7552166 Dynamic Cover Letters for New Graduates

7/29/2019 7552166 Dynamic Cover Letters for New Graduates

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Cover Letter FAQs and the Competitive Edge in theJob Market

By Katharine Hansen, Ph.D.

The Ten Most Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)About Cover Letters

Downsizing. Rightsizing. Streamlining. Corporaterestructuring. You've heard the buzzwords. You'reterrified. And you're ready with a spanking, new resume.But at a time when employers are inundated with

resumes, how can you make yours stand out in thecrowd?

You can write a dynamic cover letter. The cover letter isusually an afterthought, dashed off to accompany aresume into which you've poured blood, sweat, and cash.Its potential as a powerful marketing tool frequently is

overlooked.The answers to these 10 commonly asked questionsabout cover letters can help you write a letter that is a keypart of a hard-to-resist sales package:

1. Why is a Cover Letter Necessary? 2. What are the Biggest Mistakes Cover-Letter Writers

Make? 3. Which Kind of Cover Letter Will Work Best for Me? 4. Can't I just Mass-Produce the Same Letter to all the

Companies for Which I'm Interested in Working? 5. What's the Most Important Thing to Include in the

Body of the Letter?



6. What Other Approaches Make a Cover LetterDynamic?

7. Should I Include References in my Cover Letter?

8. How Long Should the Letter be? 9. What's the Best Way to Make Sure my Cover Letter isWell-Written and on Target?

10. Are Thank-You Letters Necessary?

1. Why is a cover letter necessary?

A cover letter should always accompany your resume.

Few employers will seriously consider a resumewithout a letter. A cover letter tells the employerexactly what kind of job you want to do and tailorsyour qualifications to that job.

Frequently the job-seeker will see this line in arejection letter: "We chose the candidate whoprovided the best fit with our needs." The cover letter

is the way to show an employer how you fit thecompany's needs.

Given the screening process, a cover letter may haveas few as 20 seconds to grab an employer's attention.A well-written, interesting cover letter that opens awindow on your personality has a much better chanceof enticing the employer to interview you than a

boring, formulaic one.

Go back to top of page.



2. What are the biggest mistakes cover-letter writersmake?

• Addressing the letter to "Dear Personnel Director,"

"To Whom It May Concern," "Dear Sir or Madam" (orworse, "Dear Sirs") instead of a named individual. Thelargest employer in Central Florida tosses coverletters in the circular file if they are not addressed tohim personally. "To Whom It May Concern" shows theemployer that you were not concerned enough to findout the name of the person with the hiring power.

• Telling the employer what the company can do foryou instead of what you can do for the company. Thismistake is particularly common among new collegegraduates and other inexperienced job-seekers. Inmost cases, employers are in business to make aprofit. They want to know what you can do for theirbottom line, not what they can do to fulfill your career

dreams.• Leaving the ball in the employer's court. Too many

cover letters end with a line like this: "If you areinterested in my qualifications, please call me."Proactive cover letters, in which the job-seekerrequests an interview and promises to follow up with aphone call, are far more effective.


3. Which kind of cover letter will work best for me?

• The invited cover letter is a response to a want adand can be tailored to the job requirements listed in



the ad. This kind of cover letter is effective for the 20percent of jobs that are publicly advertised.

• The uninvited or cold-contact cover letter is usually

part of a mass mailing and requires the job-seeker todo some homework to find out about eachprospective recipient company. The uninvited letter isthe best way to tap the "hidden" job market, where 80percent of the jobs lurk.

• The referral cover letter, which uses name-droppingto get the employer's attention, is another excellentway to tap the hidden job market. When a mutual

acquaintance tips you off to a job, you can use his orher name to your advantage in a cover letter: "JosephBurns suggested I contact you about the opening youhave in sales."


4. Can't I just mass-produce the same letter to all thecompanies for which I'm interested in working?

Never -- unless you use word-processing equipmentthat enables you to personalize each letter andinclude at least one paragraph specifically revealingyour knowledge about each company and how youcan meet its needs. Nothing turns off an employer

faster than getting a letter that looks like the sameone everyone else is getting. Why bother to do acover letter if you don't tailor it to the company andposition you want?




