Making Your Cover Letters Work for You

Many of my clients skip the cover letter when the company does not ask for one and I think this is a mistake. Any opportunity you have to showcase your skills and highlight your experience, should be taken. On the other hand, you are giving the potential employer more info and if your cover letter is not well written, it will have a negative impact. So let’s look at some key things that will enable you to write a cover letter that is both to the point and engaging. Paying special attention to formatting, grammar and spelling is key. One typo will cost you! Use spell check, grammarly as well as another set of eyes (mine!) to review your cover letters before clicking apply!

It’s important to tailor your cover letter to the specific opportunity to which you are applying, but there is more to it than mentioning the job description or the organization’s name. Doing this well means thinking about your target audience and demonstrating the value you can add.

I am often asked if people should have more than one cover letter and the answer is yes. You will want to have one cover letter that all your other cover letters are created from. So to start you will want to create your core cover letter and tweak it to create a new cover letter for every new application.

Take a moment to read through the protocol around addressing and closing your cover letters which can be found HERE.

Now let’s read on to the next topic: The Anatomy of a Great Cover Letter