What REALLY Makes a Great Cover Letter?

I work in a job center and provide counselling for people who are looking for a job. Because of this, I am always interested in anything that can help job seekers improve their odds of getting a job. I read many articles on how to write your cover letter.

I see the same advice repeated over and over:

1. Address the hiring manager by name, i.e. do not use a generic salutation.

2. Make it short, neat, and sweet

3. Make sure there's lots of white space

4. Repeat the keywords in the job description

5. Specifically list the benefits you can bring to the company

While I agree with these often repeated pieces of advice, even when my clients do these things perfectly, they often get passed over for by companies and candidates who are obviously less qualified end up getting the job.

Here's why.

Their cover letter, while following the conventional wisdom of what makes it good, does NOT catch the attention of the hiring manager.

The conventional wisdom was developed at a time when the job market was not so competitive. It was developed at a time when hiring managers actually had the time to review each and every resume in full. However, these days every job opening gets so many applications that the hiring manager has to find a way to very quickly narrow the field. From talking with many hiring managers I have determined that this is most often done by quickly reading through all the cover letters. The applications containing the cover letters that catch the attention of the hiring manager get set aside for more review. However, those that don't get rejected BEFORE the hiring manager or anyone else at the company has a chance to even see the resume.

I know this may not sound fair and it is certainly an imperfect system but the good news is that there is an easy way to get around this problem and DRAMATICALLY improve your odds of getting a job.

What you need to do, while still following the 5 conventional "rules" above, is make your letter REALLY UNIQUE so that it stands out from the rest. You need to get inside the head of a hiring manager sitting at their desk quickly scanning through the cover letters of a big pile of job applications. Ask yourself - what is going to really catch their attention - but still maintain a professional tone and show what benefits you can provide to the company.

In the job center, I have helped clients change their cover letter and the results have been amazing. Clients who have been looking for work for many months without being called in for a single interview suddenly start getting interviews! So, I advise you to listen to the conventional wisdom but at the same time make a real effort to make your cover letter really stand out.

Because it can be exceedingly difficult to write a really unique cover letter and still maintain a professional tone, I started looking around for some help.

I discovered a very effective tool for my clients that you can also use to easily write a unique cover letter. Best of all, it only takes a few minutes with this tool!

It is cover letter software that was creating by one of the most talented sales copy writers in the marketing industry. You answer some questions and it will produce you a cover letter that is sprinkled with marketing magic and tailored to your specific job industry. The resulting letter is one that really sets you apart from all the other applicants.

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