A Great Cover Letter and a Great Resume, Plan for Success
Develop a Cover Letter That Will Advance Your Career
You spend a great looking for the right job, don’t cut corners on the cover letter. The cover letter is your first test. If you haven’t taken the time to prepare one that will get the recruiter’s attention and immediately sells your value and skills to a potential employer, it’s time for a reboot. So let’s look at what you can do to advance your career.
Preparing an ineffective cover letter is easy, and it can be accomplished quickly. Just use a standard format that can be used for every job to which you apply. The generic paragraph that could be used for every job opening that begins with, I found this job on the Internet. It is a job that I am looking for, and I think I would be a good fit with your company. Blah, blah, blah, etc.
Preparing a great cover letter will take time. You may have to customize each cover letter for the position and company where you apply. Prepare a template that will form as a basis for your cover letter to easily make changes from job openings a job opening.
This is your first chance to impress a recruiter. You will be evaluated on your ability to structure your thoughts, write at a professional level, and elaborate on why you want this particular job. Why should recruiters spend any time reviewing your submission if you are unwilling to structure a proper cover letter to explain your case as to why you should move to the next step in the recruiting process?
A great cover letter doesn’t need to be, and shouldn’t be long to be effective. It is your personal marketing effort to entice the recruiter to spend the additional time to review your resume. It only needs long enough to state your value proposition in there but a compelling fashion.
There are three primary components of a cover letter.
Introduction
Remember, you have less than a minute to capture the recruiter’s attention and take the next step to advance your career. A great cover letter will require an applicant to conduct research on the potential employer and the occupation to which you are applying. Find positive areas associated with the business such as growth opportunities, corporate culture and work environment. Determine what challenges and successes face the division where you would be working and how you believe you can contribute to the company’s success.
State the reasons why you want this job with this company. It should appear that this is the only position you want. If you cannot convince recruiter that this is a job for you, don’t expect to be called in for an interview.
Accomplishments
This area will tie into the bullets you create for your resume. Select the content most relevant to the position in a brief paragraph. No need to go into depth at this point. Just highlight your value proposition for the position.
Include a request for an interview
At the end of your cover letter, include that you look forward to the opportunity to discuss your qualifications.
When emailing, the cover letter should be formatted properly in the body of the email and attached as a document along with your resume. This will allow both to be printed and distributed to recruiters and hiring managers for further action.
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