My personal pet peeve while reading a cover letter is grammatical mistakes. Long story short, I would not consider a particular candidate for an important position, who does not care about spell and grammar checking his/ her cover letter. Time.com highlighted recently one more blooper many make while writing the cover letter. Starting with the words "To whom it may concern".
A Cover Letter, if you are writing one, is the introduction to the work profile. If there are mistakes here, then even years of sparkling experience cannot save the profile from being rejected. So here is a compilation of things to do while writing a cover letter. This would also include emails, if you are emailing a consultant or a company HR Manager.
A Cover Letter, if you are writing one, is the introduction to the work profile. If there are mistakes here, then even years of sparkling experience cannot save the profile from being rejected. So here is a compilation of things to do while writing a cover letter. This would also include emails, if you are emailing a consultant or a company HR Manager.
- Customise: One would not go for an interview for an advertising job and talk of operations. Just like an interview would be for a particular job in a particular company, both of which the interviewee needs to be conversant about, it is the same with the cover letter (as well as profile, but that's for another post). What is position you are applying for. What is the company. Write the cover letter highlighting your experience in that particular industry or vertical. Have a separate cover letter for every single application sent out.
- Research the company and its people: The start should never be with "To whom it may concern". That may be the step at which an application is rejected. It is always important to know who the application is being made to. Here is a smart but relatively unknown tip for a job applicant. If you are interested in some company, call the company board line. You can get the phone number on the company website more often than not. Ask the name of the HR Manager who is in charge of recruitment. If you are replying to an advertisement, apply to the position mentioned in the advertisement. If it is small company and you are interested in a senior role in the company, you could call in and ask the name of the function head. For example- if you are looking for an Operations Manager role in a manufacturing unit, ask for the COO by name, and send in your application to him or her. Use linked in if required. This will show you have tried hard to know more about the company you so claim to be interested in, in your cover letter.
- Keep it short and sweet: The cover letter is just an introduction to a profile, and it is difficult to hold the attention of someone who is sifting through scores of cover letters in a day. Just like the profile should be limited to 3 pages (unless absolutely necessary), the cover letter should not be more than half a page long. Instead of highlighting a whole career, just write a couple of lines on why your profile should be considered for that particular company for that particular function. It should just be enough to pique the interest of the recruiter. If writing to a consultant, you can put some salient points in bulleted form so that it is easy to go through.
- Aesthetics: 1.5 line spacing, 10 size letters in some easy to read font which is also professional (no comic sans) should be good for most jobs. If it is a creative profile, one can use colours, but it is best to keep the cover letter to the bare minimum. A creative job profile can show its full potential in the actual profile itself.
- Check for spelling and grammatical mistakes: It is difficult to imagine how many people fall out here. It is very important to remember however, that the cover letter shows exactly how seriously you take the job you are applying for and that is of prime importance to the hiring manager. So double checking is not a tall ask in this matter.
- One great tip, often overlooked: While researching the company online, look through linkedin and other websites where the company may be mentioned. Any newsworthy item may be mentioned in the cover letter. For example if the company has been mentioned in the top 10 best places to work in, it would be wonderful to congratulate the company and the addressee for the feat and say what an honour it would be to work in such a recognised environment. It is a great ego boost, and if done right, will immediately set the profile apart from the other 500 for the post.
