More about writing an employment cover letter.

The conventions may vary in other countries but in the US a form cover letter is generally not the best idea.

We have gone over these points before, but here are some of the things to consider:

• A high volume of applicants will bury a bland cover letter

• An employment cover letter should be personal, but you are only a part of that equation. It should also be personal about the company you are applying to!

• If you can’t drum up enough interest in a job or employer to acknowledge them in direct ways, any good hiring manager will notice.

I have previously mentioned using a company’s mission statement to inspire aspects of your cover letter. Here are a version of AT&T’s mission and vision statements:

Our mission is to exploit technical innovations for the benefit of AT&T and its customers by implementing next-generation technologies and network advancements in AT&T's services and operations.

The AT&T global network was born of the ingenuity of AT&T Labs networking specialists who made disparate systems work together. Being the world's fastest and most reliable global network, our network is the standard against which all others are measured. To maintain our leadership in this arena, we focus on the future and aggressively pursue innovations. Our vision is to design and create in this decade the new global network, processes, and service platforms that maximize automation, allowing for a reallocation of human resources to more complex and productive work.

If you were looking for a job in ATT management or corporate, these would be important qualities to reflect. However, you don’t want to just say, “My goal is to exploit technical innovations to…” You don’t want to parrot their words, you want to look at their mission statement and see how what they value matches what you value.

How do you do that? First, think about what would a person who is interested in leading technologies do that reflects that genuine interest? This is where you would describe your participation in conferences, research, and other areas not evident in your resume, that are directly or tangentially related to ATT or leading edge communications technologies.

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