The Art of Cover Letters

To stand out as a candidate cover letters must be catered to the specific job and/or employer. It takes time, but since employers are using key search words to filter out materials it is worth the effort. Here are some tips on how to make your cover letter stand out from the crowd. 

First step is to THOROUGHLY research the company! A focused letter will stand out from the crowd.   

NEVER start a cover letter with To Whom It May Concern. Nothing screams generic or template than this salutation. If you cannot find a name then go with a generic title instead, such as, Dear Hiring Manager or Dear Search Committee.

HIGHLIGHT the skills/qualifications from the job description that you want to highlight in your cover letter because nothing is more off-putting than a CLEARLY GENERIC cover letter. The generic candidate will ALWAYS be behind his/her peers who did take the extra 2 minutes to write a well researched and focused cover letter. Remember it is not a race as to who can get the résumé in first, it’s who can present themselves the best.

PICK THREE skills/qualifications that the employer is looking for in a candidate and focus on those by drawing the parallels from your résumé. The résumé tells the employer what you did, but the cover letter shows what you learned. The employer wants to read about action, implantation and/or results in a concise manner. It also demonstrates that you read the job description because you are talking their language. 

Résumés are important, but cover letters can be equally as important. If an employer has 10 résumés, but only wants to bring in 5 people to interview then the cover letter is the way to make the cut.