In today's working world, the competition is staggering. With over 300 million people in the USA, finding a good job is a tough chore for almost any American. National estimates show that your average American citizen can be on the jobhunt for almost 9 months! With competition like that, you're going to need an edge if you want to find any kind of decent job.

Luckily, such an edge does in fact exist. Nothing in the world is guaranteed to make bosses line up and beg you to join their company, but this particular edge can seriously boost your shot at nailing a great job and rip apart your time spent unemployed. This edge, my friend, is your cover letter.

Turning in a resume without a cover letter is like showing up naked to an interview. Most businesses frown upon nudity in the workplace, so you can imagine that you wouldn't do too awfully well in that interview. Having an excellent cover letter, however, is like wearing a fine, expensive suit...it creates a stunning first impression, gives the employer an idea of the hardworking, responsible person you are, and paves the way to a profitable business relationship. It makes them want you in their business.

Your first round to get through is the cover letter round. It's the first thing they'll look at, and it's the first chance for you to impress them. In the initial culling, the Armani cover letters keep going, while the ragtag and nonexistant cover letters get thrown in the incinerator where they belong. Clearly, a good cover letter is important.

So how do you write or improve your cover letter? Well, one of the best ways is to learn by example. Look at some sample cover letters that have worked for others in the past, and learn. Copying someone else's letter would be stupid, but copying someone else's technique would be genius. Why did this cover letter work? What makes it different from mine? How can I use this to improve my cover letter? These are all questions you need to ask yourself as you read others' cover letters.

This will not only enhance your skill at writing successful cover letters, but also a bunch of analysis skills that generally prove invaluable in the workplace and will raise your value in the eyes of employers. Job stability is very dependant on how valuable you are to the company, so naturally this is a good thing.

But I feel I must stress to you one thing right now. A great cover letter has two things required of it that it simply MUST do in order to really be a success. First, it has to present your qualifications. That goes hand in hand with a resume, to which a cover letter is attached anyways. That's kinda common sense, and not too difficult to understand.

However, you must remember that the highest priority of your cover letter is to promote and/or request an interview with the potential employer. If your cover letter doesn't do this, rewrite it. Never forget that making perhaps the single most important part of applying for a job is getting the jump from "the next piece of paper in the large stack" to "person sitting in my office" in the minds of your potential employers. You are no longer just another application, and instead become a serious potential employee...that's when the cover letter can be considered a success.

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To start off, you can find some free cover letter examples on this site. There you'll find what's needed to learn how to write a cover letter. thus armed with that knowledge, you can get a job faster.