A cover letter is a document that is sent to a company’s hiring authority along with a resume to apply for a job vacancy. It includes information like the candidate’s interests, personality, skill overview for the job, contact information, etc.
Writing an effective cover letter is important because it works like a first impression of the candidate on the recruiter. The effectiveness of your cover letter can determine the chances of getting hired for a particular job.
In this article, we are going to highlight some of the dos and don’ts of writing an effective cover letter.
DO’s of Making Effective Cover Letter
Following are some things that you need to do while writing a cover letter to make it more effective:
1. Craft a Different Cover Letter for Each Job
A common mistake people make is that they use generic cover letters to apply for different jobs. These letter formats are general and do not fully explain how you are the right guy for that particular job. Moreover, they lack the ability to show the relevant experience.
Avoid doing this. Instead, take time to personalize your cover letter solely and specifically for the particular jobs to make it more effective.
2. Fully Understand the Company and The Job You Are Applying for
Understanding the company and the job will help you make your cover letter more effective.
Analyzing the company will enable you to learn its policies and culture. By doing so, you can write about how you can contribute to enriching their values.
Researching the job, you are applying for, will help you add relevant experience and skills. You should research the company and the job because in case you get a call for an interview, you will not feel any hesitation while answering the questions about the company during the interview phase.
3. Maintain A Modest Tone:
You should maintain a modest and formal tone while writing a cover letter. Your tone should be a mixture of professionalism, confidence, enthusiasm, and respectfulness. But make sure to use these elements in appropriate places. Avoid using casual words and phrases.
Keeping the flow of sentences and paragraphs smooth is also an important aspect to consider while writing a good cover letter. This part can be tricky because, with all the information to provide in a short space, you will have to think creatively.
To make your cover letter smooth and creative within less time, you can rephrase it by taking the help of online tools. These tools often have different rephrasing modes like “Fluency, Standard, Creative, Smart, and Formal”. You can rephrase your cover letter by choosing “Fluency and Smart” modes. This will replace informal and slang words with more formal, powerful, and persuasive words to make your cover letter effective.
4. Explain Your Skills and Experiences Relevant to the Job:
Providing information about skills and experience related to the job requirements in your cover letter is the main part of writing a good cover letter.
Things that you should keep in mind while providing the said information are:
- Only provide information that is relevant to the job.
- Keep the organization of these skills well-ordered.
- Avoid expressing skills that might not be related to the job or the company. This will only be a waste of space.
5. Provide Necessary Contact Information:
Provide the necessary contact information so that the company can reach you. You can provide links to your different portfolios and social media profiles. You can provide this information even if you have already mentioned it in your resume.
6. Proofread:
After you have written your cover letter, proofread it to remove possible mistakes. These mistakes include grammatical errors. Proofreading also allows you to change any information that you require.
DON’Ts of Writing Professional Cover Letter
Now, let’s discuss things that you should avoid while writing a cover letter.
1. Don’t Repeat Information Provided in the Resume:
Utilize the space of the letter well and only provide information that is necessary. What you have already explained in your resume is not worth mentioning again (unless necessary).
Chances are a lot of other people have applied for the same job. To stand out of the crowd and not bore the recruiter by reading your cover letter, only provide the information that is necessary.
2. Don’t Explain How the Job Will Impact You:
Avoid explaining how much you desire this job or how it will impact you if you are hired. Rather tell them how can you positively impact the goals and missions of the company.
If you put in things like, how have you been wishing to get such a job and how it will impact you, it is just going to bore the recruiter and your chances of getting hired can become less.
3. Don’t Explain Your Current Job and Education:
Your current job and education are already mentioned in your resume. Explaining it again will be useless.
What you can mention though, is what have you learned from your current job and field of study. And how your efforts made a considerable impact on the current company’s business. This will be much more worth mentioning rather than just naming your job and field of education.
4. Don’t Write Too Much:
A decent cover letter is one or fewer pages. Writing too much in it will waste space. Most of the recruiters skim through the letters and just focus on the main points. Writing irrelevant data in it can backfire.
Writing extra things in your resume also reflects the fact that you lack communication skills. It makes an impression that you are unable to describe yourself in the given space.
Conclusion:
The quality of a cover letter can determine the chances of getting hired. You should put in the time and focus while crafting your cover letter. The effectiveness of a cover letter depends on how finely you describe yourself for the applied job in a very definite space.
The above-provided information about the things you should do and the things you should avoid while writing your cover letter can increase its effectiveness of it instantly.
