I'm just trying to send a cover letter along with my resumé to an employment agency and I would not like to sound redundant (repeating my skills or achievements in a bullet list similar to one sample posted on your site, as if repeating what's in the resumé).

I do not have a very technical background (so to speak) like that of a programmer, or bank executive with a very high degree, etc.

My Experience

Basically my experience has been from doing clerical work at different banks, as following:

I qualified and processed checks returned for various reasons, reconciled large items against cash letters, notified banks of large items returned, repaired online or system transactions by applying debits and credits to the correct
accounts of customers, authenticated the identity of customers, processed funds transfers and performed other duties as assigned.

Used fax machine, scanned items, talked with customers on the phone, (mainly a basic clerical work).

I included all these skills on my resumé, and as accomplishments I mentioned how I contributed to the company's goals by achieving a consistent level of quality of work by performing tasks accurately within a given time, and by being hardworking and cooperative, detail-oriented and deadline-driven, and also with strong analytical and numerical skills.

My Question

My question now is: On the following cover letter which is the one that I wrote: (are there any other words that you could suggest I add in order to make this cover letter more appealing and without repeating the same resumé that I prepared?.

Do you have any suggestions or any wording or other key phrase to make it look more professional or appealing?.

Thank you very much in advance. (I am just including the body of the cover letter, not the heading).

"Due to a recent merge of my employer with another bank, I am forced to seek another employment opportunity. I have 15+ years of banking experience in the account services division as well as in money transfer operations. I have also related with customers when their identity had to be authenticated in order to process their wire transfer instructions.

I am confident that my combination of practical work experience and educational training has prepared me for making an immediate contribution to the firm that would employ me.

I can be contacted at any time on my cellular number (305) xxx xxxx and would be very pleased to have the opportunity to discuss this appointment. Thank you for your time and consideration.


Yours sincerely,"

Reply by Peter Fisher www.your-career-change.com

Thank you for your very interesting question about how to make your cover letter more appealing and stand out from the competition.

First of all I suggest you change the start of the letter. You need to show interest and enthusiasm and you are applying for the job because you are interested in it and enthusiastic about working for the new organization.

If you say you have been forced to apply because.... it doesn't inspire confidence does it?

I understand that you do not just want to copy parts of your resume on to your letter, but remember that some hiring managers read the cover letter first and make a decision about whether to read the resume based on what they see there.

This means that your covering letter must be good as a stand-alone, giving sufficient information to get past that first assessment.

Here are some additional things you might add:

• Being very self-motivated makes me a strong self-learner and self-starter. I am eager to work to the maximum satisfaction of clients and superiors.
  
  
• My good organizational and planning skills plus the capacity to work on multiple tasks and ability to work under pressure.
  
  
• I am able to work independently and and a good team worker with excellent communication and presentation skills.
  
  
• With my methodical approach, I am detail oriented and efficient and possess a good analytical ability.
  
  
• My customer service orientation has helped me to build a strong rapport with clients and customers, and I have experience of working with people from different cultures and different backgrounds.
  
  
• I am an effective team player who works well with others. As a quick learner with great problem-solving skills I am also very willing and eager to learn new things to get the job done.
  
  
• My skills and capacity for dealing with internal and external telephone queries and transferring to appropriate person. Taking the initiative to deal with urgent mail and email; preparation and modification of documents.

I am not suggesting you use all of these statements as they are but modify or adapt some of them to your own requirements.

You might also find that the tips to improve your CV might also inspire you with some new ideas to make your resume cover letter more appealing.

I hope this helps you, there are more resume cover letter samples at Resume Cover Letters.

Go back from Make resume cover letter more appealing to the Career Change Question page.