Professional Cover Letter Help

Step3: The meat: Use the body of the cover letter to supply your reader with the most important information about you

You now come to the heart of the letter, as the body is an excellent place for you to use your resume cover letter writing to list out what about you is relevant to their needs. Employers are not interested in you, but rather what it is that you can bring to the overall organization. If you write professional cover letters to show that you can help them do something, they will be much more interested and motivated to talk to you. This goes for your cover letter, resume, actual interview, and all aspects of your job search.

If you are using your cover letter to relate to or respond to a specific job opening, then you can cite the job description to help interpret the employer’s needs from your point of view. Use your resume cover letter writing to convey your knowledge of the job, the function of the job, the overall organization, and the industry that it is a part of. Any specific information that you can site will help to make you appear more qualified and ensure that you move on throughout the process.

Another key point which is often a mistake in resume cover letter writing is to mention and point to credible and powerful examples that are specific in nature, and not general.

For example, a food company might place a job posting for somebody with “three years of corporate financial experience in the manufacturing industry”, but if you take the time to call ahead and learn more about the company and the specific position, then you can find out that the position is actually going to focus on budgeting and planning. 

With this key information, you can use your resume cover letter writing in a much more powerful and effective way by saying: “I have over five years of experience in corporate planning and budgeting experience in food manufacturing. I would like to apply all of my experience to the related position in your organization.”

Step4: Smart closing with a call to action

To this point, your cover letter has opened with an impactful hook and then gone on to include relevant and effective examples of your abilities throughout the body. Here’s where you keep the momentum going by closing with an assertive yet polite request to advance you onto the next step of the process. This is where effective resume cover letter writing comes into play as you don’t ask for a next step for an interview, but you instead politely demand it.

A smart closing is one which emphasizes how you can contribute to a potential employer with a positive note and follow up call. Be sure that you actually keep the promise and follow up with a call.

Here is a sample closing:
I would appreciate the opportunity to speak with you and look at the opportunity to have a new branch in Canada. I would love to do my homework and put together some ideas and thoughts for how I can help to make this happen with my five years of applicable working experience in Canada.

Step5: Proofread and double check everything

This is another important part of resume cover letter writing many people might ignore. Before you fold the paper and insert into an envelope, you need to make sure it is 100% error-free. The best way to do it is to read loud several times by yourself and then have your friend or family member double check for you. It is worth the time doing this so that your cover letter clearly communicates your message to a potential employer in a positive and professional manner.

Step6: Sign your letter and choose the appropriate method

At this point, you just need to hand sign your name in the space between the complimentary closing and your typed name. If you choose to send your professional cover letter by mail, make sure to use only high quality paper for printing. You can also print the envelope or use a label for the mailing address and your retune address on top of the left.

Email is another popular way to send your professional cover letter. Start in directly with:  “Dear Ms. Wells”, and avoid the temptation to begin with something like “Hi, Helen.” It’s important to remember that even through email, you must follow the basic rules and professional approach for professional cover letters.
The subject line of your email is equally as important, keep it short and make sure that the recipient understands why you are writing.
An example: Subject: job application Jul02 – Sales rep. Jennifer Walkers

Step7: Dig into the opportunity by following up

Right after sending out the letter, you should remind yourself to follow up within the time frame you specified in your letter. Don’t assume that the employer will contact you. The bottom line is that you are the one who cares about the job opportunity the most. Don’t be afraid to follow up with your letter, call and ask for an interview, and ultimately make it happen. If you don’t care enough, who else will?

As with any other step in the process, professional cover letters take some time and effort. You want to be sure that you are always conveying yourself in the most professional manner possible, and that you demonstrate why you are the best candidate for the job. If you follow these seven steps, you are sure to have success and create the best and most effective cover letter to get you noticed and to move on in the process.

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All components of your job search, from your cover letter to your resume to your follow up correspondence are all interrelated. Even the elements that you may not realize are part of the big picture such as your job search strategy, your network of contacts, and even your responses in interviews. These all help to create a picture of you that others can use to understand what sort of candidate you are and more importantly if you are the right one for the job. As the cover letter is one of the most important components of the job search process, you need to take resume cover letter writing very seriously. If you think about it, this is the first impression you get to make on the hiring manager, and therefore it better be a good one if you want to move further in the process.
 
Professional cover letters are not just used as a cover page for your resume anymore, but rather they are an initial indication of why you are contacting the person that’s reading it. Cover letters offer you a golden opportunity to link your unique skills, individual experience, and overall talents and interests with a particular job opportunity or organization. This is it, the very first thing that a potential hiring manager will read about you, so you have to ensure that you make your resume cover letter writing really count. This letter serves as a formal introduction to the people who can be extremely influential in your job search. Professional cover letters give the readers a snapshot of you and prepare them with all of the details and highlights of your resume. As you can see, this is an extremely important document, and one for which you must put some serious time and thought into writing—that is if you want to move on in the process.

For the best effects and a surefire way to move on in the process, use these seven steps to make your resume cover letter writing easy and effective.

Step1: Presentation with an effective format

You can use whichever tool works best for you to begin your resume cover letter to properly display all of your contact information at the top of the page. Just be sure that for the most professional cover letters possible, you are consistent with the font and style choices that you use throughout your resume. This shows a great attention to detail, and provides an automatic favorable first impression. Be sure to consider the format which you are sending the letter, for example an email cover letter will require a slightly different format than a mailed cover letter.

Step2: Focus on the first paragraph to create a strong hook

The first paragraph of your professional cover letters should let your reader know why are writing, that is what the actual purpose is. It’s important to try and make your opening sentence interesting enough to draw in the reader and intrigue them to read the remainder of the letter. Remember what we discussed in “The Hook” article—this is the first and most important point that you make so you really need to make it jump off the page and pull in the reader. For the purposes of effective cover letter writing, here is a sample of a strong hook:

While acting as a purchasing manager, I restructured the entire purchasing process and reduced the operational costs at a rate of 15%. As this was a major part of my career as a purchasing manager, I would like to speak with you about how I can contribute to your organization and deliver the same results.

— to be continued