Your Best Cover Letter: Grab Their Attention in 5 Simple Steps!If, as I offered earlier, it’s writing a great attention-grabbing cover letter - your best cover letter - that persuades an employer to read your resume, then the next question is, ”How can I make it exciting, and get employers to sit up and take notice?" First, it's most important to understand that the format to a cover letter is made up of 5 steps that fit neatly onto one page. Each paragraph conveys a specific message and has a specific purpose. Best Cover Letter Step 1: Introduce Yourself Clearly - the Rapport The first paragraph is the simplest. In it, you want to explain as briefly as possible a) why you are writing, b) how you found out about the opportunity, and c) that you are attaching your resume for the employer’s consideration. Whenever we write a cover letter, people need to know exactly why we’re writing, or what we want from them. And in order to feel good about us, they also need to know how we found out about them. Humans don’t always trust each other right away, and it helps to be able to build basic trust or credibility with someone through giving them this basic information from the get-go. The “warmer” the contact, the better, and if you can link to the employer through a person rather than a website, that can greatly improve your chances of winning the job. If you learned about the vacancy from an online posting, mention the web address. If you found out about it from a networking contact, be sure to mention the person’s name and their connection to the employer. Here’s an example of a well-written first paragraph: Please accept the attached resume for the salesperson vacancy at Belladonna Shoes. I found out about this opportunity from George Singh, an assistant manager at your Jamaica Boulevard store. Best Cover Letter Step 2: Summary Statement or Thesis The best cover letters are like academic essays - they convey a summary statement or thesis - a main point or message that we want the reader to hear loud and clear from the start before providing strong evidence in support of it. This thesis or hypothesis quickly tells the employer about your overall background. It provides a brief overview of your qualifications. It’s a short summary statement describing your most impressive career accomplishments in a nutshell. This summary statement often focuses on your paid employment experience, but you can also write about your educational achievement, volunteer experience, people skills, and language or other specialized skills if they’re applicable to the job posting you’re responding to. Mention Both Technical and People Skills The information you share in step 2 often matches closely with the objective/headline of your resume, the interview question, “Tell us about yourself” and your overall interview strategy or “game plan.” It’s a good idea to mention strengths in both the technical and interpersonal areas of your occupation, like this: I offer over 3 years of professional and academic experience specializing in hardware installation. I also bring a healthy balance of technical and people skills to my work with customers and co-workers. I am a very organized employee, able to juggle various tasks while providing friendly and informative service. Highlight Both Your Employment and Education Another approach you could take to writing your thesis is to develop short summary statements of both your education and employment accomplishments, and then put them together into one sentence. For education you could highlight your university degree or college or high school diploma; for employment you could feature your number of years experience strongly related to the job you’re applying for. Best Cover Letter Step 3: Specific Evidence of Qualifications - the Mind Step 3 is the core paragraph - “meat” or main body of the letter, and is often the part that either captivates or loses the employer’s interest. Why? Because it offers as many relevant details as possible as very specific and concrete “courtroom” quality evidence to support your thesis or summary statement as you presented it in step 2. To write your very best cover letter, you want to present in step 3 your greatest accomplishment or work challenge relating to the specific position you’re applying for, and specific information about how it saved the company time or money or demonstrated excellent service to customers, clients or team members. Unlike step 2 which is a general overview, step 3 is one or more specific examples that lend support to the general information provided in step 2. Here are some examples of the sort of phrases you could include in step 3: While working for A1 Consulting from 2001-2006, I provided advanced training to over 300 staff, resulting in a company profit increase of over $1,000,000 per year. This example uses numbers or statistics effectively, something which I strongly encourage you to do as well, when possible and applicable to your occupation. Here’s another example, for someone who is just starting their career: While completing secondary school, I gained over 4 years of part-time work experience interacting with clients/patients on a daily basis as a front desk receptionist at a local dental office and salon. My duties included listening carefully to ensure satisfaction and high quality of service, thus encouraging repeat business. Use the Situation-Task-Action-Result (STAR) Formula In this part of the cover letter you could also use the situation-task-action-result (STAR) formula with which job searchers prepare for and respond to situational or behavioural interview questions. Explain where you were working, what years, what project you were asked to complete, what you did to complete it, the outcome, and the longer-term impact of your actions upon the team or organization you worked for. Again, use numbers or statistics to