There have been many disputes about how important is to include a cover letter into a job application document package. Well, we are not going to argue about how it can or cannot influence your job search. We will rather provide practical tips on how to create an effective cover letter that will help you present your skills and proficiencies to a potential employer. Unfortunately, most cover letters we had to deal with were way too generic to help job seekers in any way. Therefore, from time to time we like to remind our readers of customers about do and don'ts of cover letter writing.
What Can You Do Wrong?
Like with your resume the deadly mistake you can make is a failure to customize your cover letter for a specific job opening. If you really want your job application to be effective the last thing you want to do is to create a generic cover letter and send it out to all job openings you possibly can. On the contrary, job seekers have to customize each application (including a cover letter) to speak directly to the employer's needs. Since a cover letter gives you a chance to say something you couldn't say in a resume it should be something that will engage the one reading it (that is, hiring authority).
Use your cover letter to answer questions that may arise while reading your resume. If an employer can notice your employment gaps, lack of degrees, frequent job changes or things like that you might want to explain some of these things in your cover letter. More than that, if you fail to do that hiring authorities will likely move to the next candidate. It is important to be concise in explaining any of these things - just state the reason to alleviate potential concern. There is no need to into great details.
Another thing you can do wrong while writing your cover letter is to ignore the directions mentioned in the job advertisement. Pretty often job postings contain specific directions to be followed when submitting a job application. For example, job seekers may be required to include a specific subject line, mentioned your salary expectations or even answer a question. This is how many inattentive job seekers are disqualified at the very first stage. Also, don't forget to proofread your cover letter to make sure it contains no typos or grammar mistakes. You can ask one of your relatives or friends to help you with that as it is always easier to check something you haven't been writing yourself.
Cover Letter Writing Service
Prime-resume can help you with developing an effective cover letter along with creating your resume or CV. If you already have one we have the cover letter editing service; our editors will be able to incorporate important changes into the document to make you look a good match in the eyes of employers. Please don't hesitate to get in touch with us in case you have any questions or need assistance in placing an order.
Check our cover letter samples for more insight.
