5 Tips To Writing A Great Cover Letter

While the unemployment rate has dropped since 2009, it still stands just above eight percent as of July, 2012. Recent college graduates are having a tougher time than ever securing a job in their field of study. Many are settling for less desirable positions in order to stay afloat.

Is landing a dream job impossible? Not at all.

But in such a competitive job market, how does one’s cover letter stand out from the masses? Writing a great cover letter can be a great answer to standing apart from the masses.

Here’s 5 Tips to Writing a Great Cover Letter:

1. Find a Hook

Tell a story or share an anecdote: what experiences have led you to this job search? Use a quote. Site a great review or article you recently read about the business and how it inspired you. Tell a joke. Give the reader a reason to keep reading. Show them that your letter is more than a mass employment outreach (even if it really is). If you seem genuinely interested, they will be genuinely interested.

2. Do Your Research

A few quick Google searches can give you enough information to convince the human resources department that you know your stuff. Reference statistics, facts, or news events that show you are familiar not only with the company to which you are applying, but to the industry as a whole. Try to make your letter as specific to the company as possible. Give them every reason to believe that you have tailored this letter for them, not simply created a stock template to send off to every company in the industry.

3. Use Connections

Do you and the company contact person have a mutual friend? Have you rubbed elbows with any current employees or made any industry connections? This is definitely worth mentioning in the opening paragraph of your great cover letter, even if the encounter was a while back. Crack the door open for yourself then dazzle them with your spectacular job skills.

4. Be Professional

Proofread carefully! This seems like a no-brainer but you would be surprised how many errors slip by after hours of laboring over the composition of a stellar cover letter. Eliciting the help of a friend is a great idea. Often others catch small mistakes that the writer’s eye overlooks. While printing and sealing up a cover letter on high quality paper and dropping it off at the post office is a thing of the past, the formal prose style of a traditional cover letter is not. An email cover letter should still be professional. No need to use Shakespearean diction but do steer clear of spelling abbreviations and contractions.

5. Short and Sweet

Anything over a page is way too long. Be brief. It shows consideration for the poor soul who must rummage through a full inbox of prospective new-hires. Mention what position and department you are applying for right away. Describe your work experience but be succinct. Do not include irrelevant jobs or details that don’t highlight exactly what makes you qualified for the position. Have an business degree? Tell them! You worked at Hot Dog on a Stick one summer between your junior and senior year? Leave that one out.

Do you know of any other great tips to writing a great cover letter? Share your ideas for writing a great cover letter in a comment below.
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This entry was posted on Friday, December 7th, 2012 at 9:10 am and is filed under Career, Job Search, Resumes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.