Find Employment/Cover Letters

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The Cover Letter

A cover letter is sent with a résumé or application form, as a way of introducing yourself to prospective employers. As with your résumé, it may be helpful to look for examples on the Internet or in books at your local library or bookstore, but be sure not to copy letters directly from other sources. Your cover letter should be original, capture the employer's attention, follow a business letter format, and usually should include the following information:

Name and address of the specific person to whom the letter is addressed.
Reason for your interest in the company or position.
Your main qualifications for the position.
Request for an interview.
Your home and work telephone numbers.

If you send a scannable résumé, you should also include a scannable cover letter, which is created similarly to a scannable résumé, by avoiding graphics, fancy fonts, italics, and underlines.

Different employers use cover letters in different manners. It is quite common for an employer to first sort through a stack of applicants by reading the résumé and making sure potential employees have the correct qualifications, and after filtering out non-qualified applicants, to then read the cover letters to determine who will get interviews.

Content

In essence, the cover letter says all the things that the résumé can't (or shouldn't) say. The cover letter also provides a forum for discussing some of the issues that are present on your resume. For instance a cover letter allows you to address:

Prolonged period of missing time in your work history
Connecting items listed on your resume that may look unrelated to the job at hand (transferable skills)
A deep passion or dream you have of working in the field you are applying for
Other selling points that are not addressed well in the résumé

Opportunity

The cover letter also is a good opportunity to request an interview, and mention that you will be making a follow-up telephone call (and you will make this call, if you want the job).

Style of the Letter

The letter should augment information that cannot be deduced from the attachments. A cover letter creates a “bridge” between credentials and the vacancy. Therefore the cover letter never repeats any hard facts that can easily be obtained from other documents unless they are paired with supplemental information.

Register

The résumé is a listing of (buzz‑)words and partial phrases suitable for quick scanning, but the cover letter must be a formal, business‐style letter. You can tone it down a bit if the company uses a very informal style, too, but do not get too cozy. Contractions like it’d are still taboo.

Structure

The cover letter is broken up into short paragraphs. Each paragraph is associated with a purpose. The paragraphs are meant to form an “arc” between

recruiter assessing your application, and
recruiter inviting you to the next stage (job interview, appointment at assessment center).

Here are two “recipes” that are by no means set in stone.

An unsolicited application may warrant a brief introduction as to why you are writing, so a blueprint may look like this:

Establish a relationship to the recipient (and his company). Some possible points of contact are:
- user of products produced by company
- company’s booth at trade fair
- you read an article (authored by an employee) published in specialist publication
- you made a “are you hiring” phone call
Express intent. Sketch the prospect of “intensifying” this existing relationship. What kind of position do you have in mind? Outline how your future relationship will look like, especially what the employer’s benefits are. Follow the less is more principle: You need to spark an interest, while still maintaining some “mystery” so do not give it all away.
Make a deal. Suggest a “date” (i. e. interview) and supply the technical details: Clarify your availability, and point out you will provide a full dossier.

A solicited application that is clearly marked as such (via a subject line) usually adopts a different style. The AIDA – attention, interest, desire, action – pattern known from marketing can serve as a blueprint:

“Woo” your recipient and start with a big bang. You do not want to lose the recipient’s attention, so put your unique selling propositions right in the first sentence. You have a signature ability, whimsical interest, or unconventional quality? You may hold your horses on extremes, but a strong statement can set the mood for what is to come.
Maintain interest and tell a story if you can. This is edutainment: On the one hand you still convey useful information, on the other hand it is packaged as a moderately captivating story. What events in your life led you to your career path? Increase desire by highlighting how the employer could benefit from your unique story, your life experience.
Now it is time for action: Be a little bit pretentious and presume the recruiter is about to invite you. Be assertive and say “Yes! I’m looking forward to our meeting.” instead of the tentative “I’d be glad if we met.”

Again, these are suggestions. Creating an abstract paragraph layout first may, however, counter a writer’s block. If you do not know what to write, remember the paragraph’s purpose.

In some circumstances a proper cover letter may be even harmful and should therefore consist of a single boring paragraph. Appearing like an intellectual making an effort at obtaining a position in scrubbing toilets or other menial tasks does not bond well.

Grammar

The letter should contain well‐formed sentences and you should check and double‐check your spelling. Running spell‐check is not enough for this letter, because the spell‐check will not pick up some errors such as they’re vs. their vs. there. It is generally considered a good idea to use the active voice (as opposed to the passive voice).

Wording

Especially people who have received substantial college or university education tend to write long sentences containing deeply nested clauses. This requires careful reading, a condition not necessarily met upon the initial quick assessment. Many resources recommend that sentences be kept short and direct, for example use 12 words or so, at maximum.