Cover Letter Style

Still A Monkey…

Imagine a document that could get you whatever job you wanted at whatever company you

wanted.

This, my friends, is your cover letter.

It tells a story about you – and the style generally follows a biographical style. But, the reason most cover letters fail is because most people treat them as if they were obituaries and not biographies.

If you want maximum impact, your voice has to be heard loud and clear from your cover letter. Your personage has to leap off the page and give the hiring manager a big kiss. A big sloppy, wet kiss. A monkey kiss.

But after a while, and lets be honest here – even a monkey kiss is just a kiss from a monkey, particularly if it never gets changed up. To use a slightly less drool-coated analogy, an obituary only gets written once (hopefully). Your cover letter should be re-written every time you apply for a job.

Unfortunately, what happens is that all this work is very tedious. You end up repeating yourself from cover letter to cover letter – and if you don’t, you risk making lots of huge typos and mistakes. And, if you’re feeling bored, you’re going to come off boring. So, make sure to visit the Cover Letter Preparation page for more information on how to avoid that particular pitfall. What it comes down to is that it is okay to repeat content across cover letters; it is not okay to look and sound like you made your cover letter with a cookie-cutter.

The cover letter handles three basic things: it tells a story about you and how you got your skills, how you will apply them to the company you are applying to, and ask for an interview. It’s as simple as that. Unfortunately, you need to do this while avoiding looking like you’re sending the same cover letter every time (even if you are) and you need to come across as a creative, amazing individual in your own voice in a business-letter format. No small task.

Fortunately, you have my website. And countless others at your disposal (check out the Cover Letter Resources for just a few).

Format – Not Just For Hard Drives Anymore…

A cover letter is a business letter, no matter how you cut it. You need to include your address, the address of the employer, and today’s date before you even write line one. This can take up a fair amount of space, so I always put my address on the top left corner and the employer’s address on the top right corner. You can do this in word by setting tabs or making a two-column, one-row table. Hit the enter key twice after the last line of the addresses, and type today’s date. Hit the enter key four more times after today’s date and start with your greeting. Now you have a mostly-properly formed business letter. You still need a signature line and your “signature” – name and contact info, but this comes after you write the main body of the letter.

Don’t Be A Gingerbread Man…

Remember, visit Cover Letter Preparation before you majorly screw up your greeting! Be specific – mention your hiring manager by name – to do any less can seriously damage your chances! The first two or three sentences should introduce yourself and explain to the hiring manager why you’re contacting them. Be very specific about which position you are applying for and at which company. This makes you look less cookie-cutter-ish. Also, make sure you re-word whichever skills were mentioned in the job description so it doesn’t look like you just copied and pasted them. If you do this, the hiring manager will likely think you’re an idiot or that maybe you just don’t have the skills… or worse, that you’re lazy. Think of a gingerbread man. The first one you make is undoubtedly the best one you’ve ever seen. But make them all the same and the 15th, 20th… whatever-th, and suddenly the first one isn’t so special anymore. Same thing with the hiring manager and the endless stream of resumes landing on their desk. Yours HAS to stand out.

Here’s My Card. Have I Shown You My Card Yet? How Do You Like My Card?

The more visible your contact information, the better. There’s no way around this. It’s not improper to have your contact information in at least three separate places in your cover letter.

Getting Back To That Big Wet Sloppy Monkey-Kiss…

Take a moment to contemplate just how disturbing the picture to the left really is. Ugh.

Okay, moving on. The real trick to coming across as an amazing, creative individual is all in your use of action words. You want to convey a sense of openness, honesty, and an eagerness to learn. Or… whatever is important to you and your career – whatever is valued.

Being able to tell an engaging story about your past employment history and the lessons you learned is very helpful. Particularly in the context of: what did you take away from your past, what did you learn, and how did you grow? Not everyone is a masterful storyteller, but everyone likes to talk about themselves. In this case, you just have to be able to talk about yourself in the context of how you faced challenges (jobs/classes/projects) and overcame them (achievements).

I’m Really Playing The Harmonica Today…
What’s that mean?
I’m Simultaneously Sucking and Blowing.

Epic Fail Key If there’s one thing that’s superbly easy to do in the worst of times, it’s pick on ourselves. Man do we say some horrible things to and about ourselves when we really can’t afford to. Remember – you’re asking for THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS. You don’t want to look or sound the part of a sad sap. Sad saps don’t get paid well.

Well, rest assured – even if you do suck at life, this is usually only a temporary state of being. It usually comes about as a result of being fired or re-assigned or laid-off. No worries, this passes. But you have to get out of the shame spiral and realize that maybe you did screw up. Realize what you did wrong and also realize the things you did right. You are here, after all. On some level you’re trying to improve yourself. Pat yourself on the back, or something. I don’t care. You’re the one with the problem, remember?

Lets try an exercise: list out five of your biggest workplace (or classroom) failures. Then list something positive you did about it. Or, if you didn’t do anything positive (…oh, you’re one of those…) then list something positive you COULD have done about it. Once you’re done with this, put it aside and think about it on those dark, rainy days when you’re playing the harmonica.

Now list five of your biggest workplace (or classroom) successes. List one or two things that led to your success. You might uncover a pattern of what has been causing your successes. With both of these things, you are now well-prepared to tell a good story about yourself. Think about it – you could say that “the Allies won WWII” or that “Muhammad Ali was the greatest boxer of all time”… but you’re missing out on 99% of the story. Thinking critically about your workplace or classroom successes and failures allows you to talk more openly about them. Keep this in mind while jotting down your work place experience.

The number one secret that I have learned – and if you take nothing else away other than this from my site, make it this: