Cover Letter Tips from the New York Times

Cover Letter Tips from the New York TimesCover Letter Tips from the New York Times2When you think about it, your job application has some of the priciest real estate around. Since youre limited to about two pages that have to not only summarize your entire career, but also catch the eye of a hiring manager and sell that personon why you (and only you) are the person to hire, it makes sense that every word should pack a punch.But many times job seekers dont usetheir deckblatt letters to the fullest advantage, and instead use that precious page to basically regurgitate their resume- only in full-sentence format. In the New York Times article, How to Write a Cover Letter People Will Actually Read, distitelbild how to write an award-winning cover letter- or at least just get called in for an interview.Cover Letter Tips from the New York Times1. Forget the format.If you thought that having a generic format for your cover letter will get you hired, think again.Sure, being bland can keep yo u in the safe zone, but it can also put you in a bigger competitive pool with other job seekers who also wrote their cover letters the same way. Instead of sticking to one format, try to vary your cover letter depending on the job youre applying for. (And yes, you should definitely have more than one version of your cover letter when applying for jobs.) By avoiding a specific format, youll feel more freedom to be creative in your cover letter. Which leads us to 2. Make it personal.Hiring managers are desperate (yes, desperate) to know who job seekers really are.Thats why the vast majority of them will peruse yoursocial media profiles as a way to get a glimpse into who you are beyond whats listed on your resume. Theyre not simply being nosy when you consider how much it costs a company to hire a new employee, not to mention the loss of productivity when said employee is hired, it makes sense that a potential employer wants to ensure the new hire complements the company and will also mesh well with the rest of the team.When writing your cover letter, be sure to infuse it with bits of your personality so a hiring manager can get a sense of who you are. You might want to add a short anecdote (as it relates to the job youre hiring for) or write in a more conversational format to let employers feel as if they already know you.3. Dont repeat your resume.The cover letter portion of your job application can be scary to some job seekers, especially if you feel that your writing skills are not up to par.To avoid making a mistake, job seekers will just take their resume and pretty much paste it onto their cover letter. But the hiring manager already scanned your resume, so reading it again in a longer format isnt going to cut it.Use all that extra space to showcase specific examples from your resume of why youre a qualified job candidate. You might want to include examples of projects you worked on or expand on how youre a strong team player and highlight those soft skill s that employers are looking for when hiring remote workers.4. Conduct some research.Employers want to know that you want to work for their company, not just get hired so you can end your job search and get a paycheck. And ideally, youre only applying for companies that you really would like to work for with missions that you believe in and jobs that interest and excite you.So before you click send on that job application, why not try doing some research on the company? Find out more about its history, some of its accolades, and its plans for the future as well, and then tailor your cover letter to include some of this information. Sure, it might mean that youre churning out fewer job applications daily, but it also means that you are sending well-thought-out, well-rounded, and more quality job applications that will get you a quicker callback.5. Showcase your knowledge.Your cover letter is prime real estate to show what you know. You can do this by highlighting previous work experi ences (as well as life experiences) that showcase the education, experience, and skills youll need for the job youre applying for.That said, you should also customize your cover letter to specifically address any issues that the company might be facing. For example, if the organization is having some pain points (e.g., its social media could use some shaping up) offer up some ideason how you would fix them based on your knowledge about the company, as well as your own experiences and expertise. By being proactive in your cover letter, youre showing the company why hiring you makes smart business sense- for them.unterstellung cover letter tips from the New York Times can help you learn what to do- and what not to do- on your cover letter. Although it might be tempting to cut corners when it comes to your cover letter in an effort to apply to more positions, it really makes better business sense to produce fewer (but better quality) cover letters that will get you hired faster.Start A pplying to Flexible JobsReaders, are you customizing your cover letters for each job youre applying for, or are you just cranking them out? Let us know in the comments below