Good luck, Sophia!! My usual cleaning company informed me they were raising their rates (by $50!) and so I contacted a potential new one today...who are nuts. They quoted 5.5-8 hours to clean the place and would expect to charge $250-400!!! Helllllll no. I mean maybe you could spend that long cleaning but I just want my tub and sinks scrubbed, not a toothpick taken to every possible crevice!

I once read that successful cover letters address why you would be wonderful at whatever the ad is asking for. The nice thing about that for me was it gave me a place to start with my purple prose, instead of just saying Me Best! You Give Job Now!

I reckon at least it would show you had read the ad and were aware of what they were asking for.

Ask a Manager is very keen on cover letters. She has some advice on writing one here: [link] She's presented a few examples of good cover letters in her blog as well, such as: [link]

Steph, your story helps confirms my feeling that Kroger was improving as an organization throughout the years I was in their territory. Maybe it's just certain stores, but getting a small cart party approved by corporate speaks to something good.

Oh no, Dana. Hope the fever was just a passing fluke and all is well this morning.

I love the small cart party! My local Publix used to be a great neighborhood store with jammies worn by customers on Sunday morning with coffee and pastries and such. Then they moved to a bigger store and it has never been the same.

Cover letters mattered to me given multiple qualified people. But if the resume of one was spot on and they didn't even bother with a cover I still had them in the select pile. So preferred, but not essential.

Gris, our local Kroger is going through a major reno right now and has been for months. I think you would approve of the changes -- basically turning it into a copy of Fancy Kroger in Inglewood -- but in the meantime it is taking forever and every time you go in, half of what you need is in a new location. I spent at least 10 minutes last week trying to find the peanut butter. Eventually, though, it should be great!

I feel like that store got renovated every two years while we were there. But yeah when they bought that store next door, I could see the (good!) writing on the wall.

So the cover letter is read AFTER the resume makes it through? I always thought the cover letter was read first, and the point was to get them to read the resume. Huh. That makes a difference.

Oh no, Dana. Hope the fever was just a passing fluke and all is well this morning.

How did you do that? The fever was already going down when I went to bed, and I'm fine this morning. No fever or body aches. So that's good, although I'm kind of confused.

Copperbadge did a cover letter template that I've been using in my sporadic "get me the hell away from 100 F days in October" job searches. [link]

I mean, I haven't gotten a job from it yet because here I still am. But I've gotten some phone interviews.