The cover letter is often the first thing that a prospective employer will see when you are applying for a job. Before meeting you, and oftentimes before even looking at your resume, the employer will read your cover letter. What you say and the way that you say it can make or break your chances for landing an interview and, down the road, the job.
First of all, consider the cover letter as a sales letter. This isn’t the time to be egotistical by any means, but you do need to know your strengths and match those with the requirements of the job. For instance, if one of the job requirements is to use a computer to type out written statements and the company want someone who can type 75 wpm, then in your cover letter you should state any relevant experience or awards that make you capable of doing just that. Don’t wait until the interview to disclose that you type 100 wpm; write it in the cover letter, because this is where you need to sell yourself.
Free up the cover letter from any grammatical errors. “Deer Sir, I saw your job listing and am very interested in application.” A prospective employer will quickly toss this cover letter in the trash. Spell check won’t even find the problems because you have spelled the words correctly. If you are sending in a cover letter, read it, edit it, print it, read it, edit it, and then have someone else take a final look. Oftentimes when we only edit on the computer screen we miss key errors because our eyes are not trained to seeing them when we are looking at our monitor the way that they can find them when we are looking at a printed sheet of paper.
Finally, don’t forget to change the letter for each position. You don’t want to use the same letter, as these need to be individualized for the job, and you certainly don’t want to forget to change key information from one company and then send the cover letter on to the next. If you are sending a cover letter that discusses your excellent strengths in advertising to a job that has nothing to do with advertising, chances are the cover letter, your resume, and the interview are going into the trash. Take some time and customize your cover letter for each position so you are sure to find the perfect fit when you send it in to that company.