support your example whenever possible. Breaking General Skills Down into More Valuable Specific Examples: “How Do I Know?” If you’re having trouble thinking of some specific information to mention in step 3, one method is to take a general skill keyword such as “people skills” or “team player” and ask yourself the following question: “How do I know that I’ve developed excellent skills in this area?” Employers love to hear more specific details about your skill sets. It doesn’t really help either them or you very much when they read or hear merely that you’re a “great team player” or “possess excellent people skills” – everyone writes and says that, whether they mean it or not. So you need to tell them more concrete information to convince them that you really do mean it. How do you know that you’re a great team player? What have you done in the past to prove it to your previous supervisors and co-workers? What specific communication skills have helped you overcome your greatest work challenges thus far in your career? This is the quality of information you want to share with employers in the 3rd step of writing your cover letter, and at your interview to follow. Telling a Story Always Grabs People’s Attention As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, people love it when you tell them stories, and the 3rd step is actually a very short story. Make sure that this story stimulate the employer’s imagination, gets them interested in you and your career history, and helps them to be able to picture you successfully fulfilling the core duties of the vacancy. Best Cover Letter Step 4: Demonstrate Your Interest or Express Your Inspiration - the Heart To write your best cover letter, you need to express in your own heartfelt words why you want the position. Whereas the 2nd and 3rd paragraphs focus on evidence or “the mind,” the 4th paragraph starts to build a true relationship with the employer through the heart. Research the Employer to Demonstrate Your Serious Interest Visiting the employer’s website, read available print information or talk with people who already work there to gather facts about the organization. Include some of these facts in the cover letter to show that you are seriously interested in the job and/or company. Actions speak louder than words, and if you can demonstrate your interest in this way rather than simply talking in general, vague terms about how much you’re interested, your genuine enthusiasm for the position and the company will shine through very strongly. Talk Glowingly About the Employer, Backed Up by Facts Then, take this a step further by explaining clearly to the employer what you like about them so much. Everyone loves receiving compliments, and employers are no different. Take the time to genuinely compliment the organization through incorporating the facts you’ve collected about them. Show how your interests and values are similar and compatible with their organizational culture. You could also talk about how this job opportunity links with your career plans to further emphasize why you want to work there and why you’re likely to stay and feel fulfilled there. Finally, use the formal name of the company or organization at least once if not twice in this paragraph, because everyone loves the sound of their name. Also, this will make it clear that you are sending them a customized cover letter for them only rather than a standard form letter. You are doing everything you can to make them feel valued, appreciated and special. Tell Them Why You’re Inspired! The 4th step is also your opportunity to get a little “personable” without getting personal. Why do you feel passionately inspired to work in this job, for this employer and/or within this profession? Employers want to know what will keep you happy there once they hire you, and they want to know that you have a reason above and beyond making money to pay your bills. Beyond the dollars and cents, why do you want the job so much? Why are you inspired to apply for the position in the first place? To write your very best cover letter, you will want to give your "inspiration statement.” Tell the employer, in your own unique words, more about the deep personal meaning and inner reward that you feel as a result of your previous work with clients, customers or team members within your profession. Here’s an example of a simple yet very effective inspiration statement: In addition, several members of my family have struggled with literacy, and I would like to help ensure that everyone gets an equal opportunity to learn to read and write. Best Cover Letter Step 5 – Your Conclusion and Follow-Up - the Ask In your final paragraph, you could include another brief summary statement of your career, similar to paragraph two but shorter and using somewhat different wording. Then say thank you, and be assertive but not pushy about directly requesting an in-person interview. Include your phone number and offer to follow up in a week if you don’t hear back sooner. Here’s an example: I look forward to the opportunity to provide your clients with excellent customer service. Please contact me at (677) 698-5349 if you would like to arrange an interview. I will call you in a week to inquire about the status of my application. The Five Simple Steps to Writing Your Best Cover Letter In review, the five steps to writing your best cover letter are: 1) Clear Introduction - the Rapport To write your very best cover letter, you want to a) Introduce yourself clearly, Finish up by integrating these 5 steps into 3 or a maximum of 4 concise paragraphs. Writing your very best cover letter for each and every job posting is a lot easier when you follow this proper cover letter format that gives employers exactly what they want from you, and attracts their focused and undivided attention.
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