HOW TO WRITE A COVER LETTER

HOW TO WRITE A COVER LETTER

Writing a Cover Letter seems to be a pretty annoying job for people who don’t understand its purpose. This is true not only for job seekers but also for many companies that keep doing the same mistake. They see cover letters as proofs of a candidate personality. Someone who is rational and real, who has invested enough time and effort in making a good application.

If an experienced and smart recruiter may get many insights on your attitude and learn about your skills by reading your Resume, even the best recruiter in the world can’t get into your mind and understand how you see yourself in your future as a professional.

Think of a cover letter as your only chance to talk about your future, your aspiration and how you can create profound value for the company you are applying to and, at the same time, reaching your goals in life.
This is a very important moment for the job seeker: try to convince recruiters while focusing on the real motivation behind it.

Strong motivation is the only key to stand out from the crowd and demonstrate irreplaceable value to the eye of the recruiter. And this is your only chance to communicate it.
We know that it’s tough to focus on the real motivation. In the event that you can do it, you have already taken our advice to DO NOT submit more than 10 applications during your job hunt.

Here are a few tips on how to write a successful Cover Letter:

  • Study. Be aware of the Company you are asking to join. Be confident with their vision, explore their mission and values, deepen your knowledge about the sector and competitors. If you really believe and agree with the Company’s vision, recruiters will read it through the lines of your Cover Letter.
  • Speak (corollary to Point 1). Try to meet or call somebody who is already working for the Company. This is very often the only way (apart from Glassdoor and, obviously, Meritocracy) to understand what life would be like to work there. A poor Employer Branding leads to poor communication on their website. However, this doesn’t mean that a specific company isn’t a cool place to work for. Simply go ahead and try to meet one of the employees and ask him insights about the company.
  • Focus. Open your heart and tell the Company why you really want to join them and how you think you may be a valuable contribution to their team. They have to perceive that you’ll achieve your life goals only by working with them. We hope this is true here at Meritocracy.
  • Recycle. Don’t recycle (completely) a Cover Letter. We hope you’re not changing your mind , application by application, about the type of professional you wish to become. Therefore, yes, you may “recycle” part of a Cover Letter, but do it only for the 60%. The 40% MUST be new content.
  • CV. Your Cover Letter is not a CV. Don’t waste your time repeating too much about your past experiences.Your CV is enough. In the Cover Letter you have to share your vision on your future.
  • Storytell. We all read hundreds of Cover Letters. A GREAT Cover Letter helps you when recruiter is undecided on whether to call you for an interview or not. Therefore it has to be personal, it has to tell a story. Your contribute to a Company is unique, therefore your Cover Letter shall be unique. Otherwise it is just another letter among the hundreds of Cover Letters a recruiter reads every week.
  • Be concise. 2/3 of a page is enough to convince your loved one about your feelings. It will be enough to impress a recruiter.
  • Check. Grammar is important. Fundamental. A Grammar mistake makes all your effort to complete the application useless.
  • Feedback. Ask for feedback, and ALWAYS include “I’m looking forward to discuss my application with you”. You are asking to join a team, your contribute is unique, they have to have the perception you’d like to discuss with them about the opportunity of working together.
  • Give up. Don’t. Simply do not give up in case you prepared your application for a couple of hours and this didn’t lead to any results. It doesn’t mean you are a bad professional, it doesn’t mean you are a bad person. There are thousands of reasons why a company may not be hiring you, reasons that may not be even related to your profile. Keep on working for your next 9 applications.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.