5. What's the most important thing to include in the

body of the letter? Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). Anadvertising term, the USP is the one thing that makesyou better qualified to do the job than anyone else.The USP should answer the question: "Why should Ihire this person?" Want more? Learn more about yourUSP here.


6. What other approaches make a cover letterdynamic?

Some effective tricks:

•

You can visually call attention to your qualifications byunderlining them, boldfacing them, or indenting themin a list with bullets.

• You can quantify to tell the employer how manyemployers you supervised, how many customers youhandled, how much money you saved the company,and most importantly, by what percentage youincreased sales or profits.

• You can demonstrate your creativity and potential forinnovation by revealing one or two ideas for how youwould improve the employer's operation or bottomline.



Entice the employer, but don't give away too much forfree. Tease in a non-threatening way; don't turn theemployer off by trashing the current staff.


7. Should I include references in my cover letter?

Unless an ad specifically requests references, theybelong in the interview phase of the job search. Mostcompanies won't check references until they become

seriously interested in hiring a candidate.


8. How long should the letter be?

Only in the rarest of circumstances should your letterbe longer than a page, and considerably less than a

page is best. About four paragraphs should do thetrick. The first should grab attention, tell why you'rewriting, and reveal what you want to do for thecompany. The second should introduce your UniqueSelling Proposition. The third should further amplifyyour qualifications (without rehashing your resume).The last paragraph should ask for an interview, tellhow you plan to follow up, and thank the employer for

considering you. Answering an ad may requireanother paragraph or two to tailor your qualificationsto the job requirements.



Your letter should be not only fairly short, but alsoconcise and pithy. Edit your letter mercilessly. Followthe journalist's credo: Write tight! Cut out all

unnecessary words and jargon. Then go back and doit again.

Need more tips on your cover letter format? Checkout our Cover Letter Formula Page.


9. What's the best way to make sure my cover letter iswell-written and on target?

If your time frame will allow it, put your cover letterdown, and then pick it up a day or two later as thoughyou were the prospective employer. Does it grab andhold your attention? Is it concise? Is it free of typos,misspellings, and grammatical errors? Is it

interesting? If you were the employer, would youknow what this job-seeker wants to do and why he orshe is the best person to do it? Would you invite this

job-seeker for an interview?

Before you mail it off, check out our Cover Letter Do'sand Don'ts Page.


10. Are thank-you letters necessary?

Given the fact that almost all job-hunting books advisesending a thank-you note after an interview, it is



surprising how few job-seekers do so. A thank-youletter probably will not make the difference betweengetting the job and not getting the job, but if the

employer is weighing two equally qualifiedcandidates, the one who sends a thank-you note justmight have the edge over the one who doesn't. It'scommon courtesy to thank the employer for takingtime to interview you. The thank-you letter alsoenables you to amplify the positive aspects of yourinterview and, perhaps correct any negative aspects.

What does a good thank you letter look like? Checkout this sample thank you letter...as well as all of oursample Dynamic Cover Letters .


Questions about some of the terminology used in thisarticle? Get more information (definitions and links) on keycollege, career, and job-search terms by going to our Job-Seeker's Glossary of Job-Hunting Terms.

Katharine Hansen, Ph.D., creative director and associate publisher of Quintessential Careers,is an educator, author, and blogger who

provides content for Quintessential Careers,edits QuintZine, an electronic newsletter for

jobseekers, and blogs about storytelling in the job search at A Storied Career . Katharine,who earned her PhD in organizational behavior from



Union Institute & University, Cincinnati, OH, is author of Dynamic Cover Letters for New Graduates and A Foot inthe Door: Networking Your Way into the Hidden Job

Market (both published by Ten Speed Press), as well as Top Notch Executive Resumes (Career Press); and with Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D., Dynamic Cover Letters, WriteYour Way to a Higher GPA (Ten Speed), and TheComplete Idiot's Guide to Study Skills (Alpha). Visit her personal Website or reach her by e-mail at kathy(at)quintcareers.com .

7552166 Dynamic Cover Letters for New Graduates

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