Recently I was asked to touch up a friend?s resume. Her challenge was simple. She was a stay-at-home mom who had not worked in four years. A difficult task however, with the information in this section, I generated a listing of skills she did not know she had. Here is a partial list.

Writing a cover letter can be like cleaning your garage -- you don?t know where to start ... and you just want it done.

Wouldn?t it be great if you could use a few "underground" techniques to write cover letters that get more job interviews? Faster and easier than you ever thought possible?

Writing a good resume cover letter is something you should seriously consider when preparing to send off your resume to potential employers.

Here are seven important cover letter writing tips:

1. Address the individual by name. If you don?t know their name then use: ?Dear Sir or Madam? or ?Dear Human Resources Director?.

Here?s a newsflash: Cover letters work, plain and simple. This is why I?m intrigued by the fact that a) jobseekers rarely submit them and b) hiring managers seldom read them. As a result, I started asking questions. Specifically, ?What?s your problem with cover letters?? Here?s what I found out.

There is one little practice that is vital to generating the interest of potential employers. It is critical, but very few job seekers actually do it.

What is it? The THANK YOU NOTE!

Interview experts agree that EVERY job hunter MUST send thank-you notes after EVERY interview. They also point out that most people completely ignore this bit of wisdom.

Cover Letters: Are you telling them what they want to know?

You're still reading?so I know my title grabbed your attention.

Why? Because it 'packed a punch.' You have three seconds to nab your reader in any written communication. Do it with a smashing title or headline! This secret technique, when used properly, practically guarantees that he or she will stay with you till the last line of your cover letter, article, or report.

Effectively present all of your IT skills with the IT Technical Skills Summary - an exceptionally powerful document that should form part of every resume submitted.

Employers and recruiters receive hundreds of resumes for every position they are trying to fill. To select their shortlist of candidates to interview, they look for the most common resume mistakes most applicants make and eliminate them first.

To increase your chances of getting an interview, make sure you avoid these common mistakes.

Ten Resume Mistakes to Avoid

To begin, make a decision to discard any former knowledge learned about the ?rules? of resume and cover letter writing. People commonly become stuck in ?bad? writing habits from a time gone by.