How to Write a Cover Letter That Employers Will Actually Read

When you're applying for a new job, you often have to write a cover letter to accompany your resume and serve as an introduction to who you are. These letters must be brief yet compelling so you don't require much of the reader but still appear unique. This can be pretty tough, but if you utilize the principles of good storytelling and concise writing you can put together a letter that won't get lost in the pile. Here's how.

Most cover letters tend to be fairly formulaic and look something like this:

Dear [EMPLOYER],
I would like to express my interest in [SOME POSITION] at [COMPANY]. Although I've explored many options in my job search, I've come to respect the quality and integrity of the work that you do. For example, I was very impressed by the latest television campaign for Kellogs. I love creating great advertisements for television, radio, and print, and believe I would be a good asset to your company. I'm a hard worker who thinks outside of the box while producing creative work in an efficient manner. I believe you'll find that my four years of experience at [SOME OTHER COMPANY I CLEARLY WANT TO LEAVE OR WAS FIRED FROM], and my resulting portfolio, mirror these qualities. I look forward to hearing from you and exchanging ideas about what I can offer [COMPANY].
Thank you for your consideration.
[APPLICANT]

If you read a letter like this, you wouldn't cry blood or toss it in the garbage in favor of getting a root canal. It's a perfectly acceptable letter by letter-writing standards, but it's also pretty generic and ineffective. It doesn't tell you anything about who the author is, any compelling reason why they're interested in their work or the company they're hoping will employ them, and really does nothing at all to stand out from the crowd. In this post, we're going to look at how to avoid letters like these and write interesting, unique cover letters that target the reader.

Know Your Audience

 Your audience is your prospective employer, and while you can never know exactly who will be reading your letter you can know the company. You don't want to craft a letter in which you try to be everything you think your target company might want, but you do want to take who the company is into account. Chances are there were a few things you liked about the company before deciding to apply. For example, if you were looking for a job at the industrial design firm IDEO, you may have gotten excited when you heard about the giant airplane wing protruding from one of their offices or perhaps you just liked what you saw when they redesigned the shopping cart for an ABC news special. Whatever made you like the company, or got you excited about the job, likely tells you a thing or two about the corporate culture. This information is very valuable when writing your cover letter.
First of all, knowing the way a company operates will hint at the level of formality they'll expect from a letter. If you were applying for a job at Lifehacker, for example, you'd want to write something more casual. At a bank, formality would likely be more appreciated. Design firms and other creative companies generally fall somewhere in the middle. If you know the company, you should have a pretty good idea of what's fitting. Going back to the IDEO example, you could get away with a statement like this:

Ever since I saw the giant airplane wing crashing through the wall of your offices I knew IDEO was a place I wanted to work.

Something like that probably wouldn't get you very far at a bank, but this could:

The first time I scanned a check with my smartphone I was delighted by how simple deposits suddenly became. Now that I am in the market for a job, I immediately though of Chase because I want to help to create the tools that make banking a pleasure.

These statements compliment the company. They show that you know detail about the company, so you're not just applying abitrarily. They show that you appreciate the work the company does and they provide insight into who you are and what you carea bout. When you're writing your cover letter, knowing your audience can help you do this. You may be applying for a job because you want any job, but that doesn't mean you can't do a little research and find something you like and respect about your prospective employer. Doing so will give you the opportunity to connect with them in a very brief moment and help you avoid getting stacked in a pile of generic applicants.

Know Yourself

You can't be someone else, so don't try. This is good advice for life, and is especially relevant when applying for a new job. If you try to present yourself as the worker you think the company wants, you're going to end up with boring statements that don't really say much about you. Your resume can sell your skills and experience. Your cover letter needs to sell you as a person, and give the company a reason to want you. It's an opportunity to put your best (and most relevant) foot forward, and you should take it. I think Joel Spolsky, founder of Fog Creek Software, explains this idea best:

The number one best way to get someone to look at your resume closely: come across as a human being, not a list of jobs and programming languages. Tell me a little story. "I've spent the last three weeks looking for a job at a real software company, but all I can find are cheezy web design shops looking for slave labor." Or, "We yanked our son out of high school and brought him to Virginia. I am not going to move again until he is out of high school, even if I have to go work at Radio Shack or become a Wal*Mart greeter." (These are slightly modified quotes from two real people.)

Who you are matters. It's true that some companies are mostly interested in hiring people who will simply get the work done, accept a low salary, and never complain, if you're applying for a job you're actually going to like then chances are you matter. Put a little of yourself into the cover letter. You're not sharing your disease history. You're sharing your personality in a way that's relevant to the job you want. It's fun. It's an excuse to be honest, and you increase your chances of getting a job, too.
Photo by Luke Baldacchino.

