Hi, I'm Jen. I spent years as a hiring manager and want to teach you how to
write the perfect professional cover letter. In just a few sentences, I'll give
you the keys to make sure your cover letter stands out above the rest and
helps you get the job interview. If you're looking for career advice, I post
new videos every week so subscribe to the channel and turn on notifications so
you're the first to hear about them. Is a cover letter even necessary anymore?The
short answer is yes. Even though there's going to be a lot of cases where no one
reads it. So let me tell you why you should still write it even though a lot
of managers tend to skip over it. If we go back to why cover letters became a
thing, it was because decades ago - a decade ago - it wasn't uncommon for job
postings to be done in a newspaper or on bulletin boards in the community. When
you were sending your resume or your application in for a role, you really
needed to tell the person why you were sending it, what position you were
interested in. Now that so much hiring is done online, the majority of the initial
steps are done online at most companies whether small, medium, or large. In many of
the systems that are used to manage the hiring, the hiring manager gets two
different documents: one for your cover letter and one for your resume. So a lot
of people are inclined to just go to the resume because that's where the meat of
the information should be. That's really where most of the content is going to be.
But there is still a very valuable place for having a professional cover letter.
There are cases where you're going to be asked to email the hiring manager or
email HR with your resume for certain positions. Sometimes they'll ask for
specific things in the cover letters. Even if you're not asked for it, even if
you're submitting online in a system, I'd still suggest going ahead and
writing that cover letter. The keys I'm going to teach you for writing this are
going to make it so simple. It's literally going to take you a few seconds to put it
together and it adds a little bit of extra polish, even if in some cases it
won't be read. Chances are someone along the way is
going to read it. Having a good, professional cover letter is definitely
a must. Let's get into what a professional cover
letter looks like and I'll give you the exact script you should use when you
write your next cover letter. I am a big fan of cover letters that walk the line
between formal and informal. I don't think that your cover letter needs to
feel super stiff. You're really - in very few cases - does it need to be overly
formal and you also don't want to err the other way and go too informal. It's
definitely better to go too formal versus informal, but you don't need to
speak in a way that is super uncommon for anybody to speak or write today. The
reality is we do a lot of written communication and your cover letter
gives a little bit of a clue into whether you're able to communicate
professionally or not. When you're writing your cover letter or if you're
sending an email that has your resume and you're essentially putting the cover
letter in the body of the email, there's a few things that you're trying to
communicate: why you're contacting them, a little bit about how you're going to help
them, and your interest in the position. Obviously you have some sort of
interest since you're applying, but you would be surprised at the number of
cover letters I've seen where somebody didn't even take the time to make sure
they were attaching the right cover letter and it said, "I'm writing about
your buyer position" when I was hiring for an analyst. Clearly they didn't take
the time. I've had people put the wrong company on the cover letter. This might
seem like a surprise, but it actually happens way more than you would think.
Even those little pieces of getting things right goes an extra step to show that
you're interested in a role you're applying for. I mentioned that there are
three things that you want to convey in your letter. This does not need to be a
long letter. It should not be a long letter. As a hiring manager - and I can
speak for many other hiring managers who I've talked to about this topic as well -
they are much more likely to read what you've written if you keep it short. If
they open your cover letter or bring up the document on the computer
and it's three pages long, forget about it. If it's one page, densely packed with
text, forget about it. If it's four or five sentences, okay. I'll
read that. I've got a few seconds to read through a few sentences. Don't take a
lot of time in writing this. Don't feel like you need to put everything in this
cover letter. Unless there's something specific that you're asked to talk about
in the cover letter, four to five sentences is all you'll need. Let's
look at what those four to five sentences should contain. First, start out
with a greeting: "Dear hiring manager", "To whom it may concern". I think a really
nice touch is if you take the time to find out who the hiring manager is.
This may or may not be possible. In some cases, you're not going to be able to
find it, but especially if the company's smaller or you're in a very specific
niche or you're connected to someone that told you about the position, you may
be able to find out the person's name. If you do, put it in there. Any time that
that's happened - and it's been very infrequent in my experience - I know
that candidate took some time to actually find out about the job. They're
really interested. It tells me they've done a little bit of homework on
what they're applying for and that's always a good thing to hiring managers.
It's so common for people to send out mass amounts of resumes that
you don't always know when candidates are really interested or if you're just
one of 50 other applications they might have sent out that day. If you can
find the hiring manager's name, great. If you can't, don't worry about it. Now, let's
get into the body of the letter. We're going to break this down into four sections.
The first section - one paragraph, one sentence: "I'm very interested in your
open position for ______." So, if you're applying for an analyst, "I'm very
interested in your open position for the analytics role." You know how I mentioned
that sometimes I have people that don't pay attention? Pay attention here! I would
much rather not have a cover letter than have one where someone didn't take the
time to make sure they put the right job title in. Use the title that's
on the job posting. Put it in there. One sentence - easy, great, okay.
Next paragraph and again one sentence: "My x years of experience in ______ make me
a strong candidate for this role." Put in how many years of experience you
have. If you don't have any, maybe you leave that off, but a lot of people - most
people - are not applying to entry-level jobs. There's certainly a group of people
every year that are. So if you're one of those, leave this off your cover letter.
But if you have experience, mention it. "I have five years of experience in
analytics research which makes me a strong candidate for this role."
Perfect. Boom. You've highlighted your top criteria, your one summation of why
you're a good candidate for the role. Now, the next thing we want to do is direct
them over to your resume. A lot of people will try to pull some key points from
their resume and put them in the cover letter. But your cover letter doesn't
really need those reasons. You really want someone to go over to your resume
and read all of your criteria there that you've put together for them so they can
understand how you're a good candidate. By pulling out a few key points, if for
some reason those points don't resonate with the person reading your cover
letter, they're not going to go look at your resume. You want to set it up in a way
that immediately gets them to the content that you've put together to tell
them why you're the perfect fit for this role. Here's what you're going to say in
that third sentence: "I've highlighted my key qualifications for this role as well
as my career profile on the top of my resume." It's as simple as that. One
sentence directing them over to your resume, letting them know, "Hey, I've even
pulled out the most important pieces and put them at the top of my resume." If you
don't have a resume that's set up like that and you need some help with it, I've
linked below to services I offer and training I offer to help you get the
perfect resume. Now, it's time to close out the cover letter. And again - new
sentence, last sentence: "I look forward to speaking with you about this position."
Simple as that. You don't need to put anything else in it. Then put a
salutation, so, "regards" and sign your name. Whether you're writing a
cover letter or this is an email cover letter, essentially, for a job application,
these four sentences are all you need to make sure that you have a really
professional cover letter that's simple to understand. It's clear to the hiring
manager. It doesn't waste more of your time than is needed, but it makes it
available there in case they need it. I mentioned sometimes applications,
especially if you're emailing them, will ask you for something specific in the
cover letter. If that's the case, input that information after that third
paragraph. Before saying "I look forward to speaking with you about this
position" go ahead and insert it there. I've seen jobs where people asked for
your specific expertise in a certain area, if you could elaborate on that,
or they ask you to answer a certain question in your cover letter. Put it
there. Easy enough, simple enough. That's really the only time that I would see
there being a need for it to be a longer cover letter. There you have it: a short,
simple, sweet, and professional cover letter that will help you land the job
interview. Now that you know how to write a great cover letter, have you mastered
the other keys to landing a job? I've put together five critical pieces that will
help you land your next job. I link to this below. You can get your free copy
today. If you like this video, give it a thumbs up, share it with your friends, and
subscribe to the channel. I look forward to seeing you in the next video