Cover Letter

QW: What skills or qualities do you have that will benefit a company you are working for?

A cover letter is a professional letter that is often required for job applications. The cover letter gives you a chance to discuss your unique talents and explain why you are a good fit for the job. It complements your resume by giving more detail about your skills, experience, and qualifications and should be tailored to the specific job you are applying to.

The cover letter should not simply restate your resume - the potential employer has already seen that and doesn't need another paper saying exactly the same thing. The purpose of the cover letter is to focus attention on particular aspects of your experience that relate to the job and your ability to do it well. It should also explain how hiring you will benefit the business or organization.

For this assignment, you will write a cover letter to apply to the job you identified in last week's assignment. Use a professional letter format (you can find templates on Google Docs) and use the following format:

• 1st paragraph - introduce yourself and state the job you are applying for
• Middle paragraphs - in one or more paragraphs, sum up your qualifications and skills and why you are a good fit for this job. You shouldn't just restate your resume, but rather highlight the specific skills and experience that are relevant for the job you are applying to.
• Final paragraph - thank the reader for considering your application and state that you look forward to hearing from them.

This article on monster.com gives a little more information about what a cover letter is and how to write one.

An example of a cover letter can be found at the link below:
Example cover letter

And here is a template you can use for your cover letter, if you find it useful:

Cover letter template

Turn in your completed cover letter to your EF.

Job Search

QW: Where would you look if you were looking for a job?

It used to be that when someone needed a job, they just walked around looking for help wanted signs, or looked in the help wanted section of the paper.  If they were looking for a job out of college, the path was often clear; there were a limited number of companies and it was obvious whom to contact. 

The job market has changed drastically over the past couple of decades.  Job searches are now mostly online, with websites where you can post your resume and look for jobs all over the country.  Many professional organizations have their own online job boards, for example edjoin for education jobs.  There are also generic sites like indeed.com, ziprecruiter.com, and monster.com.  Even Google seems to have its own job search engine; try googling a job you are interested in and see what comes up.

One great resource for local jobs is the Siskiyou Training and Employment Program (STEP) Siskiyou jobs list.  They update this list weekly with all sorts of jobs in the local area - the current list is 15 pages long.

Another good source for local jobs is the localhelpwanted.com . The closest to here would probably be reddinghelpwanted.com.

For this assignment, look over the job search resources below.  Find a job that looks interesting to you, and complete the cover letter worksheet specific to that job.  Next week, we will explore the cover letter in more detail.
Some useful job search resources:

• STEP Siskiyou County Job List
• Government Jobs in Siskiyou County
• Regional Help Wanted
• STEP office website

And here is the cover letter worksheet