7 Elements Of A Highly Effective Cover Letter

Part of solving the cover letter mystery is understanding the purpose of the cover letter. Its purpose is to land you a job interview. By placing all of your efforts into the perfect resume and then throwing together a plain old cover letter you are sabotaging your resume by landing it into the trash can. Prospective employers pay close attention to how a cover letter is put together. If the cover letter does not grab their attention then they are not going to even mess with looking at your resume. This also do not land you a job interview.

How to properly write an attention grabbing cover letter seems to elude many job seekers. Cover letters start to appear to be a mystery to most who are trying to write an attention grabbing cover letter. Solving the cover letter mystery though is really not as hard as it seems. All job seeker needs to do is put a little thought and time into writing their cover letter.

One area where cover letters become a mystery is in how to address a cover letter. You should not address a cover letter in an impersonal way to where it resembles a piece of junk mail. Impersonal is when you address your cover letter ‘dear sir/madam’ or ‘to whom it may concern’. An attention grabbing cover letter should be addressed to a specific person. If you do not know the person’s name then call the company and ask. This will give you an edge over the countless other applicants that addressed their cover letters in an impersonal way.

Another mystery surrounding cover letters seems to be how long the cover letter should be. Many job seekers seem to think that the more they add to their cover letter the better. This is the wrong way to approach a cover letter. A cover letter should never be more than one page long. Prospective employers have dozens of applicants’ cover letters and resumes coming across their desk. They are busy trying to get through all the applicants. With how busy they are they do not have time to read a long winded cover letter. It the cover letter is to long to read completely most prospective employers will file your resume with all the other long winded cover letters, right into to the trash can.

Next comes what you should tell the prospective employer about yourself. You should briefly but clearly point out what it is about you that will fill their hiring needs. Tell them about your qualifications and skills that are pertinent to the position in which you are applying. Remember to keep this area brief, the prospective employer should not have to work hard to see that you are right for the position. If need be incorporate the use of bullets in this section. By using bullets you will allow the prospective employer to be able to quickly scan your qualifications and skill and see that you are fit for the position.

Follow this by telling the prospective employer briefly in one paragraph what it is about the company that you like and why you would like to work there. This offers a compliment to the prospective employer and shows that you have done your research and are familiar with the company.

Another mystery of an attention grabbing cover letter is the use of assertiveness. Most job seekers do not realize that they must be assertive within their cover letter. Your cover letter is designed from beginning to end to get you an interview. When you end your cover letter in a passive way you are allowing for the prospective employer to pass you over. So make sure to end your cover letter in an assertive way. Ask at the end of your cover letter for an interview. Inform the prospective employer in this section of your cover letter that you will be contacting them on a certain date to schedule a time for an interview. This will show the prospective employer that you are serious about the position in which you are applying for.

Solving the cover letter mystery is in itself fairly easy. As you can see with the above areas when you take the time to address the specific needs of the prospective employer, you have thus written an attention grabbing, interview getting cover letter.

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