Hi, guys.
Welcome.
I am Caroline for those that don't know me from New Horizon Coaching.
I am a career coach and also a job search strategist.
I help people basically with things like optimizing their resume, doing their LinkedIn profile
or helping them do their LinkedIn profile, helping them with their cover letters, with
interview techniques, with negotiation techniques, with job search strategies, and so on, so
a whole bunch of things, basically all involved around job searching.
Today, I want to talk about cover letters because this is a question that I get asked
all the time is what do I do with cover letters?
I see this perfect job advertised and then at the bottom it says 'please submit your
resume and cover letter for this position.'
Most people freeze.
They panic because they think, 'oh my god I have to write a cover letter.
What do I write?'
They're a couple of things that I want to cover because even when it's not us a lot
people actually spend time and effort writing a cover letter.
First things first, a cover letter shouldn't be too long unless specifically asked for
that it addresses certain selection criteria.
Otherwise I would say one-third of a page, half a page maximum.
People don't have a lot of time and it's like reading anything.
People skim read through things and they do the same with your resume and with a cover
letter.
It can be too text heavy because to be honest nobody has time to read all of that so it
needs to really capture the essence.
Secondly, you need to know your market.
Let me explain and elaborate on that; if it's a very candidate rich market that means that
they're are a lot of candidates out there applying for jobs and they're only a few jobs
available then a cover letter really can make you stand out.
But if it's a very candidate poor market that means you don't have a lot of candidates in
your area of specialization and there are quite a few jobs out there the essence of
having a cover letter is not really as important as in the case that you really want to use
it to standout.
Thirdly, if the job is advertised by a recruiter like a recruitment agent I must say ninety
percent of the time a recruiter will rely on your resume that that is good and they
even sometimes don't even look at your cover letter so don't spend time.
If you're good for the job a recruiter will call you regardless of a cover letter or no
cover letter.
Don't miss out on a job because you think, 'oh, I don't have a cover letter.'
Just submit your resume anyway.
You might even want to send an e-mail explaining if it's a recruitment agency you might actually
wait until you put all that energy in writing a customized cover letter until you know you're
suitable for the role.
Another thing about cover letters also is one of the biggest mistakes that I see is
that people write in cover letters only about themselves.
That's the biggest mistake you can make because you have to use a cover letter to really highlight
that you understand what their problem is, what they are looking to achieve, why they
are recruiting for the position in the first place.
Think about this way - before you even start writing your cover letter you look at the
job description and you say, 'why possibly are they recruiting for this position?'
You make assumptions but you think these might be the reason, these might be the reason,
and this might be the reason.
Then you think about all your skills and experience that you have.
You link it back to what in my area of expertise and all the skills and experience that I've
built up over the years is the most relevant to this job.
The best thing that I advise to my clients is always take a big sheet of paper [inaudible
00:05:26] and just brainstorm, brain map everything out and say these are why they're looking
to recruit, this is where my experience actually matches up, and then this is really important
and then you're going to craft your e-mail.
Your letter.
The first thing is you mention something like this position caught my eye because it's very
similar to what I used to do at XYZ.
You set a tone and as a hiring manager I will think, oh okay.
He or she has done something similar so that's already a good thing.
Then you say, look from my understanding these are the things that you are looking to achieve
and these are the three priorities or key areas that I have done in that past.
Now by stating a number psychologically you create a loop.
By saying these are the three areas that I have done in the past and from my understanding
are the things that you want to achieve, by mentioning the number three or four or two
whatever it is you create an open loop and then you say firstly, blah blah blah, secondly,
and then thirdly.
You create this thing basically, this psychology behind it that people actually want to read
on until they close the loop and actually have read the whole three points.
That's actually really a key formula for writing successful resumes.
Firstly, understanding what they're trying to achieve, why they are hiring for.
Secondly, linking it back to your expertise and take relevant examples of your career
history that will resonate with that company.
Thirdly, create a loop an open loop so people actually want to read your entire cover letter
to actually close that loop.
Just on the note when you actually look at the best examples that will resonate with
this job that they're recruiting for you have to think about, 'this might not be the best
example you can give.'
There might be better but it needs to be the most relevant and when you take relevant examples
people can actually put themselves in that situation and their understanding will be
more relevant.
That's why it's so important.
The way you close it off it can be a couple of ways.
You can just say looking forward to hearing from you and discussing more in detail why
I match the position in such a way.
Or you might even say look I might give you a call in a couple of days to follow up and
to see if you have any questions.
Whatever you're comfortable with but don't take box standard ways of doing things because
if you do that your cover letter will be deleted straight away and you don't want that.
I have a resume template that has proven to get interviews for people.
It may look very simple the resume template but I can promise you it has been successful
over and over again with a lot of people that I've asked to reformat in that template.
It's not a template that I've invented it's a template I've used and know works.
I will post the link below this video and also go ahead and download it.
Share it with people because my mission is to actually help as many people with my expertise
as possible.
I have a lot of information to share and so I use this platform, facebook live, to actually
share those messages.
If you have any questions let me know and I'm more than happy also give a response to
them I make another special video for you guys.
Thank you so much, enjoy your Sunday.
If you watched the replay it will be later of course.
I hope to talk to you soon.
See you.
Bye.