Learn how to write a cover letter that gets attention. (Photo Credit: CC BY-SA/Joel Gillman/Flickr)

In order to taste victory in the job market, you must convince a hiring manager that you can financially benefit the company and that you are likable, too. Before securing an interview, stating your case begins with a cover letter. Learn how to write a customized cover letter that emphasizes your unique qualifications to stay ahead of the game.

Don’t just send a resume

For the most part, resumes are a painful bore for employers. Names and jobs change, but the anonymity remains the same. The cover letter is an applicant’s chance to stand out from the herd and capture some interview time. Tailor your cover letter to the company in your sights, and your chances of receiving attention increase. It isn’t as hard as you think.

Changing names on the fly

Admittedly, resume blasts to large groups of companies within a desired field require a great deal of time if you plan to customize each cover letter from scratch. Thus, just changing names to suit the occasion can work, provided you’ve put thought into truly tailoring your language to match the requirements of the best companies within the chosen industry.

Ramp up the detail

A cover letter shouldn’t merely restate the objective or opening statement from your resume — perhaps it shouldn’t do that at all. Change the introduction, including pertinent details you’ve gleaned from your research of the target company. Point out how your work has increased efficiency, “dollarizing” your worth whenever possible. Once your cover letter packs that extra punch, you can flow in bullets regarding your skill set to sell yourself.

Use the best bullets your career can provide

Bullet points are visually convenient for quick reference. An HR staff member or hiring manager can scan your skills and experience to see if it matches up with what the company needs. Address specific requirements laid out in the job ad for the position, but don’t parrot them back exactly. Artful manipulation of language is key. Along the way, use spell check and as many human proofreaders as you can find before clicking send.

Throw the boomerang

Marketing guru Jeffrey Fox wrote a book entitled “Don’t Send a Resume: And Other Contrarian Rules to Help Land a Great Job.” The book is an invaluable resource for any job seeker, plus it’s short and cheap. When it comes to cover letters, Fox prefers the “boomerang” letter as a response to job ads more than the cookie-cutter resume and cover letter. Not merely an arrow that points to your resume, a boomerang letter is a sales letter that gives a prospective employer a snapshot of your skills and ambitions as they relate to generating money for the company. And like any good sales letter, the high point of a boomerang letter is the point where you assertively ask for the job.

Skip the HR department after the cover letter is sent

Sources

“Don’t Send a Resume: And Other Contrarian Rules to Help Land a Great Job”

eHow

Job Finder Advisory

Quintessential Careers

Image from greyhoundsinseattle.blogspot.com.

I hate to say it, but if you are trying to get a job right now, you are up against stiff competition. Although the economy has shown signs of improvement, unemployment is stable at best and in many states increasing. It is definitely an employer’s market out there right now. Employers have plenty of choices now — many of whom are over-qualified but willing to work for lower wages than usual.

So if you are looking for a job right now, you must find ways to make yourself stand out. Your cover letter is your first chance to make an impression on your potential future employer, and you know what they say about first impressions. Make sure your cover letter is quick but killer by using these five tips.

1. Give examples to back up your claims

You can list off your “positive attributes” all you want, but unless you give examples of your “strong communication skills” or “excellent leadership abilities,” the cover letter reader has no reason to believe you. You wouldn’t believe that a payday lender had the best personal loan rates until you actually saw their rates, would you?

Use real life examples to show your skills, but make sure you keep it brief. Pick two or three of your best skills to focus on, and then keep your examples to one or two sentences. That brings me to my next tip.

2. Keep it Short

More people in the job market means more cover letters to read. Keep your cover letter to one page to ensure that the potential employer reads the whole thing. The best cover letters are four paragraphs. As you already know, one of those paragraphs should be examples of your strongest skills. One paragraph should also address the employer directly and address the exact specifications the company is seeking.

3. Keep it 50-50

In fact, your cover letter should be just as much about the employer as it is about you. Include what you know and like about the company and why you want to work for that company based on what it does. If you can directly quote the qualifications the employer is looking for and then give real-life examples to show that you have those qualifications, that’s ideal.

Don’t include things about yourself that have nothing to do with the employer’s needs. If the employer is looking for a good writer, don’t waste his or her time talking about your college scores in calculus.

4. Edit, edit, edit

Not only does it make you look uneducated when you make spelling, grammar or punctuation errors in your cover letter, it makes the employer think that you are careless and unmotivated. Anyone who doesn’t even bother to edit their cover letter for mistakes or ask someone with more grammar knowledge to edit it for them doesn’t come across as being very serious about the job.

Everyone has a friend or family member who is good with grammar and punctuation and, you know, words. Even if the job you are applying for doesn’t require writing, a perfectly spelled and punctuated, grammatically correct letter will show that you are serious.

5. Formal business letter format

It’s very important to use formal, business-letter format in your cover letter. Remember when you learned that format in high school? Remember to not indent paragraphs, and instead leave a line space between each paragraph. You should start off with the recipient’s (employer’s) company name and address, then put the date you wrote or sent your letter, then your own contact information including mailing address, e-mail and phone number.