A good cover letter, like a well-polished resume and some sterling professional references, is an important part of your job search toolkit. While they may not be as ubiquitous as they used to be, many businesses still ask for them so it’s wise to keep that cover letter writing muscle strong. For our latest Career Corner blog, we’ve put together some tips to help you craft a compelling cover letter.
Keep It Short
“Brevity is the soul of wit” holds true for many things; when it comes to cover letters, anything else is asking for trouble. You don’t want to write a cover letter that’s so dense with text it makes a hiring manager not want to read it. Writing a too-long cover letter also communicates an inability to edit on your part; even if it’s beautifully written, you don’t want somebody looking at your novelette of a cover letter and thinking “are their work emails going to be this long too?”
Three to four paragraphs should be all you need to craft a succinct message. A good cover letter shouldn’t be more than one page. Click here to view free sample cover letter templates.
Is Optional Really Optional?
Some employers will list “cover letters optional” under their application guidelines. Don’t overthink it: for the majority of hiring managers, this is not a test or trap. If they say it’s optional, it’s optional. That being said: you should take every opportunity to help make yourself standout, so adding an optional cover letter won’t hurt your chances. It displays your willingness to go the extra mile to future employers, and lets you show off your writing skills.
Adding an optional cover letter could also help be a “tiebreaker” if an employer is considering a few candidates for a position. They may not look at your cover letter early on in the process, but if they find themselves wanting to get more information about you to make a final decision, having a well-written and informative cover letter at the ready could put you over the other candidates who didn’t include one.
Mind Your Grammar
You wouldn’t show up to a job interview with mustard on your shirt. That’s what it looks like to employers when you send them a typo-ridden cover letter. Your cover letter is your first impression, and you don’t want to put a best foot forward that’s riddled with spelling errors and gaffes. Triple-check your spelling and punctuation. If you feel like your writing skills are shaky, there’s no shame in getting a second pair of eyes on it. Don’t just depend on spell-check programs: they can make mistakes too. Always double-check them; mindlessly approving their suggestions can end up coming back to bite you later.
“Downloading free software like Grammarly can make the difference between a stand-out cover letter and one that gets left unread,” said Carole Redden, Rio Salado Career Services Supervisor.
Don’t Just Sum Up Your Resume
A cover letter isn’t just a rehash of the bio and goals section of your resume. A good cover letter conveys information that you can’t put on a resume. First, it gives you a space to speak directly to a prospective employer about why their SPECIFIC organization is the right fit for you. The cover letter presents an opportunity to show that you’ve done your homework and put actual thought into why you want to work there.
Second, cover letters are a way for you to highlight aspects of your skill set and background that wouldn’t necessarily fit on your resume. If you have soft skills you want to highlight, bringing them up in the cover letter can be a way to emphasize character traits and professional skills that you can’t put down in a work history.
Unlock Opportunities With Keywords
There’s a delicate balance you want to strike with the language in your cover letter. On the one hand, you want to avoid cliches and refrain from using too many business buzzwords. These word choices can convey a lack of thought and imagination; their lack of specificity could make you seem interchangeable with other applicants.
On the other hand: you DO want to use keywords. You want to use keywords and phrases that will attract the attention of your employer. Keywords are also important because many businesses now pre- screen applications and cover letters with AI that are actively looking for certain keywords to green light or red flag candidates.
What are good keywords? They can vary from field to field, but a good rule of thumb is to use skills-based keywords. Use specific words and phrases that highlight your skill sets. Even more important: use keywords that highlight skills mentioned in the job posting! The job description can be a gold mine for keyword generation. Analyze it to see what they’re asking for, and see if you can include some of that language in an organic way in your cover letter.
Your Voice Matters
Using AI to write resumes and cover letters has grown in popularity. It isn’t considered a faux-pas to use these technologies to augment your job search writing, but you must be careful. Generative writing tends to be very generic and lacking in personality; it’s good for creating structures to work in, but often dull and unmemorable to read.
This is why using raw generative text for a cover letter is a bad idea. A cover letter is a chance for you to share your unique voice. It gives prospective employers some insight into who you are, how you communicate, and how you organize your thoughts. It opens a small window to display YOUR personality. If you’re going to use AI to augment your cover letter, it’s crucial that you revise and shape the language into your own voice. AI can also generate inaccurate information, so you need to be on the lookout for these textual “hallucinations” and correct them.
Article by Austin Brietta
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