Tell me about amazing cover letters!

[lizzieoak]

I used to work more with the public and, for the most part, enjoyed it. For the last 3 years I've been working in closed offices, security passes to get in, no public contact. And I don't like it. I really want to get back to talking to people but don't seem to be able to get the interviews. I may look over-qualified now.

Any tips re grovelling/getting across how keen I am? I write well I think, until it comes to cover letters where I fear I sound stilted. Overt enthusiasm & selling myself don't come naturally. Any key phrases to deploy or avoid?

What do you put in your cover letters?

A good cover letter will carefully outline how you meet the selection criteria and it's best to do this demonstrating it in ways that show you have experience of the duties too. E.g., if they want someone who has experience of Excel and one of the duties will be budget management then I would say something like "I have strong MS office skills including Excel and have used it daily in many of my roles. In x post I was responsible for budget management of which I set up a spreadsheet to calculate the profit and loss (etc) of the x project. Etc. This was helpful to the business and improved the way we were able to track expenditure." Or something along those lines.

You should also explain why you think you are a good fit for the role as well as why you want it. I usually also tweak my CV to show how I have experience of the duties, e.g. If they want you to be in charge of project budgets then I show in my CV the aspects of budget management that I have been involved in.

Each job application should be bespoke to that job. That being said this is how I get the best results. I have a friend who just pings off her CV and can line up many interviews.

Oh, I spend ages rewriting the actual cv to each job. I didn't think the cover letter should be so detailed though? But I can try that for sure, thanks!

A good cover letter has neat handwriting with no spelling or grammatical errors!

The cover letter is to pick out the bits in your cv that are relevant to the role you are applying for. If I don't think someone has made an effort on the letter I don't bother with the cv.

Handwritten?!

I got a compliment on one at interview once, so I dug it out to have a look for you. It is brief. I say, here's the CV, and put in two short paragraphs.

The key phrases from one are "You will see from my CV that....This is an example of ...... requiring the skills as set out in your job description." And from the other "I would also like to highlight.... [insight into how good I was at this relevant earlier role] ...which I enjoyed very much."

In doing this, I think that I indicate that I have tailored the CV for the job already, but that I care enough to have identified briefly why I want them to read it.

My advice re cover letter comes from two places. Firstly I was made redundant several years ago and my employer paid for a company who specialise in helping people find jobs to help me. They scrutinised my cover letters and recommended this approach. Secondly I now work in HR and the company I work for expect cover letters to be broken down into the selection criteria. If people don't apply using that format, then unless it's clear in their letter how they meet the criteria, it's unusual that they would get an interview. Always say why you want the job.

Great ideas! All the jobs I apply for are online applications, so typing only.

YesIlike, those are great phrases!! Am lifting those, thanks so much! I struggle w the idea, Maverick, of referring to selection criteria as none of the jobs I apply for have less than two pages of lists of criteria. So I try to put those dotted around the resume itself.

Saying why I want it I find tricky without sounding stilted, but I know it's crucial. For example, I've been working in closed offices for years and want to get back to working with people. Say just that? That I enjoy helping people and look forward to the opportunity to return to that work? No one talks like that in real life so it always sounds odd to me.

Sorry, said resume vs CV, I know that can get up British noses. I've been back in Canada too long!

I've recruited hundreds of people. I barely read covering letters and focus on the cv.

Words/phrases to make a good impression:

Achievement
Active
Developed
Evidence
Experience
Impact
Individual
Involved
Planning
Transferable skills

For example, I've been working in closed offices for years and want to get back to working with people

I am pursuing new job opportunities working with the general public as I am often complimented on my excellent customer focus and strong communication skills

Don't worry about being "cheesey". Most job applications, especially for customer facing roles, have to be a bit "Have a Great Day now!"

Snow fairy, those words and phrases are great. I'll see where I can insert a few into my letter.

Thanks Daisy, that's great wording! I'm definitely borrowing that. I do like working with people, and people do tell me I'm very patient and polite. Helping people makes me feel so much better than doing 100% perfect quality control on file content! I really hope someone will give me the chance, I know they would not regret it.

I did similar post-redundancy careers counselling recently as Maverick and got the same advice about cover letters. Seems to havr worked. Got a job quite quickly

I'm not sure that's possible for me, though, as the jobs I'm applying for almost always have two pages of duties & qualifications. They will say they expect x in terms of educations and then a huge list of previous experience in xxxx. So I'm not sure addressing these long lists is possible? I may be thinking of this arse-backward though?

I've more just said "want to get back to this work", "have done this work before @ x & y company", "educations and skills make me bloody amazing candidate" etc. Using great phrases people have suggested. And not actually saying bloody. Paraphrasing obviously! The cover letter for the one I'm aiming at before Friday (no rush yet as still working so only applying for ones I want at this stage) is 3 paragraphs long.

Even if you can't reference all of the criteria separately you could say something like "you will see from my cv that I meet the criteria for the role"so that the employer at least knows you've read it.
I recently recruited for a fairly basic admin job and put 'please forward cv with handwritten covering letter stating why you feel this is the role for you' it was amazing how many people didn't even do this.

That amazes me that anyone is taking applications any way other than online (not criticizing in the slightest, just surprised). Where I live it's 100% online for anything beyond a very few shops. Anything requiring computer skills (& many things not, like baristas) are online applications. They can take forever to fill out and it can take hours to do just a few. I've got a job but want/need another and it sure does suck up my spare time.

I'll make sure I've got a sentence referring generally to fulfilling the criteria, though, thanks.

Employers will show a list of Must Have criteria/skills/criteria first and another list of Desirable Good to have criteria after

Just mention 1-2 of the " top of their list " capabilities. Its only to show them You have read their JD and on the case as to what they need. No need to over complicate it

A good covering letter should reference the company you are applying to. So why are you interested in working for them specifically, and why that role. Much, much better strike rate than a generic letter.