7 Ways to
Make an Impact With Your Cover Letter
Job hunting
today is a tedious process due to high competition in the job market. But even
with so many applications; do you ever wonder why you never seem to receive
calls from employers? The success or failure in a job hunting process is
contingent upon the way one someone writes his or her cover letter.
Writing a good
cover letter is sometimes more important than writing a resume. I say this because
the bearing of the letter is definitely heavier than that of the resume. It is
the first thing that your prospective employers read about you. The assertiveness and the command of your
letter make them think twice before sending your portfolio to the paper
shredder.
Most recruiters
spend less than a 60 seconds going through your CV. Therefore, you have a very
limited amount of time to arouse enough curiosity (in the mind of the employer)
to warrant a look at your resume. A catchy cover letter is what drives the
hiring manager to go through your CV.
How do you
create a cover letter that employers find genuinely interesting?
1. Avoid verbosity – Don't use two words when one will
do, in short, avoid too many unnecessary verbs in your sentences. Remember you
have limited space to make an impact; therefore you need to choose your words
carefully.
2. Write to sell - Every word you use in your cover
letter needs to be focused on four things: the
position for which you are applying, the
organization in which you will work, your
ability to meet (and exceed) the needs of the employer as well as your desire to work for the company.
3. Be personable, professional and persuasive - Address your letter to
an individual (the contact person) and use the organization's name in the text
at least one time. If you do not have the name of a person to reference, use
the internet or the phone and find out who is handling that vacancy. Get
creative if you have to, but never use "To
Whom it May Concern".
4. Be relevant - Write anything that may be of
relevance to your desired and highlight capabilities that are important and
related to the job position you're applying for. Remember to match your accomplishments and
abilities with the needs of the company (specifically the expectations for the
open position).
5. Focus on your achievements and not on the tasks you
were assigned to perform.
Majority of people do the mistake of filling up their cover letters with all
the responsibilities they were assigned to work on which back fires them in the
interview sessions as the employers are interested in what you have
accomplished and not on what you were assigned to accomplish.
6. Let the employer know you want to work for them and
state specific reasons for your conclusion. Hopefully, you will have done enough
research about the organization to know why you would want to be a part of
their team.
7. Proofread. Check for any grammatical errors
before you send your cover letter. Nothing will work against you faster than a
misspelled word. In fact, that is often one of the first screening measures
taken in identifying which job candidates make it to the next level. If your
materials are not perfect, they may be the first to end up in the trash can.
