25 Tips for a Pleasing Cover Letter
Source:
Gallery of Best Cover Letters, by David
F. Noble, Ph.D.
Purpose
strategies
1. Make
it clear in your letter that you really want the job. If you
display a ho-hum attitude in a letter, the chances are that
you will receive a ho-hum response, which usually means rejection.
2. Put a
subject line near the beginning of the letter to indicate the
position you are seeking.
3. If you
know a company has been having employee-turnover problems, show
interest in a long- term commitment if that fits your plans.
4. Consider
writing the cover letter so you can use it also as a marketing
letter in which you make your job interests and availability
known to a number of readers.
5. Consider
marketing your services aggressively in your letter.
Audience
strategies
1. Make
certain the letter is addressed to a specific person and that
you use this person's name in the salutation.
2. Don't
let your opening statement or one in your first paragraph give
the reader a chance to think "NO" and stop reading.
3. Sometimes
a cover letter will be more successful if the timing is right.
Be alert to a prospective company's needs as determined by seasons,
holidays, grants, changes in the economy, and so on.
4. Play
down experience that may threaten a prospective employer.
5. Make
your cover letter targeted by researching the prospective company
and showing in the letter that you know important information
about that company.
6. For individuals
leaving the military and returning to civilian life, emphasize
experience perceived as relevant to civilian life. The reader
may not know how to translate military responsibilities into
civilian duties; do it for them.
Content strategies
1. If your
name is unusual or difficult to pronounce, consider putting
an aid to pronunciation in parentheses after it.
2. When
you are short on professional work experience to qualify for
a position, consider related personal and volunteer experiences
that may qualify you for the job.
3. If you
are responding to a job that has been posted online, include
the reference number.
4. If the
intended reader of your resume suggested you send it, or if
you have recently spoken with the person, say this in the first
sentence of the cover letter.
5. At the
end of the letter, consider keeping control of the follow-up
by indicating that you will phone later.
6. If you
have an impressive success story to tell about previous work
experience, consider telling the story in your cover letter.
Organization strategies
1. Consider
restating important themes at the end of the letter.
2. Try a
change in format for a change of pace within a letter.
3. For a
change, try presenting the information in your cover letter
in ascending order of importance to give the impression that
the information gets better and better as one reads the letter.
4. Consider
expressing interest in an interview in one paragraph and saying
thank you in another.
Style strategies
1. Try not
to sound at all desperate.
2. If you
want to be aggressive, keep your letter short.
3. Strive
to make your cover letter hard to ignore.
4. If you
want to speed the tempo of reading a cover letter, try using
a series of short paragraphs.
5. Use a
combination of bullets and boldfacing for information you think
the reader must see.
6. Try to
make each paragraph fresh and free of well-worn expressions
commonly found in cover letters.
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