As much as it pains me to say this, I do believe that cover letters are a good idea. Although I have never, to my recollection, received a callback from a resume that I sent out with a cover letter, that does not mean that they are not effective.

Thanks again to the PAS office at the university, I have some information on why it is a good idea to always include a cover letter with your resume.

One David A. Humphrey, owner of Beacon Communications Concepts, a resume-writing and career-coaching service in Naperville, IL, says, "The purpose of the resume is to get you an interview, and the purpose of the cover letter is to get someone to read your resume. Actually, the cover letter is a sales pitch for the resume."

For all you writers out there, a resume cover letter is absolutely no different from a query letter. In fact, I believe that if you read "How to Write Irresistible Query Letters" by Lisa Collier Cool, you will be able to kill two birds with one stone: You will learn how to get your work read by editors AND you will learn how to get your resume read by employers.

Mr. Humphrey goes on to give some guidelines on how to write a cover letter that will get you noticed. He says it should be no more than three paragraphs long. He also advises - and I think this is a mistake a lot of people make - that the heading with your name and contact information should be IDENTICAL to the heading on your resume. Don't think for one minute that I haven't gotten all fancy with the cover letter heading only to go bland and professional with the resume heading.

He advises stating that "you are a strong candidate because of your qualifications" at the end of the first paragraph and that you are "a strong match for this opportunity and are looking forward to meeting them," at the end of the third. He also recommends - and this was actually discussed in a previous blog - that you should be proactive and say "if you don't hear from them in a week or 10 days, you will call them." Of course, once you have said that, make sure you follow through on it. It's amazing the things people will remember. And believe me, they will remember you when you call; and they will be convinced that you are someone who really wants to work for their company.

Give it a try, if you haven't already. See what happens. And let us know!