You scoured web
You searched right through lunch
You thought this was it
The best of the bunch

Until an email arrived
From out of the blue
Telling of tales
Of the jobs on Talent Zoo

You jumped to the site
And saw what was there
New jobs had been listed
It was more than you could bear!

Soon it was time to go home
But you knew not to fear
Not all jobs were not gone,
TalentZoo made them appear

Happy holidays from your friends at Talent Zoo

Example Cover Letters from the real world

This article will dissect some real world example cover letters from my career in IT. As a software developer, I have started a job every 2 years since graduating university in 1996. That’s a lot of cover letters, resumes and job interviews.

The example cover letters that I use were created from this program called Amazing Cover Letter Creator ->

I have always been successful with the cover letters it creates. That is not to say that I get every job that I apply for, but I do get to the interview stage for 95% of the jobs that I apply for. This is not because I am the perfect candidate, but because I now know how to write the perfect cover letter.

Some people send the same cover letter to each potential employer with their resume. This is not what you should be doing, but hey, at least you have a cover letter. Some don’t have one at all and simply send a resume. This is much worse.

Your letter should be written specifically for each role that you are applying for. For example, my cover letter for a C++ programmer role was very different for the web developer role. Each role, while in the same industry, required a different set of skills and I needed to demonstrate a different set of interests.

Web Developer Example Cover letters:

Dear Wayne,

My name is Jimmy Cregline and I am writing to you to apply for the Senior Web Developer job advertised on seek.com.au

I have been programming with OO PHP for 5 years and have completed many large projects.

I am currently employed as a Software Engineer and Project Manager at an online marketing company. The main technologies I use daily are OO PHP, MySQL and Perl.

My former employer was NetFlix. I was part of a development team that designed and implemented an online DVD rental system. This software has since been licensed and is currently used all around the world. Telstra Bigpond is one of the more well known licensees.

I’m looking to advance my Software Engineering career by learning new technologies and completing new and exciting projects.

I’m a hard working and reliable person always looking to grow my knowledge and learn new technologies and skills. I’m sure if I am given the opportunity to meet with you I will be able to tell you more about my achievements and aspirations.

I look forward to meeting with you.

Kind Regards,

Jimmy Cregline

C++ Programmer Example Cover letters:

Dear Cathy Jones,

My name is Jimmy Cregline and I am writing to you to apply for the Software Engineering job advertised on seek.com.au

I am currently employed as a Software Engineer and Project Manager at an online marketing company. The main technologies I use daily are OO PHP, MySQL and Perl.

I also have experience in programming with object oriented C++. My former employer was NetFlix. I was part of a development team that designed and implemented a DVD dispatching system using Microsoft Visual C++. This software has since been licensed and is currently used all around the world. Telstra Bigpond is one of the more well known licensees.

I’m looking to advance my Software Engineering career by learning new technologies and extending my C++ experience. I have not had any experience with true real time systems but I have recently been involved in time sensitive projects in telecommunications. I was heavily involved in a team that developed an advertiser sponsored telephone system called sponsortel.com which involved processing and routing live telephone calls around the world in real time. This kind of technology excited me as it was new and challenging.

I’m a hard working and reliable person always looking to better myself and learn new technologies and skills. I think I have a lot to offer BGE Systems and a career at BGE Systems would be very rewarding. I’m sure if I am given the opportunity to meet with you I will be able to tell you more about my achievements and aspirations.

I look forward to meeting with you.

Kind Regards.

Jimmy Cregline

As you can see, the cover letters are similar and they even list similar past employers but each of them focus on different technical skills that each employer is seeking.

The Windows 7 Release Candidate is available. Download it here when you’re ready.

As for performance, I think Microsoft is going to surprise people. And if you’re working for an enterprise that hasn’t upgraded to Vista because it won’t run acceptably on your existing PCs, you’ll want to look again at Windows 7. Paul Thurrott, Supersite for Windows

About this talk
This demo — from Pattie Maes’ lab at MIT, spearheaded by Pranav Mistry — was the buzz of TED. It’s a wearable device with a projector that paves the way for profound interaction with our environment. Imagine “Minority Report” and then some.

About Pattie Maes
At the MIT Media Lab’s new Fluid Interfaces Group, Pattie Maes researches the tools we use to work with information and connect with one another.

About Pranav Mistry
Pranav Mistry is the genius behind Sixth Sense, a wearable device that enables new interactions between the real world and the world of data.

Please be aware of a damaging virus/worm called Win32 Conficker (AKA Downup, Downadup and Kido) that will trigger on April 1, 2009. As usual, please pay attention to emails and files that you read and/or open as it could be an infected file. If you do not know the sender or do not recognize the attached file or email message, please delete it. You may want to contact the sender before opening any suspicious emails.

“We are SO excited about this. Incredible features for devs and our customers. Let me re-cap: in-app purchase, peer-to-peer connectivity, accessories, embeddable maps, push notifications, cut/copy/paste/undo, landscape keyboarding, MMS, new app (Voice Memos), CalDAV / ICS subs, stock enhancements, search and Spotlight… just a few of the more than 100 new features and 1k new APIs that make up iPhone 3.0.”

“We are REALLY excited about this. I can’t wait for you to get your hands on it…”
“How are you going to get it? We’ll first make it available as a developer beta, available today. It’ll be for EVERYONE in our iPhone developer program.”

Time-out for a sec here: seriously, I was actually not expecting this much stuff from 3.0. This is pretty big — they’ve answered almost everything I’ve seen commonly asked for in the iPhone, including a lot of things I thought Apple might never do (including A2DP and accessories via dock connector).

App Store will be in 77 countries. 3.0 ships this summer for free.

“As a bonus, we’ve enabled it to work on the original iPhone. The hardware’s changed though: MMS and A2DP won’t be available on the original iPhone.” iPod touch users: $10.

A2DP is now officially supported, hot damn. Auto-fill, too. Also WiFi auto-login, YouTube accounts, iTunes account creation, encrypted profiles.

Brand new app: voice memos! Record voice notes, lectures, interviews, etc. Works with internal or external mic — editable and sharable.

New features: Cut, copy, and paste! Um… !!!

Some of the comments made By Ryan Block on Mar 17th 2009 – on Iphone 3.0

The goal of giving form to a complex situation like the credit crisis is to quickly supply the essence of the situation to those unfamiliar and uninitiated.

I’m the Web Producer and to my left will be the Graphic Designer.