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Students/Graduates

Don't Overlook the Importance of Your Cover Letter

By Peter Vogt

You know how critical your resume is to landing a job or an internship—and so you invest considerable energy in developing the best resume you possibly can.

But what about your cover letter? If you’re like many people, you make the mistake of spending little or almost no time crafting a well-written, persuasive cover letter. (Maybe you don’t even write one at all!) You figure no one will read it anyway, so why bother?

You’re wrong: Employers do read cover letters, and they do expect to receive one from you along with your resume. Different employers work in different ways, of course; some employers will read your cover letter first, then your resume, while others will take just the opposite approach. But the bottom line is the same: You need to write a strong cover letter to accompany every resume you send out—and if you don’t, you’ll practically destroy any chance you have of getting an interview and, ultimately, landing the job.

Cover Letter Basics

The typical cover letter is a one-page document made up of three or four paragraphs:

First paragraph: The first paragraph is simply a sentence or two that explains why you’re writing and how you heard about the job or internship you’re pursuing. For example:

I’m writing to apply for your organization’s accounting internship, which I learned about from your advertisement in the St. Cloud Times.

Second (and third, if necessary) paragraph: The second (and third, if necessary) paragraph is the most important part of your letter. Here, you have to grab the employer’s attention with something that will make you stand out from the dozens or even hundreds of other applicants. So emphasize your key talent or skill, or mention a past accomplishment that relates fairly directly to the position you’re applying for. Then take a few sentences to expand on that point, using bulleted items if you can to highlight specifics. For example:

I’m confident that I have the superior writing skills you require for this position. Here’s why:

I’ve been a columnist for the University of X’s student newspaper for two years, and one of my recent columns earned a “best in category” award from the College Media Advisors professional organization.

I’ve written several feature articles for the University of X’s alumni magazine, read by more than 100,000 subscribers.

I’ve maintained a 3.85 GPA in my major (English) courses.

Final paragraph: Use the last paragraph of your letter to ask for an interview, and to tell the reader what you plan to do next in the application process. For example:

I would welcome the opportunity to meet with you to describe what I can offer you in more depth. I will call you in one week to discuss the possibilities.

Then, of course, you wrap up your letter with a “Sincerely,” along with your name and signature.

Helpful Cover Letter Tips

You may end up writing only 200 or 300 words total for your cover letter, but they could be among the most important 200 or 300 words of your life. So you want to make them good—great, in fact. Here’s how:

Be concise—Limit your cover letter to just one page. Remember: Employers are going to be looking at many cover letters and resumes, not just yours, so brevity is best.

Be clear—Use a conversational tone in your cover letter. You don’t want to go so far as to be informal (as you might be in an email to a friend, for instance); but it’s OK for you to sound basically like yourself.

Be compelling—Your cover letter should highlight the “best of the best” of what you have to offer the employer. So use it to highlight your most impressive skills and accomplishments, especially as they relate to what the employer is looking for. Remember: You need to offer something to the reader.

Be creative—Employers have seen so many cover letters and resumes that they can quickly tell when someone has simply used a “template” from a book or web site. So you can easily stand out by trying something a little different; for example, make a claim—e.g., “I’m more passionate about the _____ field than the other applicants you’re considering”—and then use the rest of your cover letter to back up that claim.

Be accurate – As is the case with your resume, typos and grammatical errors will kill you in your cover letter. So be sure to proofread your letter more than once. Better yet, have a detail-oriented friend look at it as well.

Your cover letter, by itself, probably won’t get you an interview or a job. But it can, by itself, eliminate you from consideration for an interview or a job. So be sure you give it the attention it deserves—so that employers will give you the attention you deserve.

College to Career
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