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How to Write A Successful Cover Letter

About 38% of job candidates consider cover letters to be insignificant. Those that do may rehash their resume in narrative form and call it a day. This can be a costly mistake.

Why? This is what employers think of cover letters:

  • Fifty-six percent of employers want applicants to send cover letters.
  • Fifty-three percent of employers think that a resume alone is not enough when applying for a job (be it an internship, full-time, or part-time job).
  • Forty-nine percent of HR managers consider a cover letter to be the second-best thing to give a resume a boost.

A cover letter introduces you to your prospective employers. Where a resume is all hard facts and figures, a cover letter humanizes you. It also builds the employer’s interest after they learn about the skills in your resume. A great cover letter shows how your key strengths and unique experiences meet the job requirements. It connects your abilities and knowledge with employer needs.

On that note, first ensure your resume is bound to wow recruiters and even double your salary by using my two-page, annotated resume cheat sheet. It breaks down exactly how a marketing manager was able to double the initial offer they received. You can get your own copy by submitting your information right here:

 

If twenty-six percent of recruiters read cover letters and consider them to be an important factor in their hiring process, why not optimize your application for those readers? Especially, if you can do so within an hour by following the steps outlined here?

Great Cover Letter Example

The cover letter has four parts:

1. Header

A cover letter’s header is the top three to four lines of the document. Avoid using Microsoft Word's header section to create this part, however, as some applicant tracking systems cannot process text written there.

In this prime real estate, you want to include your most important information. This includes the following:

  • Your name and contact information.
  • A branding statement, which is a one-line summary describing the value you bring to the table. You can read the target job description for inspiration to write this part.
  • Your key, most relevant skills. Compare your skills with the jobs that you're interested in. What overlaps do you see? Add those to your cover letter like I did in the bolded line in the example below.

Here is an example of my fictitious client, "Sherlock Holmes", a national sales manager. He wanted to highlight his accounts management and team leadership skills. This is how I made his header:

2. Introduction

The introduction of the cover letter should draw the reader in. It should be interesting, relevant, and unique. Meanwhile, it should address the employer's main hiring need.

You have to sell yourself by convincing the employers that "this person can help me solve the business problems that I'm facing right now!"

You can identify this need by analyzing the job listing. Most job listings hint at or clearly state the employer's needs. Once you have identified this need, add it to the introduction.

While writing your cover letter introduction, you can use one of the following templates:

a. If you already have some experience with this field.

You can speak to the employer's hiring need by using the following template:

“Now, more than ever, good companies need (industry) professionals who (have achieved pertinent successes/accomplishments). My experience as a (target position) speaks for itself:”

Here’s an example of this cover letter template in action:

Now, more than ever, good organizations need business intelligence experts who drive business growth by delivering data-driven operational insights to enable informed decision making. My record as a BI Engineer speaks for itself:

Sherlock was targeting a traditional company. Here is how I wrote his introduction:

b. If someone referred you for this role.

You can use the following cover letter template to write the introduction if you have a reference.

To learn how to get referred to jobs, check out my networking tutorial here.

Here's this cover letter template in action:

Jane Doe mentioned you were looking for new talent for your new procurement project. My 6-year experience as a procurement specialist allows me to build partnerships that can be leveraged towards cost benefits. Most recently, at CareerTuners, where I worked with Jane Doe, I negotiated a 15% reduction in cost without a drop in quality. Here are a few other examples of my procurement wins:

c. If you'd like to shine the light on your personality

If you are targeting non-traditional industries, such as sales, where candidates are expected to use their personality to close sales, you can appeal to the passion of the reader.  

For example, if you are applying for a job in a start-up, you can highlight your entrepreneurial spirit and drive:

Eight years ago, while I was still a"green" college kid, I started my career in sales. I went door-to-door selling vacuums (and wore out two pairs of shoes in one year!) Today, I sell high-margin technology solutions to Fortune 2000 companies (and rack up more than 6,000 sky miles each month). My sales manager has elevated me to “gold” status based on performance as the #1 sales producer on an 8-member team of experienced sales engineers. Since then, I’ve helped organizations achieve the following:

If you are an executive, you can share your personal philosophy on how you meet employer needs: 

As a CEO, I believe an organization’s success is predicated on several factors, one of which is a talented management team. I am certain that my skill set in nurturing a powerful executive team will be of value to you:

3. Success Stories

Cover letters should not be longer than one page. This gives us a limited amount of space to work in. To maximize this space, I recommend showcasing three "success stories" from your career history.

