Stealth Job Search: Create a confidential cover letter

Your confidential resume needs a confidential cover letter to accompany it.

Your stealth resume ensures that your experience and skills are available to the hiring authority, but your identity is not.

You need a cover letter to go with every resume, so you need a stealth cover letter to introduce your stealth resume.

Start with your regular cover letter. (Don’t have one? Contact me right away. We’ll fix that.)

Modify your contact information at the top the same way you modified your resume:

1. Your Name: Replace your name at the top of your cover letter with Confidential Candidate.
2. Contact Information: Delete all of your contact information except a personal cell phone number. Create a new email address that you will use only for stealth applications. Make sure it contains nothing that can identify you. It could be something like ConfidentialCandidate2017@gmail.com.

Omit other identifying information from your cover letter:

1. Company: Change the name of each company to Confidential Company.
2. Location: Omit the city and state of each company.
3. Recommendation: If you’ve included a recommendation on your cover letter, omit the name and location; change the company name to Confidential Company.
4. Signature: Replace your signature with Confidential Candidate.

Add a paragraph near the end that expresses appreciation for the hiring authority’s discretion regarding your application because of the value you have for your current position and the respect for your current employer.

If you have completed and enclosed a confidentiality form, state that it is included in your application materials.

Replace your name in the name of your cover letter file.

You’re ready to apply!

If you’re not sure about any of these job search details, contact me today to talk about your career goals and what’s stopping you from achieving them. 

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Stealth Job Search: How to write a confidential resume

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