You have your resume completed and there’s a position you want to apply for, but the
job posting requires that you include a cover letter.
Well fear not, because writing a cover letter isn’t difficult when you have a template
to follow.
Stick around because in this video I’m sharing that template with you.
Hi, I’m Jeri Walker with Your Best Designed Career.
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I often get questions about cover letters.
Do they matter?
Are they read?
Do I even need one?
Back in the day when you had to actually mail your resume to a company, cover letters were
commonly used in job searches.
But now with so much of the job search process done online, they aren’t as common as they
once were.
The online application process, combined with the sheer number of resumes that a recruiter
may receive on just one job posting, makes it less likely that a cover letter will be
read.
But some recruiters will read them and a well written cover letter may just be the thing
that gets you the call for that interview!
So, I do recommend that you write one.
Don’t let the thought of writing a cover letter overwhelm you.
First of all, a cover letter isn’t a two thousand word essay.
Recruiters don’t want to receive a full page of text, they don’t have time to read
something that long.
All you need are three short paragraphs and a call to action at the end.
Keep it short to increase your odds of it getting read.
What you want to do in your cover letter is introduce yourself, express your interest
in the position, demonstrate why you’re a good fit, and pique their interest enough
so they’ll look at your resume and ultimately call you in for an interview.
Let’s go over the different sections, the first of which is the salutation.
Ideally you want to find out the name of the hiring manager.
If no name is mentioned in the job posting, use LinkedIn and search employees of the company.
You can search for the person with the job title that your hiring manager would likely
have until you find someone who you can reasonably assume to be the hiring manager.
If you can’t really tell who the hiring manager is, just try to find an internal recruiter
and address your letter to them.
In many cases, especially with larger companies it's tough to figure out who the hiring manager
is.
If you don’t have a name please don’t start your salutation with “To whom it may
concern”, or “Dear Sir or Madam”.
This is so impersonal, it indicates zero effort on your part and isn’t the way to make a
good first impression.
Instead, start your letter with: Hello “Position Name” Hiring Manager,
or Dear “Position Name” Hiring Team,
Then you can follow this with, “I apologize for not addressing you personally but I wasn’t
able to locate your name”.
This at least shows them that this is important to you and you did attempt to find out their
name.
Alright, the next step is to write a compelling hook and introduction.
Always remember that your cover letter is going to a person, someone who you want to
connect with.
You want to find some common ground and trigger their interest in you which is where the hook
comes in.
Some things you can use as a hook are:
If you’ve had a positive personal experience with the company mention that, or after you’ve
researched the company website, talk about something that intrigued you.
Or mention the reputation of the company in your community, or the services or products
that they provide or talk about how the mission statement of the company resonates with you.
Here’s a few examples of what this might look like, “I’ve been a loyal user of
ABC camping gear since my first time camping at seven years old.
Some of my happiest memories are from my camping trips and I feel as though ABC has been a
big part of my life.”
Or another example is, “I was excited to see XYZ spotlighted on the evening news recently
for your work with at-risk teens.
Supporting youth is a cause that is close to my heart and one that we have in common.”
Right after your hook, state the reason why you are contacting them.
All you need to say is something like, “This is why I’m so interested in your Director
of Digital Marketing position at ABC Company.”
Next, you want to describe how your skills and expertise are a good match.
But….you don’t want to give them too much information here because one, you need to
keep things short and just generate some curiosity so they’ll want to look at your resume.
And two, if by chance you mis-read the needs of the position and focus on the wrong thing,
you could very well eliminate yourself from the candidate pool.
Now that said, if you’re familiar with the job posting and you’re clear on the requirements
of the position as well as the problems that this position needs to solve, you should be
able to reverse engineer the most important functions as well as incorporate a few keywords
related to the position.
So, give it some thought and be strategic!
What you can say is, “I have nine years of experience in brand awareness and digital
marketing which should make me a strong candidate for this position.”
And then you can follow this with, “My attached resume highlights my skills and achievements
that are also in alignment with your position.
Here is a preview.”
Then you want to mention one strong and relevant achievement for this position, but again only
if you are 100% sure it’s vitally important to this position, otherwise, exclude this
bullet point and leave it just like this.
Now, if you don’t have your skills and achievements highlighted on your resume, I do have a video
where I tell you about the best resume format to use and how to incorporate your skills
and achievements into your resume.
You can find it right up there and I’ll put a link for it down int the description
box as well.
Okay, now you need to close your letter with a call to action.
You can say, “I welcome the opportunity to speak with you if you feel I’d be a strong
candidate for this position…Sincerely,” and then your name, and your contact information.
And that’s it.
Done!
Okay, just a few final comments.
One - If you’re submitting your cover letter online as a Word or PDF document be sure to
use the same formatting as your resume.
If you’re sending it as an email, be sure to name the exact job title in the subject
line.
Two - Pay attention to the instructions in the job posting, sometimes they do request
that specific information be included in your cover letter so be sure to incorporate that
in.
And Three - Don’t forget to include your contact information.
Seems obvious, but I’ve seen candidates forget this part.
Not a huge deal because that information is on your resume, but omitting it could give
the impression that you don’t pay attention to details.
I hope you’re feeling better about writing a cover letter.
If you want to get a free copy of my cover letter template, I’ll drop a link for that
below in the description.
And if you want to learn about more things you should be doing in your career or job
search, consider subscribing and click on the bell notification so you don’t miss
a thing.
Thanks for watching, I’ll see you next time.