How to Ace Your Job Application Cover Letter
You made the perfect resume and now you’re ready to start applying to jobs. But that’s not all. You realise that the job you want to apply for requires you to include a cover letter as well. And for that brief moment, you become clueless. What’s a cover letter? How do I write one? What if they don’t like it? All this effort to craft an immaculate resume and now this?
Regardless of whether you’re a fresher or a working professional, cover letters are no less than an uncomfortable situation. And we can totally relate! But don’t worry. We’ve got you covered. This comprehensive article will walk you through everything you need to know about a cover letter and how to write one.
What is a Cover Letter?
A cover letter also known as a covering letter or application letter is usually a one-page document that is accompanied by your resume or CV.
The purpose of a cover letter is to summarise your professional skills, experience and highlight your interest in this particular job. It elaborates on why you think you’re a good fit for this position and the reasons you’re applying for this role.
If you’re wondering about how long a cover letter should be, anywhere from 200 to 400 words is sufficient. Generally speaking, this length should be enough to get your point across. You don’t want to make it too short or too long where the employer feels like you didn’t put in the effort to write a cover letter or wrote too much to overcompensate for something else.
Structure of a Cover Letter
The following elements are what a cover letter consists of:
How to Write a Cover Letter
Below, we've attached a sample cover letter. We will dissect this cover letter based on the different elements of its structure and note down tips and tricks to help you craft your cover letter while applying to a job.
Applicant Details
This section is considered as the ‘From’ section of the cover letter.
These are the basic details about yourself that help the employer identify and contact you. Your name, email address, mobile number, location, website, social media handles, etc.
You need not include all these points as most freshers might not have a website or you may not want to provide your social media handles as they might not be relevant for work.
Recipient Details
This section is considered as the ‘To’ section of the cover letter.
The recipient details refer to the information about the employer. It is addressed to the recruiter, hiring manager or the relevant department of the company you’re applying to.
Subject Line
A subject is a one-line summary that informs the recruiter what the message is about. For example, ‘Application for the position of Content Writer at Prospeer’.
The subject line comes into play if you’re writing your cover letter as an email. You may or may not use a subject line if you’re drafting your cover letter as a separate document, depending on how you’re sending the cover letter.
If you’re sending a separate attachment through email, then that email itself would have a subject section so you need not include the same in the document you will attach. But if you’re including the cover letter through a job portal and you’re not sure how the employer is receiving it, you can include a subject line in the attachment.
Greetings
A simple greeting such as ‘Dear Mr XYZ’ is used to begin your message. Most of the time you will be able to see the name of the person who has posted the job and is responsible to go through your application. Address your greeting to this person.
If for some reason, you cannot see who has posted the job, you should consider making the effort to go on their LinkedIn company page or any other resource that might give you an idea regarding the identity of the recruiter or the hiring manager. If you’re still not sure or find multiple people who could be responsible, it is safer to address the person as ‘Dear Hiring Manager’.
Introduction
The introduction can be simple and to the point or can have an interesting hook that makes the recruiter want to read and find out more about you. The trick here is to try and make it personal and extremely relevant for the job application.
Let’s look at the introductory paragraph of the example we had given above — “After going through Prospeer’s company profile and the job requirements for the position of Content Writer, I must say that I’ve never felt such a spark of enthusiasm to work for an organisation.”
This intro does two things:
- Shows that you’ve put in the time to actually understand the company.
- Makes the recruiter curious as to why you felt this enthusiasm. (Which you would need to justify later on)
As mentioned earlier, you could also keep it simple and straightforward — “I’m writing to apply for the position of Content Writer at Prospeer as advertised on (Mention platform. Example LinkedIn, company website, etc).
Main Body
The body of your cover letter is the crux of your message.
If you’re a fresher, mention your academic information such as the field of study, the college you’re studying in or have graduated from, academic projects that might be relevant to the job and other milestones and achievements.
If you’re a working professional, mention your relevant skills and past experience with similar work and why you’re looking to change to this organisation.
A good pattern to follow for the body message is past-present-future.
- Past — Mention past education/milestones/achievements/projects/work experience that is of value to the recruiter for judging your candidature.
- Present — Your current situation including the things you’re doing to progress in your career and grow as a professional.
- Future — How you see yourself helping the business in the role you’re applying for and how it will help you as well.
Conclusion
Conclude your letter by thanking the concerned individual for taking the time to go through your application.
Formal Salutation
End the letter with a formal salutation from one of the options given below:
- Sincerely (Name)
- Yours Sincerely (Name)
- Yours Sincerely (Signature) (Name)
Mistakes to Avoid While Writing a Cover Letter
- Mention only relevant contact information. Make sure your mobile number and email are active and reachable.
- Do not provide social media handles that are not relevant.
- Maintain a fairly formal tone. Avoid informal ways of communication such as colloquial slang language.
- Don’t write a novel. Avoid wordy paragraphs. Keep your sentences short and crisp as much as possible.
- Do not replicate your resume in paragraphs as a cover letter. Provide information that the recruiter would not get to know about you through your resume. For example, your interest and leaning towards this job as compared to others, why you choose this particular field as a career path, etc.
- Do not focus too much on yourself. When you’re giving information related to you, make sure that it connects with the job application in some way.
- Grammar! Make sure that there are no typos. Nothing looks as unprofessional as an application that doesn’t meet the basics. Use free tools like Grammarly to edit and proofread if you’re not too confident about what you’ve written.
- Lastly, do not try to be a super-fan of the company. Hiring managers can see right through fake enthusiasm.
