First of all, you may be wondering why include a cover letter at all? Simple, it shows you are one of several people truly interested in getting the job. By demonstrating: Who referred you from inside the company, you have a genuine desire to earn the job through an internship, you are ideally suited for the position, you have the enthusiasm the others do not, you are not merely responding to a job posting but choosing your ideal employer or you are responding to a job posting and you want to be picked for an interview as opposed to being ignored.

In a nutshell there are many things that are not suited to put on a resume. Dual skill areas are always attractive to prospective employers if relevant. Anything that might increase revenue or profit is likewise fair game. If you are an Operations Manager who has always handled IT and Technical Support for PCs and Networking as a normal part of your job, that would be welcome news to many employers indeed. If you are a creative problem solver with a keen eye for efficiency, illustrating some of your successes would certainly be helpful if you are a Supply Chain Manager or Production Engineer.

Frankly, the candidates who include a well written cover letter double their chances just based on the fact that they cared enough about this one particular position enough to write a great one. If you are a sales professional for a building supply company and you have an established relationship with over 75 accounts that you have originated and built up over the years, you might want to include something like this: I am very sure after you hire me that most of my 75 accounts would be happy to transfer right along with me due to the fact that more than 90% of my sales are from my own outside sales efforts. Could that be an edge over any other applicant that might get you interviews?

Now, with regard to the networking connections, using LinkedIn or the local BNI meetings can help you with that. Surely, you will agree that it still is not what you know, but who you know that matters. While we are on this subject, use the advanced people search on LinkedIn or a phone call to get an appropriate person's name so you will not have to address your cover letter to the human resources department. If at all possible you want to avoid this black hole for resumes. Be original, use a unique selling proposition and never ever send a naked resume without a cover letter.