The Cover Letter for Dummies

Found your dream job? You wrote a perfect CV and added your best picture? All you need now is a strong cover letter to improve your chances. Unfortunately, writing isn’t your strong suit and you don’t know where to start… The following advice will help you.

1. Where to start?
Before you start writing your letter, list the elements you absolutely must mention:
Who are you?
What kind of colleague are you?
What characteristics and skills make you the ideal candidate?
What is your previous professional experience?
What are your goals, and what opportunities do you want the company to offer you?
Why do you want to get this job/work for this company?

2. Cover letter or "sales" letter?
Applying for a job is nothing more than selling yourself. Go to the market this weekend and listen to any salesperson boasting about their products or services. They don’t talk about themselves or what they sell. A good salesperson first explains what their product can specifically bring you. Now put yourself in the place of the company’s HR manager and ask yourself what he or she specifically needs, and why you are the person who best meets their needs. Be as specific as possible.

3. Read your letter aloud
Many writers and professional editors are used to reading their texts aloud to check that everything is consistent. If a sentence sounds strange, delete it. Very often, cover letters are written in a very formal or even artificial style. You can then choose to stand out and opt for a more dynamic style:

For example, you can replace the very classic: "Looking forward to your reply, I remain, XXX, yours faithfully" with a: "Looking forward to hearing from you soon, Best regards".

4. You can make mistakes, but you must correct them
You’ve told your story and you think your reader now knows who you are? Unfortunately, he or she notices a huge conjugation mistake on the last line. You can be sure your cover letter will go straight in the trash…
Don’t spend hours rereading your text, because you won’t see the most obvious mistakes. Instead, ask someone in your circle who is fluent in the language to proofread your cover letter.
Honestly say what you want
A little tip that sometimes works wonders: simply tell the company what you expect from it. You want to be invited for an interview? In general, adding a short sentence like "I look forward to meeting you" or "Feel free to contact me" is enough to get things moving.

5. Other tips

Too much info kills the info:
Don’t hesitate to get to the point to strengthen the impact of your message.

Be yourself:
A mannered and arrogant tone often has a disastrous effect.

Find out about your contact:
A thorough knowledge of the company you want to work for should come across in your cover letter.

Structure your letter:
For example, you can add subtitles, as in this article.

A cover letter serves to… show that you are motivated:
Let your contact understand that you really want this job.


Stepstone.be

Posted on April 1, 2013.