{"id":25596,"date":"2024-11-18T20:31:07","date_gmt":"2024-11-18T20:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lawsondelaney.com.au\/?p=25596"},"modified":"2024-11-18T20:31:07","modified_gmt":"2024-11-18T20:31:07","slug":"how-to-write-a-cover-letter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lawsondelaney.com.au\/how-to-write-a-cover-letter\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Write a Cover Letter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the first things a potential employer or recruiter will see when you apply for a role, is a cover letter.\u00a0 A cover letter is an opportunity to showcase your professionalism, your ability to write effectively and quite simply meet the requirements the employer is seeking from a new employee.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So many times during my career I have seen cover letters which are not tailored to the job at hand.\u00a0 In fact, often they are cover letters which have been submitted for different positions entirely and even have other Company or Hiring Manager\u2019s names on them.\u00a0 Big mistake!\u00a0 Some recruitment consultants will tell you that they seldom read a cover letter any more &#8211; perhaps this is why!\u00a0 Like many others however, I always do.\u00a0 It definitely helps me differentiate between candidates.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #bccd30;\">Benefits of writing a cover letter<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stand out from the crowd.\u00a0 In a market where there are many others applying for the same role this is your chance to:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Demonstrate the effort you have put into your application.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Describe your current situation in respect to employment including why you are looking and why this role is of interest to you.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Provide more detail on the specific skills or experience you offer which are of particular relevance to this position.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #bccd30;\">Tips for writing a cover letter<\/span><b><br \/>\n<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Use plain, professional fonts and page formatting. Refrain from complex graphics, using landscape documents or fonts with difficult to read characters.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Use an appropriate \u201ctone of voice\u201d\u00a0 &#8211; this will depend on the company, the industry, and the occupation and role.\u00a0 The job advertisement and website will help to give you clues about what is appropriate.\u00a0 You can mirror the language used in the job advertisement.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Write in the first, not the third person.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Make sure that the person you address it to is the person listed in the advertisement.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">State <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">how your skills, education and experience fit the requirements listed in the advertisement.\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Provide real examples.\u00a0 Don\u2019t just state that you are this or that.\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The cover letter is meant to add <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">value. \u00a0 For instance, nearly everyone states that they have excellent communication and interpersonal skills.\u00a0 Rather than this, describe how your excellent communication skills have been demonstrated in the workplace. Is there a specific role requirement that has required you to utilise your outstanding interpersonal skills?\u00a0 What situation have you been involved with that demonstrated that your communication skills are superior to others?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Check for spelling and grammatical errors &#8211; especially if you describe yourself as having fantastic attention to detail!<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Keep it to less than one page. The Hiring contact is likely to have many cover letters to read.\u00a0 Short and effective is the key. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0It is not<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> a replica of your resume.\u00a0 Bullet points are fine.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Add the cover page as the first page of your resume, if you are only able to upload one document.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ensure the company name and job title are without errors.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Check that your email address and telephone number are correct. I see incorrect numbers frequently!<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Use professional letter writing format and language.\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example:\u00a0 \u201cDear Hiring Manager\u2019s Name\u201d, \u201cI look forward to hearing from you, \u201cI look forward to discussing my application further\u201d, \u201cSincerely\u201d and \u201cKind Regards\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #bccd30;\">Using AI<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I recommend some caution with this.\u00a0 While it\u2019s okay to use AI to assist you, in my experience it is often obvious that you have not written this yourself through the language that is used.\u00a0 Perhaps see it as a helpful starting point.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #bccd30;\">Summary<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While it adds complexity to the submission of a job application, an effective cover letter will help ensure that your application is noticed and piques the interest of the potential employer.\u00a0 A well written cover letter, tailored to the position being advertised, shows that you have been prepared to invest your time and effort into the recruitment process.\u00a0 Your resume is worthy of serious consideration!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the first things a potential employer or recruiter will see when you apply for a role, is a cover letter.\u00a0 A cover letter is an opportunity to showcase your professionalism, your ability to write effectively and quite simply meet the requirements the employer is seeking from a new employee. So many times during&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":25599,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","footnotes":""},"categories":[92],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-candidate"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lawsondelaney.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lawsondelaney.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lawsondelaney.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lawsondelaney.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lawsondelaney.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25596"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lawsondelaney.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25602,"href":"https:\/\/www.lawsondelaney.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25596\/revisions\/25602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lawsondelaney.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/25599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lawsondelaney.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lawsondelaney.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lawsondelaney.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}