Show, Don't Tell

One of the most common mistakes people make in any kind of writing is that they tell their audience what they want them to know. Just as you'll generally find explanations to be dull in a film, your prospective employer will find them to be dull in a cover letter. There's no sense in telling anyone that you're a hard worker or a team player because you'll be 1) expecting that they'll trust such a generic statement and 2) among many other undesirable candidates who write the same thing. If you're going to provide reasons why you're great, provide an undeniable example instead. The best way to do this is look back on your work history—or even something relevant that you created outside of your professional life—that made you feel proud of what you can do. Tell a story about that in a few short sentences:

For her 9th birthday, my daughter wanted brownies just like the ones they make at her favorite restaurant. I accidentally spilled a little pudding mix into the batter, only to discover a trick that made one of the best desserts I've ever had. I can replicate a recipe like the best of them, but it's the mistakes I've made while baking that remind me of how much I love it.

You can tell anyone anything, but you have to provide an example to demonstrate why they should believe your claims.

Demonstrate What Every Employer Wants to Know

Most employers care about the following three things above all else:

1. You're smart.
2. You'll get things done.
3. You'll fit in well with their corporate culture.

Before you sign and send your cover letter, do your best to ensure those three things are implied. Again, you don't ever want to actually say them, but you want your reader to think them when they've finished reading your letter.

Never Write the Same Letter Twice

Every time you apply for a job your audience changes. The job changes. Chances are you've changed a bit, too. While you can certainly re-use elements from previous cover letters when they are applicable, it's very important to remember that the exact same cover letter is going to have a different impact on different people. As you go ahead and apply for different jobs, remember that they are different. You'll want to craft your cover letters to express that.

http://lifehacker.com/5880545/how-to-write-a-cover-letter-that-employers-will-actually-read

 

 

Cover Letters Get You In the Door

Eager to snare a hot job opening, you quickly scribble a cover letter and attach it to your flawless résumé.

Too bad. You probably just blew your chance to be hired. Your hastily written missive missed the mark -- and you misspelled the target company's name.

A great cover letter is the golden key to any job search. Yet despite a glut of advice books and Web sites, an estimated 85% of cover letters are so flawed that senders never land an interview, career coaches say. Even experts err. An "ideal" letter sent to me by one career counselor contained this sentence fragment in the first paragraph: "With a great deal of interest."

Looking elsewhere for how to craft a compelling cover letter, I turned to Lisa Jacobson, a frustrated small-business owner, and Deborah J. Storz, a marketing specialist whom she hired last spring. Their sage advice may be worth heeding as the employment rebound gathers speed.

Ms. Jacobson and her colleagues have reviewed several hundred thousand cover letters since she founded Inspirica, a New York high-school and college tutoring concern, in 1983. Not even 1% of those letters were acceptable. If Inspirica tossed every cover letter "that had something wrong with it, we would have virtually no one to choose from," the 45-year-old chief executive complains. Her 150-employee firm brings aboard about 20 staffers a year.

In March 2003, Ms. Jacobson advertised for a part-time, experienced marketing manager. "One person department, work directly with CEO," read the blind newspaper ad, which also requested a cover letter. Roughly 100 of the 150 job seekers sent letters. Two-thirds contained mistakes (including a misspelled current job title). Fifteen applicants addressed the female CEO as "Dear Sir."

Equally distressing, a mere six cover letters specifically addressed qualifications listed in the ad. And only three piqued Ms. Jacobson's interest enough to read the senders' résumés.

Ms. Storz, a veteran marketing consultant, wrote the best letter. "It referenced the job and what she was going to do to make my company better," Ms. Jacobson recollects. "She seemed like the perfect person for the job."

Ms. Storz's breezy but enthusiastic letter offered detailed examples of her entrepreneurial marketing experience. She tempered her bravado with humor. "I've always been a sort of 'one-man band' (albeit of the feminine persuasion!) and in these lean economic times, I'm finding that really comes in handy," she wrote.

Though a newcomer to the educational-service industry, Ms. Storz concluded her four-paragraph note with the tantalizing comment that she had numerous related marketing ideas. "Wow!" Ms. Jacobson remembers thinking. "She's already working" for Inspirica.

Dropping an intriguing thought near the end of a cover letter entices hiring managers "to follow up with you to find out more," Ms. Storz believes. However, she has discovered the tactic doesn't work unless you establish your credibility higher up with a well-pitched summary of your relevant credentials and love for this particular company.

Ms. Storz says her cover letters almost always generate job interviews. She suspects that's because she spends a long time researching, writing and polishing them. Her Inspirica letter took her five hours. She revised it four times.

"The only chance you have to inject a little bit of personality is in the cover letter," and a good one shows "who you are, what skills you possess and what kind of communicator you are," the 50-year-old New Yorker explains. "The résumé is just the 'supporting details.' "

Ms. Storz makes sure that at least one individual she deeply respects reviews each cover-letter draft for typos and the proper tone. "Another pair of eyes can work wonders," she notes.
The marketing consultant often lends her own eyes, serving as an informal cover-letter coach for job-hunting friends and relatives. Last summer, for instance, she helped her niece, Alison Hager, jump-start a stalled search.

