Once you have the perfect resume completed, the next step is the often dreaded covering letter. Writing resume cover letters is often a challenge as it is hard to determine what should be in the letter, what is already included in the resume and what terms, words and phrases are essential to grab the reader’s attention.

There are several key components to writing resume covering letters that are essential to drawing the reader in to reading the full resume. The top tips for writing resume cover letters are:

* Indicate to the reader that you are applying for a specific job or position. Don’t assume that the human resource interviewer or employer will automatically know why you are sending in a resume.

Clearly state what position you are applying for in the same terms used in the advertisement or job posting. You may even have to indicate the location if there are multiple listings for a variety of locations.
* If you are writing resume covering letters and submitting resumes to inquire about possible future positions, indicate this as well.

If you are asking about the possibility of employment in general, be sure to specify what areas, departments or sections of the company you are interested in.
* Indicated on the resume covering letter where you found out about the position or job posting. This could be from an online career site, general listing on the internet, through a professional publication, in the newspaper or through the company website itself.

If you were referred through a current manager or employee you can also indicate their name.
* Highlight your educational background and work experience in a very short and succinct paragraph. This should be written to pique the reader’s attention so they follow through and review the entire resume.

* Use a typical, non-decorative font of 10-14 sizing, with good use of white space on the page. Writing resume cover letters should closely follow the rules of writing resumes; avoid crowding, use of graphics or fonts that are difficult to easily read.
* Personalize each covering letter to meet the specific information for the job; don’t use a general covering letter for all applications.

Writing resume covering letters does require some time and thought. It is always a good idea to have someone else read through the letter for grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, sentence structure and for an overall comment about the letter. It is also important to never staple the covering letter to the resume, simply attach with a paper clip for ease of reading for the employer.

As with most types of technology there are good and not so good points to consider when using free resume writing software. Of course the most obvious benefit to using free resume writing software is that there is no cost involved, all that is required is access to the internet and a compatible operating system to use the product.

Another benefit to using free resume writing software is that the templates are typically generic enough to be adaptable to almost any type of career or field of interest or experience. This generalization allows users to personalize the resume as much as possible but also have guidelines and templates that will basically assist the user in completing the resume. The templates themselves are a great help and free resume writing software usually offers a variety of templates and styles including chronological, functional, hybrid and technical.

Functional is ideal for new employees, recent graduates or those that have a limited work history. Chronological templates work best for those with a significant work history of achievements in their career. Hybrid is a combination of functional and chronological that is great for someone that has worked for a long period of time but held the same job title even though the work responsibilities have changed and advanced over time.

The technical template is for those individuals that have very specific skills sets such as computer professionals, medical technicians, trades people or other similar professionals.

Free resume writing software may also have options for posting the resume online, emailing the resume using the software or generating covering letters and follow up letters or emails.

There are also some drawbacks to using free resume writing software.

Probably the biggest drawback is that the templates tend to be very structured and difficult to modify or change, meaning that you basically cannot deviate from the template, even if you need additional space or don’t require particular headings or sections in the resume. In addition you may have limited selection of fonts, characters and even graphics should you choose to use these in your resume or covering letter. Free resume writing software is usually not advanced enough for high level professional type resumes as it does not have all the options that highly skilled, highly trained professionals need in a resume or covering letter.

For these types of professionals either a resume writing software program that specializes in advanced level resumes or a professional resume writing service is recommended.

Both free resume writing software and purchased resume writing programs typically have some type of support, but the free software support is usually more limited in scope and ability than that offered through purchased software package.