One day you woke up and decided to find a new job. After searching, you saw “the one” - a job posting which had everything you ever dreamed of: the description matched your qualifications, and provided a high salary with great benefits. You felt so happy. But then, you saw something terrible at the bottom: “Please submit your resume and COVER LETTER.” Believe it or not, you gave up on it right away. Ok NO JUDGEMENT here, because I understand that feeling, I used to be that person.
Writing a cover letter is difficult, especially when you have never written it before. However, if you know the template, trust me, it doesn’t take you more than 20 minutes to write a good one. Are you ready to learn my secrets? Let’s dive in.
How to write a cover letter
Heading
It’s important to start a cover letter with your Contact Information, which includes:
Full Name
Phone Number
Email
Postal Address
LinkedIn profile (optional)
Then you need to list the name and position of your employer, as well as their organization and address. And finally, don’t forget to include the date that you write the cover letter.
Greeting
This is where things can go wrong. You should never use generic salutations such as “To whom it may concern” or “Dear Sir/Madam.” Why? Because it showed that you didn’t make an effort to research the organization to identify who their employers are. Moreover, your cover letter will look like it was written for any organization, not only for this specific organization.
I know that sometimes the job posting will not clarify their contact info enough for us to know who we should address to. So what should we do? Here is my secret: searching the company’s name on LinkedIn and then click on the People category to find the employer’s information.
Tips: In the worst-case scenario, if you still can’t find the name (even you have tried your best), “Dear Hiring Manager” can be used instead.
Introduction paragraph
First impressions matter, so it’s crucial to write catchy and killer opening lines.
Introducing yourself
Writing about one of your top achievements that relate to the job position.
Example: In my role as a Social Media Team Leader in Company XYZ, I led my team to execute my social media plan for promoting their event, and ultimately, we reached our sales target for tickets and increased the number of our social media fans by 20%.
Reason for writing
One Career Advisor in my college used to say, “You should write your cover letter as a love letter.” Therefore, you should never think about writing something like “I applied for your job because of the high salary/I’m unemployed” (even if it’s true). Similar to a love letter, I’m sure that you will never write something such as, “I want to date you because I’m single and lonely,” instead, you want to drop something like “I want to date you because your smile captivated my heart.” In job applications, it’s crucial to explain why you want to apply for this job by identifying key information relating to this company’s values or initiatives that you are personally interested in and align with.
Body paragraphs
Academic Qualifications
You should provide key learning outcomes or skills developed during your studies that are relevant to the job. If you are a newly graduated student, it’s crucial to invest in this part since you don’t have working experience yet. Some examples include:
Team-work
Communication skills
Problem-solving
Relevant experiences
Again, I can’t highlight this more: the experiences that you choose to mention in your cover letter should be RELEVANT and VALUABLE for the employer. Based on their job description, you should choose one or two past working experiences that showcase your abilities to perform the job if they hire you.
Tips: By using the STAR technique (Situation, Task, Action, Result), your work experience will be more appealing in the recruiter’s eyes.
Situation: Describe the context within which you performed a job.
Task: Outline your responsibility in that situation.
Action: Explain how you completed the task.
Result: Showcase the outcomes or results.
Strengths and Skills
It’s important to include the skills that the organization mention in their job posting.
Tips: You can use bullet points instead of paragraphs to make your skills stand out.
Closing paragraph
Finish it strong. Don’t just treat the final lines of your cover letter as a throwaway, such as, “I look forward to hearing from you.” Instead, your closing paragraph should emphasize how you’d be a great fit for the position and the organization. Moreover, you can show your interest in the organization by saying something like, “I’m passionate about your company’s mission and would love to bring my knowledge and skills to this position.” Finally, don’t forget to say thank you to the reader and company for their time and consideration, inviting them to interview you.
Common mistakes
“Longer is better!”
A cover letter should only be a one-page document with 4 or 5 paragraphs. According to Novoresume, your cover letter should be from 250 to 400 words long. So keep it short but to the point. And the most important thing is, focus on how you can benefit the company rather than writing about how the company can benefit you.
“Writing a cover letter is similar to a resume regarding the content. Just change the format and it should be good to go.”
It’s important to note that a cover letter is not a replica of the resume; it details key content from the resume, as well as explaining how you will be a good fit for the company and showing your interest in what they do.
“Not checking your cover letter before sending it.”
No matter how good your cover letter is, if the recruiter found even one grammatical or spelling error, your cover letter could be rejected without mercy. One time, my friend sent her cover letter to a company and later realized that she typed the recruiter’s name wrong. She didn’t get the interview (for sure), but she learned her lesson. Therefore, make sure to check it carefully before sending it because you never know what can go wrong in your cover letter. Better safe than sorry :)
Tips: You can use Grammarly to detect your grammar and punctuation mistakes for free.
Need some inspiration? You can download my cover letter as an example to start with.
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