The Georgetown University honors graduate had moved to New York in pursuit of an advertising job. But 20 potential employers ignored her inquiries about the possibility of an interview. In hindsight, Ms. Hager mainly blames the stiff, formulaic tone of those cover letters.
"I was desperate," she says. "I needed to make over my letters."

Ms. Storz urged her niece to inject more passion into her missives. "I never thought I could say, 'This job would be a dream for me' " because that "would sound hokey," recollects Ms. Hager, who's 23.

The revamped approach soon paid off. Badger Kry & Partners picked her to be a brand coordinator in August. "It would be a dream for me to work" for the small ad agency, Ms. Hager's cover letter read. She now sees another reason why a lukewarm cover letter is such a dreadful idea. It speaks volumes "about how you will work professionally," she says.

Wall Street Journal

Standout Cover Letters

It's something job seekers often wonder: Do you really need to submit a cover letter with your résumé?

Some hiring managers confess to ignoring these introductory notes, while others say they read them attentively. Hiring managers say that despite the vast advice available on writing cover letters, many job hunters don't submit them. But applicants who take the time to craft a cover letter stand a fair chance at setting themselves apart.

And given the stiff competition for jobs these days, career experts say writing an introductory note may be worth the effort, especially for career-changers and individuals whose résumés show a red flag, such as an employment gap.

To make a favorable impression, hiring managers say job hunters should craft different letters for every application and tailor them to both the employer and position they're targeting. Cover letters should be brief, says David Loeser, executive vice president, human resources, for baked-goods company Hostess Brands Inc. in Dallas.

One way to customize a cover letter is to reference an employer's products or services or point out content on its Web site. Another is to comment on a trend within the organization's industry. If you know the name of the hiring manager for the position or a human-resources manager at the firm, you should address him or her directly and—whenever possible—acknowledge something personal about the individual.

High-Priority Candidate

Last spring, a job hunter wrote in a cover letter to Chris Willis, vice president of human resources and general counsel for Dallas-based distributor Interstate Battery System of America Inc., about how he had just graduated from Mr. Willis's alma mater. The job hunter, who was seeking a legal position, also noted Mr. Willis's involvement in the Texas General Counsel Forum, a trade group. Mr. Willis says Interstate Battery didn't have any legal jobs open at the time, and still doesn't, but the writer will "be top of mind" whenever one is available. "We'll keep him on file in a database of high potentials that get higher priority when it comes to recruiting," Mr. Willis says.

To customize a letter for a particular position, applicants should show how their backgrounds line up with the requirements outlined in the job description.

"With a cover letter, you can get more context than you might get in a résumé," says Craig Campbell, director of staffing for Dolby Laboratories Inc., an entertainment-technology company in San Francisco.

A recent applicant for a director of business-development position at Dolby described how his background matched the four qualifications listed in the ad for the job, says Mr. Campbell, adding that the applicant was granted an interview.

Cover letters also are ideal for clearing up anything in a résumé that might confuse or concern recruiters. Clare Shanahan, senior director of talent acquisition for Fireman's Fund Insurance Co., a high net worth insurer in Novato, Calif., says she recently received a cover letter from a job hunter that explained why his résumé didn't list an employer after 2008: He had spent the past 18 months unsuccessfully trying to launch a business.

"It showed that he was honest and entrepreneurial," she says, adding that she extended this person an interview invite for a senior-level sales and marketing position at Fireman's Fund. "Had he not done that, there would've been too much room for doubt."

Similarly, Natalia Schultz, chief talent officer for Grey Group, a New York-based advertising firm, says she granted an interview to an industry outsider after reading the person's cover letter about why she wanted to change careers and join Grey in particular. "It was such an incredibly compelling note that I had to meet her," she says.

No Mistakes

Make sure every cover letter is error-free or your hard work could backfire. About 20% of applications for jobs at Fireman's Fund include introductory notes, says Ms. Shanahan. Of those, she estimates 30% contain mistakes, most commonly because they're addressed to the wrong company or recruiters' names are misspelled.

Sloppiness can automatically eliminate an applicant from consideration, says Ms. Shanahan. "The person's résumé and credentials would have to be really outstanding to compensate, and many recruiters may not look past the cover letter to make that assessment," she says. Factual, spelling and grammatical gaffes indicate "a lack of attention to detail," she adds.

Cookie-cutter cover letters also can derail an applicant's shot at landing an interview. "I can tell if it's a form letter and they just inserted my name or my agency," says Ms. Schultz. "I'm immediately turned off." An original, but lackluster cover letter will likely generate the same reaction, she adds. "If it's boring, I don't want to meet you," she says.

Job hunters should further keep in mind that many employers use tracking software to store and share information about applicants and can therefore tell if someone submitted the same exact cover letter for more than one position.

And while mailing handwritten cover letters through the postal service may be a way to avoid this, recruiters say doing so is unlikely to win their favor anyway.

What's more, even sending a well-crafted note this way, rather than via email, also may not be wise since doing so prevents recruiters from forwarding it to other decision makers.

Wall Street Journal