An effective cover letter is just as important to your job search as is an effective resume.
A cover letter can be thought of as the “handshake” between your resume
and the employer’s job description. You have written your resume as
a document that represents you; the employer has written a
job description that reflects its needs; something needs to
tie those two documents together, and that something is your cover
letter. That is why there isn’t such a thing as a good generic cover
letter; while you are still the same person, each job you apply for
is unique.
A good cover letter will demonstrate to the employer immediately that
you have read its job description, that you understand what the job
is about, that you understand the basic qualifications for the job
and that you meet those, and that you understand something about the
business the employer is in. A general-purpose cover letter cannot
do that, and will be much less effective in your job search.
While you might want to draft a basic “shell” with a few pertinent paragraphs or sentences to build from, be very careful how you cut-and paste or edit one of these. Don’t submit a cover letter to BU, for example, that says you can’t wait to work at Northeastern (this really happened) or submit a cover letter for a position in a career office that says you are looking forward to this opportunity to work in pharmaceutical sales (this really happened, too.)
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