Yes! It's probably the wisest thing to do.

A cover letter laser-focuses the resume under it. So...prepare for a profound statement...the two go together. In fact, if anybody ever tells you not to include a cover letter because it's "unnecessary," that person's nuts. Flee quickly.

If they go together, getting them from the same source makes good sense. I would do it.

The job search document preparation process usually starts with the resume. That's the natural place to begin. It's the raw material. It includes all of your (preferably) dollar-quantified accomplishments throughout your (ideally) chronological work history. Your resume is indeed a marketing document.

Savvy job seekers create a customized resume for each targeted position. If you choose not to do that, your resume by necessity has to be more general than your cover letter. But it's still a sales tool.

Once your resume is done, the process becomes pure marketing. The cover letter for a resume is pregnant with marketing in every word. If it's not, there are wasted words in there, and space is at a premium.

The cover letter bubbles up the best of what your resume says. It wraps additional marketing phrases around all the numbers that must be in the cover letter.

If the cover letter doesn't grab the attention of whoever's reading it within roughly 10-15 seconds, you're done. The reader may glance at your resume, but your commercial just went over like a lead balloon. Why look at more details?

If you get your resume and cover letter from the same place, they'll work with you to make sure they dovetail nicely. If they don't, that's another one-way ticket to the garbage can.

Copyright (c) by Roy Miller