A lot of the time when you're hunting for a new job, time is of the essence. It's not difficult to save a lot of that valuable time if you can make use of one of the most powerful tools at your disposal: your cover letter.

Most people don't understand just how much the right cover letter can help you out when you're trying desperately to find a job to support yourself and possibly your family as well. It's usually pretty critical when you're jobhunting that you get that job quickly, because a lack of income is never a good thing in today's world.

The cover letter you send attached to your resume can really speed up the process, because it can help you all but close the deal right then and there. You can pretty much custom-build whatever first impression you want a potential employer to have of you when he or she reads it, which is a fantastic power and I'm sure I don't have to explain why that can be such an asset.

The trick is in knowing what you're doing to achieve that kind of effect. Well, taking a little extra time in writing your cover letter can pay out big time in overall jobhunting time. You have to do it right, and that means putting in a lot of effort starting with gathering information about the company that has the job.

Information is power, and the more you know about the business the better-equipped you'll be for impressing the people who work there and could decide that you do too. You need to know what the business does, how they do it, who does it, and what they expect of the people they employ. Figure out what skills are the most valuable to the company's employees, and make sure that you can fit the bill. Once you've determined that you can do the job to not just satisfy but exceed the business's needs, it's time to let THEM in on it.

A cover letter isn't a bragfest, it's a statement of your qualifications. It's also not a biography or a list of your entire work history, so stay away from that as well. Your main intention for the cover letter should be to tell what skills you have that make you the best-suited candidate the business could ever want...a tall order, but it's definitely doable.

You'll want to keep it trim...standard is about 2-4 paragraphs and never more than a page, so now you can see why I told you to keep the bio and resume-rehashing out of your cover letter. There's not much space to spare, and what you have needs to be flawless, technically as well as contentwise. Avoid spelling and grammar errors like the plague...they're like a big red warning light labeled "Unprofessional."

Make sure your cover letter is customized and completely unique to the business you're sending it to. Too many people make the mistake of printing off generic copies of the same lame, nonspecific cover letter and mailing it all off to a bunch of completely different businesses. If your cover letter doesn't specifically address the requirements of the job it's trying to set you up for, it's basically useless...so make it fit the bill!

The last bit of information I'm going to tell you for this article is that simply sending off a cover letter and resume, no matter how great they are, is not enough. You have to be proactive and self-motivated if you want to get a job efficiently and keep it. Businesspeople respect someone who's willing to get out there and break out of his/her comfort bubble in order to get done what needs to be done.

Do what you have to in order to get seen and noticed...mail your cover letter directly to the person at the company who has the best chance of flat-out hiring you, and who won't be questioned for doing so. You yourself make the call to set up an interview, and see if they have any questions. Make yourself available to them if they need you. "Send and sit" is a great way to get somebody ELSE a job...somebody who's more motivated than you are.

So in recap, it's mostly just important that you get out there and do it. Your cover letter is a great way to open the door for proving yourself to a potential employer, but only if you make sure it does its job properly and really relates to the business in question. So just get out there and go nail down that job!

Looking for an idea of where to start? Get into the right frame of mind with free cover letter examples. Free tips and resources at http://www.squidoo.com/coverletterexamples