Writing Without Tears: Crafting Effective Cover Letters
Everyone has their own Achilles’ heel when it comes to the job search. For some it’s interviewing and for others: cover letters. It can be daunting to sit in front of a blank document and figure out how to summarize your qualifications and passions in a succinct and effective way. This is why today, Career Maven is bringing you some strong tips to help you craft an effective cover letter with less frustration and more enthusiasm for the process.
Personalize the Letter
There are few faux pas’ more worn out than sending in a stock cover letter. We know it can be tempting to copy and paste with just a change of the company name and role title, but that’s a quick and easy way to get your entire application skipper over. So instead of sending out a mass letter to every job, take the time to customize each letter you send out to potential employers. If you’re worried about making sure your resume holds up among the others, check out this quick guide.
Just because your cover letter needs to be personal, doesn’t mean it needs to be complicated. Two simple ways to help your resume stand out are to find the hiring manager’s name and address the letter personally, and to specify what drew you to the company. Even if you begin with a template, these points will help you to expand upon each letter individually so that you can craft something that shows why you and the company are both special.
Go Beyond Your Resume
Another important aspect of writing a cover letter is to make sure it stands apart from your resume. It’s a common snag that job applicants hit to simply repeat everything that is on their resume in the letter. But instead of just turning those bullet points into short sentences, take advantage of the cover letter to expand upon the highlights of your resume in order to avoid being redundant. Think about how you might explain the job succinctly to someone asking you for a brief synopsis of your role, or how your personality and passion aligned to make you successful in that role. This will turn your cover letter from a mere summary of responsibilities into a story about you and your career journey, something that will be more likely to keep a hiring manager’s attention throughout.
Showcase Skills Over Education
Sometimes the title on your past experience doesn’t exactly show off how you may have developed the skills needed for the current position on the table. This can feel especially true for recent grads who may have yet to hold a job in their field of interest. But this doesn’t mean that you have to rely solely on your classroom education or panic about feeling out of your depth when it comes to showing that you’re a solid match for the job. Focus on pulling out the skills that you have attained in all facets of your background, whether that may be internships, volunteer work, or projects you took on that may have been out of your former job description.
In the same vein, avoid drawing attention to experience you feel you are missing. There’s no need to highlight the things you have yet to do, instead focus on the transferable skills you know you have. These are great gateways that can bridge the gap between your former position and potential new one, especially if some of those skills are soft skills, like adaptability or emotional intelligence.
Don’t Forget to Edit
This is arguably the most important step! Once you have finished your cover letter, step away for some time and return to it with fresh eyes. If you can, have someone you trust read it for you. You want to review it for grammar and typos, but also for general readability. If your letter is repetitive or overly verbose you may not notice it, but a stranger likely will. You want your cover letter to be an accurate and flattering representation of you, so avoid getting tripped up by little things like the difference between two, too, and to. After all, once you’ve implemented these tips, you’ll be writing cover letters left and right like a Career Maven pro!
Are you interested in more in-depth coaching when it comes to landing the job you want? Apply for the Career Maven Academy today and join a community of women working to level up in their career journey.