Jeremy Johnson has a follow-up guest blog post this week with great tips on how you can structure your cover letter.
Jeremy is a recruiter in Kansas City for EHD Technologies, a recruiting, staffing and managed services company serving the IT, Engineering and Automotive industries.
You can also follow him on Twitter at jsquaredkc
Structuring Your Cover Letter
I last wrote that if you’re going to the trouble of writing a cover letter, you have to customize it. It should be targeted and specific. It’s important because, as a recruiter, I have way too much incentive to pass over candidates rather than engage with them just for the sheer volume of resumes and job applications I see.
Ok, great. You’re committed to tailoring your cover letter. So, now what? What does that actually look like?
This time, I wanted to go into a bit more detail on what you should actually include in the cover letter and why – from your overall approach to what to include in each paragraph. Here we go!
1) Make it concise – This isn’t a thesis or a novel. It’s a tool to get your audience’s attention as to why it’s in their best interest to give your resume more than a cursory glance. If you’re a really, REALLY good writer or storyteller, you might be able to get away with it going over one page. For most mere mortals, though, keep it to less than one page. Remember, you’re audience has the attention span of a brain-dead gnat (yes, including myself). Don’t bore us. Get to the point.
2) Inject a little personality – Professional is always good in a cover letter. Stiff, on the other hand, is not. I see a lot of stilted and overly formal language in cover letters. Write like you’d speak to this person over the phone. You’d still be professional, but you’d also be conversational. Be yourself and emulate that tone in your writing. I want to read something that sounds like it was written by a flesh-and-bone person and not by a robot.
3) Proofread – Just as you should do in your resume, check it for typos and punctuation and grammatical errors. Better yet, have someone else you trust review it for you. Often times, you’re too close to your own writing, and it’s easy to miss some of the mistakes. It’s best viewed with fresh eyes. This is an easy step to omit. Don’t.
4) Include contact information – Make it easy for someone to reach you and make that information easy to find in the cover letter. As most cover letters now take the form of an email, that best place is in your signature.
And, in general, here’s how to structure the cover letter:
1) Salutation – If you know who it is you’re applying to, address him or her by name – Dear Mr. Smith or Dear Ms. Brown. If you don’t know, you can get away with a generic title, like Dear Hiring Manager or Dear Sir or Madam. But do include the salutation.
2) First Paragraph – Tell me the purpose of your letter and BE SPECIFIC. Tell me the job you’re applying to and who it’s with. If it’s a job posting that doesn’t list the client company name, at least list the job ID number. The main thing is that I want to know that you know what you’re applying to. If I sense that you’re taking a shotgun approach with the same generic cover letter that you use for every application, you’ve lost 90% of my attention. Why? Because I know you’re applying to everything in sight, which means the chances of you specifically fitting my job are slim, at best.
3) Second Paragraph – This is where you list your qualifications. What this is NOT, however, is a summary of your career. What it IS, rather, is the relevant skills that show me you can do this job, specifically. Sell me. Convince me. WHY can you do this job? WHAT about your past experience makes you qualified for this job, in particular? Bottom-line this paragraph as much as you can. Though it will probably be the longest paragraph of your cover letter, try to keep it tight.
4) Third Paragraph – I’ve seen different philosophies about this paragraph, and you might employ these philosophies differently depending on whether you know the company to which you’re applying. One school of thought, IF you know the company, is to give specific reasons why you want to work for them. What makes them attractive as an employer? People like other people who are interested in them. It shows you’re looking for more than a paycheck; you want to be part of something. It also shows you’ve done your homework and you’re targeted in your approach. It means you put thought and purpose into this application. That automatically will make me take you more seriously and gets my attention. If the cover letter looks generic, random and unfocused, you’ve lost me. Another popular philosophy with this paragraph, especially if you don’t know the company, is to list specific accomplishments. I’ve seen some job coaching experts suggest you list these – or your qualifications in the second paragraph – in bullet form. I like bullets. They’re easy to read. Accomplishments can help bolster your listed skills because it shows HOW you did your work. It shows proficiency, which is really what employers want. (Even when they say they want experience, they’re really wanting the proficiency that they believe that experience gives you).
5) Closing Paragraph – This is where you thank the reader for his or her consideration and you present an action item – either them contacting you, you contacting them or possibly both. Ten or fifteen years ago, I was taught that you list a specific deadline, a time at which, if that person didn’t call me, then I was going to call them. It went something like, “I look forward to speaking with you. If we don’t speak by (such-and-such a date), I will call you on (specific date).” As a recruiter in this day and age, that approach doesn’t do much for me. If your background look good, don’t worry, I’ll reach out to you. Personally, I like closings that are humble, yet still positive and forward-looking. But that’s just me.