Cover Letter Writing

What Are the Qualities of a Good Cover Letter? Reasons Why you Should Never Ignore your Cover Letter

Ever wish to have a pre-interview conversation with the recruiter before they start judging your CV? A conversation where you can make them understand why they should call you for the interview. And how you are fully eligible for it. Well, this is the job of your cover letter. Yeah, you read it right! Your Cover Letter. It is a document in which you justify your talents and skills that are good enough to be called for the job interview.

The cover letter generally gives a  brief overview of your qualification, experience and your personality to the recruiter. It should be good enough to compel the recruiter in saying ‘YES, HE’S THE ONE’?

You are probably confused as to what should a good cover letter include, right?

Well, no worries! we have heard your wish and we are here to clear all your confusions. Keep on reading to understand the reasons why you should never ignore your cover letter.

Why try to fit in; when you can stand out?

We know you have been ditching the idea of cover letter altogether because you believe it requires too much effort to write and besides it is not even compulsory. But think like this, if in the sea of hundreds of applicants, you are the only one with a personalized cover letter wouldn’t it grab the hiring manager or recruiter`s attention? Not only that but it will also indicate how serious you are about this job and you are willing to go an extra mile for it.

Just imagine, you receive a hand-woven sweater as a gift. Instead of purchasing it from the store, the person put effort and went out of its way to impress you. This will definitely be extra special to you because of just this thought of someone taking out time and putting in efforts for you.

A cover letter works in exactly the same way as it demonstrates your seriousness and interest in the job. While some jobs may keep the requirement optional, in most cases the recruiter sees a red flag in the absence of a cover letter as it signals laziness and laid-back attitude.

Did you know? 49% of the employers expect a cover letter and consider them in their decision to hire by reading the letter before going through the CV.

Paint a picture of your story:

Your cover letter gives the recruiter an insight of you, reaching your personality beyond what your CV reaches. It allows you to introduce yourself, your skills and basically lets you narrate your story. Here you can highlight your achievements, relevant skills that can be useful for the job, your awards, and your experience that is perfectly suitable for the role. This will keep the recruiter engaged in your application instead of other candidates. Through your cover letter, you can actually talk to the recruiter and reiterate your value as a candidate making him/her psyched up to meet you in person.

This is a golden opportunity for you to communicate with your employer about your unique selling point. You have to convince them that you possess the skills required for the position, how you will add value to the company and how you will deal with problems the company may face as listed in the job description.

Now, what common mistake people make here is that they just copy-paste their CV data. You should never do it. Because we want you to tell a tale of all your achievements, skills and expertise. We do not want you to just list your skills but to show them how good you are at utilizing them. For example, if a company requires an effective trainer, you can give an account of one of your pieces of training which increased the staff productivity by 40%. This will make you stand out and tell the employer that you are different from all the other candidates.

Address concerns:

Go back to your CV and find any loopholes or any areas that might raise concern for the employer. You can address those concerns here such as the gaps in your employment or why have you been switching quickly from your previous firms. These are the kind of questions that might lead the recruiter to assume that you are a quick switcher and might as well not stay for the long term in their organization. But if that’s not the case for you and you have a genuine reason you can address it here.

You can also mention if you are being referred by someone or are in contact with any of the current employees of the company. This will create a connection and the recruiter can take feedback from them about you. Other than that, you can talk about potential relocation if you are up for it, mentioning it here is a good idea than waiting for the interview. Now that you are convinced to write a cover letter, let’s jump into the qualities your cover letter should possess to impress the hiring manager or recruiter.

Research, Research & Research:

Before applying to any company, you should research it well so you know what you are getting yourself into. Spend some time at the company’s website, research its team member to find out the company’s culture and values. This will also give you an idea of the key challenges if any that they face, and their future goals. This will help you in your cover letter.

Headline:

A few words that grab the attention of the recruiter and drags them to keep on reading. Keep in mind, the recruiter does not have much time on hand, hence they skim through first and then decide if they want to read in detail. It’s the snappy headline that hooks them up. Look up at what the recruiter is looking for, do they want someone with 5+ years of experience or someone with proficient skill. This will be your headline. For example, ‘An IT Professional with 10 years of experience’.

Address directly:

Since you are writing a personalized cover letter that means the cover letter should not generic which can be sent to any company instead it is supposed to be addressed to the hiring manager directly. In order to directly address someone, you should know their name and generics like ‘To Whom it may concern’ or ‘Dear Sir/Madam’ should be avoided. This is where your research comes in handy.

Go to LinkedIn and find out who the recruiting manager of the company is. However, if you still cannot discover, you can aim for something that is still somewhat specific such as ‘Dear Marketing Department Hiring Manager’. Make sure you keep it concise, capitalize it, and avoid clichés such as hardworking, dedicated, etc.

Introduction:

Start off by informing the recruiter about the position you are applying for. Now the common monotone way is ‘I am applying for the communications manager position’. But our goal is to write a cover letter with a gist of our personality so that the employer knows us even before the interview. You can do this by showing excitement for the position you are applying for. This can be done in several ways:

1. You can talk about what intrigued you to apply for this position for example, ‘I was excited to apply for the communications manager position in your company because of the newly introduced XYZ has been important to me’.
2. Or by mentioning a reference. This will grab the hiring manager’s attention and he will give your application a little more attention and focus since you are a known person and there is a mutual connection that increases reliability.
3. Starting with an extra-ordinary accomplishment will catch the employer’s attention. For example, “‘The Best graphic designer in the city’ award makes me a perfectly suitable person for the designing manager in your company”. This works as a validation of why you are the best out of all the other candidates and helps you stand out from the crowd.

Body:

This is the most crucial part of the cover letter. After you have gained the employer’s attention enough and made him sit up straight and read the letter with focus, the employer expects some real deal here as your introduction so far has made you seem like a potential candidate. His expectation bar is high and you better buckle up and follow our guidelines. Divide your body into 2-3 short paragraphs. Each paragraph will contain one of the most important requirements of the job description and how you do justice to it.

So, the formula is keyword–a story that justifies that you actually own that quality—how you plan to implement it in your new organization. Use the research here and tell how you will solve the problems the company faces and how you align the company’s goals with your own. Remember the CV is a list of the history of your work life, the cover letter tells the employer how you will connect these experiences and knowledge in your new workplace and how you will benefit the organization.

Keep it short:

The employers are busy people they do not have much time so keep the letter concise and to the point and not more than one page long. Do not beat around the bush and do not brag this might create a bad impression. Keep ‘I am the only best’ attitude aside and humble yourself. While you need to sound confident about your work you might not want to sound over-confident.

Give A Compliment:

You have to give a compliment to the company but keep in mind where to draw the line. While mentioning one or two ideas that you really admire about the company are fine, flattery works totally against you. Keep in check that your entire cover letter should not be about how much you like the company and what you will learn there, instead talk about how you will benefit them.

Do not discuss weaknesses:

While you might lack experience or some skills, you do not have to mention that. Yes, you do not have to brag about yourself but also you do not have to show your weakness too. You should mention your transferrable skills and how you can easily fit in new environments. While your teaching experience might not be related to Human Resource, it might have helped you gain some motivation techniques you can use to motivate your employees.

Ending:

This is the end of your cover letter so you have to use this as a reminder for them of your importance to the company. For example, “I am sure I’d be able to use my knowledge and work towards the development of the organization”. And sign off by providing your contact info such as phone number or email address so the recruiter finds no difficulty in contacting you if they are impressed.

Hope we were able to serve you well, always there for your service.

Regards,

CV Editors