A lot of my friends have told me lately that they have never written a cover letter and don’t really know how to apply for things.
Because of this, I felt inclined to share some of my knowledge with the rest of the world, or UTM. Now, the first thing before you start writing the actual letter is to think of your strengths. Think of five things that you are really good at that you think would be applicable to a job or grad school.
Got them? Good. Now, I want you to think about how those five strengths apply to what you want to do in the future. It may sound hard, but it’s really simple. Keep those five things in mind, and we’ll come back to them soon.
You’re probably asking yourself what this has to do with writing a cover letter. I would answer you by saying it has almost everything to do with it.
Before I tell you how you should go about writing a cover letter, I’ll tell you why they are important. You would never want to submit a resume without a cover letter. Also, cover letters are your first opportunity to tell a company why they should pick you. You have to show them, not tell them. Sure, they can look at your resume and see what qualifications you have, but a resume tells them nothing about the candidate as a person. This is what companies are looking for in a cover letter.
They want to see the person behind the resume. A cover letter can make or break your chances with a company, which is why they are so important. Now that we know a little about why they are important, I’ll tell you what you should include in the cover letter.
If you are in or have been to college, you have educational experience. You will want to highlight this. You will want to let the potential employer know that you are qualified based on your education. This goes beyond just saying that you have a degree from a university. You want to tell them how the classes you’ve taken apply to the position you are interested in.
For example, if I were applying for a News Writing position, I could say I’ve taken a class in Advanced News Writing and through this course I learned how to develop an article from multiple sources while digging deep into the situation. This is applicable to all positions; if you are applying for something after college, it is most likely because you studied in that field. Take the buzzwords from the job posting and highlight your learned skills.
Now, we’ll go back to those five strengths. Obviously, in a cover letter you need to show that you have confidence in yourself. To do this, you need to highlight your strengths. Employers are not looking for candidates who lack confidence. Not to say that you should have false hope, but you need to really search and find your true strengths.
So, now that we’ve covered the background, let’s talk about how to organize the content into a coherent, well-written letter of intent, or cover letter.
1. Address the letter in the top left-hand corner. There are a couple ways to do this, but if you include your name, address and contact information on top, the date under that and then the name, address and contact information of the company you are applying to, you should be fine. Just make sure everything is left-aligned.
2. Do not use “To whom it may concern.” If you don’t have a specific name, put “Dear hiring committee.” Putting “to whom it may concern” is so informal and makes you look slightly ridiculous. Try to find a name, but if you can’t, address it to the hiring committee.
3. In the first paragraph introduce yourself and mention the position you are interested in.
4. In the next paragraph talk about your education. Remember to compare buzzwords from the job posting to your classroom experiences.
5. In the third paragraph talk about your strengths and how you would benefit the company. Make sure you don’t talk negatively about yourself. You want to show them that you know you are the person they need. If you have any relative experience that you think would help you in the position you are applying for, include it in this paragraph also.
6. In the last line, say something like “I look forward to speaking with you soon. I can be contacted by phone at XXX-XXX-XXXX or by email at name@addresss.com.
7. Make sure to “sign” the letter. If you are attaching it on the computer, then you can’t put you actual signature but make sure your name is at the bottom of the letter with a “thank you” or “sincerely.”
