Cover Letter: Prove to the Company That You Are Indispensable

To apply for a job, a cover letter is required. Use this letter to concretely show your skills, experience and unwavering motivation, without which the company would lose a key element.

1. What will I bring to the company?
A cover letter should not be a repetition of your resume. It must be complementary. You must explain in this letter why you are applying for this specific job and why you want to join this company. To do this, you need to write down your professional and personal strengths. With one question in mind: what will I bring to the company? (and not the other way around...).

2. A structure highly requested by recruiters
The architecture of your cover letter must respect the classic "I", "You", "We". A formulation to which recruiters remain very attached. In order to put all the chances on your side to get this job, you will have to argue, quantify your past experiences and base yourself on concrete facts. This terminology will all the more arouse the interest of your reader and lead him to pick up his phone to meet you in an interview.

3. "You"
You must demonstrate beyond a doubt that your application is not a coincidence. In the "You" (company) section, affirm your knowledge of the company, its activity, its turnover, its projects, highlighting specific points. Instead of: "leader in its sector of activity, your company has particularly aroused my interest", prefer: "you are opening an international subsidiary and are looking for a bilingual engine performance engineer for this". You will thus show a particular interest in the company, its values, its strategy, which will not leave the recruitment agent indifferent.

4. "I"
The "I" section will be an opportunity to showcase your skills and show that you are motivated to use them within this new structure. In the formula "cover letter", the last word takes on its full meaning. Ask yourself the right questions to better answer them: what leads me to apply for this specific position and for this company in particular?
From there, you will be able to better demonstrate your motivation and how this position has explicitly aroused your interest. It is particularly in this paragraph that you will demonstrate, thanks to your qualities and your experience, that you will be the ideal candidate to fill this job. In order to better highlight your added value, focus this passage on evidence.
"Simply stating your skills is insufficient, you must demonstrate them with a very concrete example from your experience", says Hélène Vologodsky, HR consultant at Manpower Grenoble. Are you an exceptional salesperson? Then prove it! Write: "My annual objectives have been exceeded by an average of 18% over the last two years". Are you an essential diagnostician in the construction industry? Write: "I have prior experience in asbestos diagnostics (before work/demolition) as well as verification of compliance with current regulations (ERP, disabled people...)."

5. "We"
The last part, the "We", will address the common project between you and the company. A part which is also a good way, by highlighting common perspectives, to affirm your key role in the company's organizational chart. Nothing better then than to mention methods and techniques acquired from your former or current employers and which the company to which your cover letter is addressed needs. For example, the company is known for its technological innovation and is launching a new mobile video service? Don't hesitate to write that within a similar team, you supervised the launch of this service with one of the largest Swedish mobile phone operators.
Through this argument supported by evidence and concrete facts, your cover letter will arouse the recruiter's curiosity who will not fail to call you for an interview. Bingo!

Posted on October 5, 2011.

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