Cover Letter Guide

What is a cover letter?

It is a common misconception that a cover letter is written to summarize or introduce your resume. This is false. Use a cover letter as an opportunity to introduce yourself to the employer, and highlight what it is about your skills that would make you an excellent candidate for the position. It should bring attention to your strengths, and present material not found on your resume. Your goal should be to entice the employer into actually reading your resume.

Researching

Before you can begin writing a cover letter, it is important that you gather background information regarding the industry in which the job falls under, as well as information on the company you are applying to.

First, try to find out some of the following about the industry:

• important business or technical trends
• hiring trends, popular terms, phrases and subject matter

This information will be beneficial when writing cover letters for other jobs in this industry.

For each employer, try to determine:

• the nature of the company’s business
• the major clients or customers
• its history, important recent transactions or developments
• hiring trends and employment needs

Cover Letter Components

A cover letter is broken into a number of different components, where each component serves a specific function or purpose. These components are as follows:

• Contact information
• Date line and inside address
• Salutation
• Introduction
• Body
• Conclusion
• Closing signature and enclosing line

Contact Information

The first thing that should appear on your cover letter is your name, address, telephone number, and optionally your e-mail address. This is typically aligned to the right of the page, though you can also align it to the left margin.

Date Line and Inside Address

Insert the date two lines below your contact information, and place the inside address two lines below the date.

The inside address consists of the name of the person to which you are writing, followed by the company’s name and address.

The date and inside address should be left aligned.

Salutation

The salutation is how you say “Hello” to the person that will be reading your letter. Do your best to determine what the name of this person is, as most people would much rather be addressed by name, rather than “To Whom it May Concern”. Not only does your reader appreciate being addressed by name, but also, this personal bit separates your letter from the ones written by people who didn’t take the time to track down the person’s name.

However, if you can’t find the name of the person that will be reading your resume, instead address them as “Dear Employer”, “Dear Hiring Manager”, or “Good Morning”. It’s cheerful and feels more personal than “Dear Sir” or “To Whom it May Concern”.

Also, remember to complete your salutation with a colon (:) to indicate that more information is to follow.

Introduction

The introduction is the first part of your letter the reader will read, so you should try to do your best to grab their attention, which will help compel them to read on.

In the introduction, you should try to include the name of the position you are applying for, and a brief summary of why you are a top candidate for the position. The most important rule is to engage the reader’s interest. What does the reader need in an employee that you can draw attention to from the get-go?

Body

The body of your letter is where you provide all of the relevant information about yourself, such as skills, achievements, and past accomplishments. Only include information that directly relates to the position you are applying for. Make sure your cover letter is somewhere between one to six paragraphs, and never use more than one page.

Also in the body, mention any previous related work experience you have, but don’t spend too much time on this, since this is information they can get from your resume. At the same time, don’t leave it out. Without this key bit of information the reader may not feel it’s even necessary to look at your resume! You need to provide evidence to show that you are right for the job, by letting them know what you can do for them. A good way to provide this evidence is by explaining how your performance benefited previous employers.

Conclusion

The last part of the letter itself is the conclusion. This is where you try to convince the reader to move on to reading your resume and to give you a call.

To motivate the reader you need to include a sincere “Thank you for your time and consideration” and a contact date. It is best to include a date in which you will contact THEM, to confirm the receipt of your letter and resume, and to arrange an interview. While contacting the employer is not necessary, it does work to your advantage. If you call them, they certainly can’t ignore you, as someone will definitely have to answer the phone. Also, if the news you receive is bad news, it is much better to get it done and over with than sitting at home by the phone waiting. Also, it’s a good sign of initiative, which may give you a leg over someone else applying for the job who did not take the time to call.

Closing Signature and Enclosure Line

The best way to close off a cover letter is with “Sincerely” or “Very truly yours”, though there are many other good choices such as “Best regards”, “Warm regards”, and “Sincerely yours”. Also, don’t forget to put a comma after the closing line. If you decided not to include your name in the contact information, make sure you include it in this section, just below your signature (usually four lines below your closing), which makes sure there’s no confusion on spelling.

If you cannot write very neat, make sure you take the time to make your signature legible. An employer prefers to be able to read something than to have to try to interpret it.

The very final part of the resume is the enclosure line. This line simply states what you have included along with the letter, usually your resume, but sometimes may include other things such as portfolios, depending on the job. This line directly follows your typed name.