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The importance of resume cover letters is often underestimated by jobseekers. A well-written cover letter may mean the difference between a serious perusal of someone's resume, and a glance before it enters the circular file.

Apart from just plain forgetting to write them, one of the most common cover letter mistakes is to use them to duplicate everything you already wrote in the resume. However, you need a cover letter that expands on and complements your resume.

Imagine sitting at a desk with piles of resumes in front of you. All of them are printed on decent white paper. They're all covered in skills and objectives.

Lots of them are accompanied by cover letters, some of them very long and rambling. That's got to be overwhelming! So, stand out from the crowd. The cover letter needs to get attention from the reader and give them plenty of good reasons for them to turn the page.

But how do you begin? Look for examples of resume cover letters posted on the internet. You'll find cover letters available for all kinds of different jobs in several different formants. Use your favorite search engine to find them easily.

Now, if someone that the company or interviewer knows well has referred you and also gave you permission to use their name in your cover letter, do it! Employee or networking referrals can go a long way towards ensuring your resume gets considered.

Next, look carefully at the job description, and reference it, applying your skill set in the appropriate places. The easy thing to do would be to repeat everything that's on your resume, but this is a golden opportunity to take everything a step further. Remember the job description, and tell the readers how your skills will benefit the company.

First and foremost, imagine that the interviewer is reading and asking, "What's in it for me?" The interview is more than likely thinking that exact thought when he or she is reading through a bunch of resume cover letters. If you answer well, the interview will be yours!

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