You may have noticed that we didn't mention the topic of cover letters until now. There's a reason for that; they are not so much a part of your Job Search Survival Toolkit as they are part of the implementation of your overall self-marketing strategy. That's right. A cover letter is a sales presentation in disguise.

At this point in your job hunt, you're reaching out for a very tangible goal — a job interview. Cover letters are the most commonly used method to introduce your credentials to an employer, and they can serve as one of your strongest selling tools.

Avoid the standard, boring types of cover letters that employers receive every day: "I'm very interested in a position with Motley Corporation as a Programming Analyst. Enclosed please find my resume." Blah, blah, blah. A letter like this basically says, "Hey, here's my resume and I need a job!" That's not a very impressive sales presentation, is it? More importantly, it does nothing to distinguish you from the crowd of other applicants sending the very same kind of drab, dull attachments with their drab, dull resumes.