A success story describes a challenge that you solved for your employer, all the hard and soft skills you used to solve it, and how you made things better. Success stories also include all the minor details we omit in the resume. It is, as the name implies, a whole story.

Success stories are important because you show the employer how you can use your skills to solve their most pressing problems.

When working on your story, keep the target job in mind during this selection process. What skills align most with the job titles you're interested in?

How to Select Success Stories for Your Cover Letter

There are three ways to select success stories for your cover letter:

i. Describe a major challenge that you resolved.

Were you asked to resolve any specific problem or challenge? Did you identify any big hurdles when you took over a role? As an employee, we identify and solve problems every day. Showing them off as success stories can help you look like an invaluable asset to any company.

Here's a part of a great cover letter example explaining the challenges that my client resolved:

I build high-volume claims management capabilities: In less than two years, our homeowner’s insurance division received an influx of catastrophe claims from three major events (with 5000+ claims each, including a significant volume of large/total loss claims). To manage these drastic and spontaneous bumps in claims inventory, I strategically reallocated workload to junior staff and underutilized workforce personnel from other divisions. As a result, we managed 7.5 years of total loss claims in about a year, without any additional permanent resources.

ii. Mention track record of achievements

Sometimes the proof of accomplishments might not be limited to one instance. Instead, you might have done something awesome consistently throughout your career history. Showing that you have a track record of leveraging a certain skill or achieving a certain result is a great way to build credibility:

I elevate IT operations. I have a track record of improving an organization’s IT processes. While working at Johnson & Johnson, I elevated the IT department’s performance by leading a shift to AWS, introducing time-saving software solutions, and eliminating redundant apps. Similarly, I helped P&G prevent a $200K expenditure by guiding the transformation of their outdated data centers. I also helped many small-to-medium-sized clients at KLO Consultants strengthen their technical operations by providing strategic advice on system security, data back-up, and database administration.

iii. Build on your knowledge

If you're starting a career anew, you can demonstrate how your degree, certificate, or other educational programs help you resolve specific issues. You can show that you have a strong knowledge foundation that is ready to be leveraged:

I help executive boards make data-driven decisions: I leverage my data science nanodegree to analyze and visualize KPI data in projects to provide action-oriented analyses. Moreover, I aggregate and present information from various programmatic sources for monthly and quarterly reporting. I also ensure data analysis and visualization tools are in line with the company’s evolving business intelligence needs by evaluating cutting-edge technology and its implications to our processes.

Did you note that the opening part of each example was bolded?

These are extensions of the buying motivator you have written in your introduction. These headings prove at a glance, even without reading the success stories, how you fulfill the needs of your potential employers. It’s an easy-to-implement visual cue to draw the recruiter’s attention to the value you bring.

Below are the success stories I chose to highlight for Sherlock's cover letter. Note the variety of skills that are being shown through each success story.

If you’re struggling to identify your success stories or writing them in words, fill the form below for a free, detailed critique.

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4. Conclusion

The ending of the cover letter should have two things:

  • A round-up of your strengths. The best cover letters end with a strong reminder of your strengths. They hammer home why the recruiter should call you and not someone else.
  • What steps do you want your interviewer to take next?

Here is an example:

I attribute my success to three factors: defining strategic IT direction, planning and rolling out cutting-edge operational solutions, and leading continuous system improvement. By combining these elements, I revolutionize technology service operations, drive productive stakeholder relationships, and produce business results that exceed expectations on all levels. I look forward to talking with you to discuss how I can use my IT service management and leadership skills to help CareerTuners reach new heights of business success.

See how strong this closing is? You are talking about what makes you successful, what impact you made on the company, and a subtle promise that you can use these skills to help your new employer grow!

If you’re curious about Sherlock, his cover letter closed like this:

Don’ts of Writing a Cover Letter:

Before I wrap up, I also want to share some important "don’t’s" of writing a cover letter.

  • Don’t go beyond one page.
  • If you're really keen on one specific job, don’t send your cover letter to an unnamed recipient. Use LinkedIn to find out who your manager would be if you were working at this company and add their name.
  • Don’t talk in a third-person. A cover letter should maintain a conversation style as you share your success stories.
  • Don’t overuse self-praising adjectives. Show, don't tell.
  • Don’t use unusual fonts or heavy formatting. This may make reading your cover letter difficult. Especially, if the reader is using a different platform than the one you used to put the letter together.
  • Don’t skip white space. Use white space to create visual "breaks" and to emphasize key points.

For more information on drafting the perfect cover letter, check out these links:

 

If you are struggling to write a professional cover letter and need help, then invest in our cover letter writing services where our subject-matter expert will craft a cover letter based on your target job requirements.

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