In the age of digital recruiting, you might think that cover letters don’t carry much weight with employers anymore and that they should more properly be relegated to the archives of employment history, rather than carrying any current relevance. However, a recent survey conducted by the Robert Half Company discovered that quite the opposite is true and that more than 90% of all employers feel cover letters can be a valuable tool for getting to know candidates.
Once a stack of applications has been whittled down to a group of candidates with potential, it happens very often that the cover letter is consulted as an effective means of obtaining a first impression about a potential employee. Short of an actual interview, there’s no better way to find out some background information about a candidate, and why he/she feels qualified for an opening with a specific company. Here are a few tips about how to write a killer cover letter, one which just might get you the interview you’ve been seeking with a good company.
Get Personal
Assuming that you know who the hiring manager is for the company you’re applying to, it’s a good idea to address your cover letter to that person. In most cases, the hiring manager’s name will be listed in the job posting, but if it isn’t, you should call the main office and ask for the specific title and name of the person in charge of hiring.
Not only will this help to make a direct connection, but it shows the company that you are interested enough to make the inquiry in the first place. If you happen to have any personal connections to the company, they should be referenced in the body of the letter, and if anyone referred you to the company, their name should be mentioned as well.
Standard Format
Your cover letter should be very businesslike in its format, as opposed to a casual email which you might send to a friend. A good starting point would be to use Times New Roman font in a nice, readable 12-point size, and try not to exceed three or four paragraphs in length. Don’t go beyond one page with your text, or it will become much less likely to be read in its entirety.
Reference a Specific Job
You might start out with a cover letter template, but make sure you tailor the finished product to a specific company, a specific hiring manager, and a specific position that you’re applying for. Refer to the job skills listed in the posting, and explain to the reader why your skills would make a good fit for the company.
If you can concisely support your claims, it will be even more effective, but don’t ramble on and lose your reader’s attention. It’s also a good idea to mention how you appreciate the specific market that the company is involved in, and why you are anxious to become employed in that particular market. This will convey the notion that you’re not just interested in finding a job, but you’re interested in finding a job with that company, and the kind of business they are involved with.
Avoid Re-hashing Your Resume
Don’t make your cover letter a simple restatement of information contained in your resume – the hiring manager already knows that material, and that’s not what is being sought from a cover letter. Instead, explain why you’re interested in the job, how your skills match up well with those required by the open position and draw attention to the past skills and experience which will make you a good candidate for the job. If you have any gaps in employment which are obvious on your resume, this would be a good place to explain them.
Use Job Description Keywords
It’s no secret that some employers use filtering software in order to scan through piles of resumes and to quickly bypass the less likely candidates. To avoid ending up in the scrap heap, you should install some of the keywords mentioned in the job posting into your cover letters, so that you make a strong connection with those skills and/or experience mentioned. If the employer is using any kind of filtering, at least you should make it past the first phase.
Finish Strong
Use the last paragraph of your cover letter to re-emphasize why your skills and experience make you the right person for the job and point out the supporting evidence contained in your resume. If you’ve stated your case well enough, it should at least generate some curiosity for the hiring manager, so that your resume will be examined a little more thoroughly.
Proofread your Cover Letters – More Than Once
Once you feel you’ve written the perfect cover letter, it’s time to go over it a couple times to look for any kind of typing errors, sentence structure issues, or any other kind of grammatical errors. If you submit an error-filled cover letter, that’s pretty much a guarantee that your resume will end up in the circular file, along with the unfortunate cover letter itself. If letter-writing happens not to be a particularly strong suit with you, have a friend or relative look it over, so that a second or third set of eyes can pick out any problems.