How many lectures on cover letters do you the average college senior has heard? Seriously, in your last semester of school, suddenly everyone becomes OBSESSED with cover letters. I get it - they are über important! And yes, they have to be flawless, especially if one of your strengths is attention to detail.
I will not disagree with the importance of a strong cover letter, but the way they (the institution - also known as your professors, career counselors, and other employment pushers) beat you over the head with the cover letter speeches is nauseating. Now, I will admit once you get comfortable writing them the dreaded cover letters are not so bad. But it can be a difficult thing to do.
My biggest hold ups in writing cover letters have been that I want to include too much information and that I don't know how to clearly articulate my strengths or what I can do for them --- that's the key phrase here. So now that I feel like I'm finally getting the hang of this cover letter thing, I have a few tips to share with you... Don't accuse me of being one of them... I'm only trying to help!
Here ya go:
1. Your cover letter is not an interview. But it should get you an interview. My point: DO tell them why you would be good at the job (what you can do for them) and why you think you'd be a good fit for the company. DON'T need to put in EVERYTHING about you, your college career/previous employment, or your theory on relativity... Save something interesting for when they meet you!
2. Don't follow a template. There is no template. Be smart enough to use a nice letter head and all the formalities of a return address, Dear (insert name of recruiter here), and your autograph at the bottom... but don't think that you have to follow some monotone letter you found online. Your cover letter will sound like all the other cover letters - think the teachers on Charlie Brown. Not ideal.
3. PROOFREAD! PROOFREAD! PROOFREAD! And then have 10 other people read it just to be safe. It sounds ridiculous, but stuff happens. Face it, A LOT of the jobs you apply for will probably require A LOT of the same skills and the job descriptions will sound A LOT alike. So you may write a few cover letters that will work for several jobs, swap out some details, change all the mentions of Company X to Company Y, and call it a day. SO PROOFREAD!!! Double check your work because you will want to shoot yourself in the foot when you hear what happened to a friend of mine...
A close friend of mine wrote a fabulous cover letter. Really, it was great. She sent it to one company where she REALLY wants to work, and she got an interview (Yay!). But then she needed a cover letter for another internship application. Since the first cover letter was so great she did was we all are guilty of doing: she switched out some details about the company, made sure the strengths and skills were applicable to the second job, attached the cover letter to an email and sent it on its way.
The next day she was reviewing her application and saw that she in the last line of the cover letter where she stated how enthusiastic she was about working for the company, she had forgotten to change the company's name.
DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU! Let a friend read your cover letters. Haha, ok it's not that dramatic, but we all know how hard it is to get a job. Try to avoid the stupid mistakes.
So, do you have any cover letter or other job application drama? Anything you said on a phone interview that make you hit yourself in the forehead?
No comments:
Post a Comment