Hi Karen, Writing a cover letter is giving very brief summary of what you do. Your selling yourself. Advertise, Advertise. Watch a Commercial that is really good and find out what it is that grabbed your attention. It has to be done in 3 mins or less. So when you write your resume, it has to be one page. good luck. Opening- Needs to grab their attention from very start. Main Body- Brag about your experience in few words as possible. Closing- Here is the Punchline...go for it and really go for the gusto

Use an online keyword search tool to identify common words on the job description the customize your resume.

Karen, Keyword optimization for each position applied for. List accomplishments that are relevant to the position especially those which helped improve the bottom line of a previous employer or created efficiencies and time savings.

Make sure you have the "key" words that are in the job description, in your resume. These are usually listed under requirements. Unfortunately, this may mean you'll have a resume for each job application but it's a necessary step. By using the language of the job description, you'll get more hits.