sure to take the opportunity to ask for an interview in the course of the cover letter. If that question isn’t included in the free sample resume cover letter then it truly isn’t worth sending. The only way to get what you want in this day and age seems to be by asking for it. If you want the interview you are much more likely to get it by asking for it than not. Make sure you add that to the form cover letter and keep it in every incarnation of this particular cover letter you use during your job search.

Fill the cover letter with action works but keep it simple and to the point. Do not inundate the hiring manager with big words that are difficult to understand. Write as though you were speaking and make sure that the form cover letter sounds natural and appropriate for your ‘voice’. You do not want the interview process to seem like a complete 180-degree turn from the person that wrote the cover letter. The best way to do that is by adjusting some of the language to sound more comfortable to your ears and use words that roll off your tongue nicely. This will appear more natural to the hiring manager and will often result in a better opportunity for the interview when combined with the other steps that have been mentioned.

Offer a brief summary of skills that you have that are relevant to the job for which you are applying as a parting note or a P.S. While you do not want to rehash your resume in your cover letter you do want to remind the hiring manager of the highlights you mentioned in the body of the cover letter. This should also be in your own words to provide yet another glimpse of your personality to shine through and further convince the hiring manager that you should at least interview for the position in question.

Taking these steps won’t guarantee an interview from your free sample resume cover letter but it will make it much more worth sending and likely to achieve the desired result-an interview-than if you neglected to make these minor changes in the first place. While the steps above require an essential rewrite of almost the entire free sample resume cover letter it also allows you to follow the existing form while making it your own. Writing a convincing and persuasive cover letter is no small accomplishment and the final product when following the steps above is one you should definitely feel proud to call your resume cover letter. Most importantly, make a concerted effort to keep your resume cover letter upbeat and positive.

Image taken on 2009-09-28 15:11:16. Image Source. (Used with permission)