As a continuation to yesterdays’ post “cover letter – do you need one?“, it would be remiss of me not to include what a good cover letter should be.
Stephanie Tate says about a cover letter (in response to Guy Kawasaki’s recent cover letter).
“The point of the cover email is to catch the attention of the “recruiter” and make me want to read further. It should call out items of interest that would otherwise not be covered in the resume.”
Here’s my distilled list of 10 tips.
- Always sent with a resume. – See yesterdays post and Heather’s comment. (thanks Heather)
- Customized for each opportunity. – Each company and position is different. Your cover letter should be too.
- Friendly, positive and not too formal. – Show a little of your personality.
- Clear, concise and well written. – Not too long, and very easy to read (help the reader quickly find what you want them to read).
- Include the reason for writing. – The reader needs to know which position you’re interensted in, just in case they have more than one (hundreds) open position.
- Highlight one or two skills and experiences. – Go ahead, tell them what you’re really good at.
- Focus on the needs of the employer. – It’s all about what you can do for them.
- Error Free. – Get rid of all typos and poor grammar, check, check again, check yet again, give it to someone else to check and check again.
- Addressed to a specific individual when you know their name. – “To whom it may concern” is how junk mail starts, don’t let your cover letter and resume get trashed
- Include an action at the end. – An action you will take to follow up. Show how keen, interested and pro-active you are.
Some useful links:
Some do’s and dont’s from Career Builder
Mosters 10 tips
And as always Quintessential Careers has more great advice “than you can shake a stick at”
