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Passing the test of the cover letter
Many people have asked themselves how to write a cover letter the best way. What is the recipe for the most successful cover letter? While there are a couple of hints and pieces of advice we can give, there is no way we can tell you from now that this or that kind of cover letter is the perfect one.
People are looking for recipes all the time. Because we live in such a fast world and we have to do too many things in limited time, we are always looking for blueprints of behavior. We no longer take the time to think things through ourselves. We want to make other people think and work for us instead. We want professionals to give us the recipe on how to live, even if we have to pay them for that.
This kind of attitude applies to many things in life including the process of getting a job and writing the proper cover letter. At the same time, it is true that there are certain requests that companies make about how to write a cover letter, which may make the cover letter less personal and more typified than we would like them to be. So yes, maybe you do need some help from a professional about how to write a cover letter.
We will try to give you some precious advice on how to write a cover letter. While giving indications, we want to underline the fact that perhaps the most important advice is not to apply everything you learn about the cover letter automatically, but to think everything through yourself and to try to introduce at least a few personal elements in your cover letter. Nobody can tell you how to write a cover letter better than yourself.
Think about it. What are you supposed to include in the cover letter? The cover letter must contain information about two things: about the company you are applying for and about yourself. On the one hand, you must write briefly what you know about the employing company and why it interests you. You can mention the source of information where you have heard about the company and your reason of fascination with it. On the other hand, you must write about yourself. The cover letter is mainly supposed to show that you really match the job you are applying for. So, while you do include information about yourself, you should write especially about those details that make you fit for the company. It shouldn’t be very difficult.
If the cover letter is about yourself and how well you suit the company you are applying for, then who can know better than yourself how the cover letter can be more persuasive. Actually, trusting your instincts to write the cover letter is the first step in gaining that kind of self-confidence that all the companies look for.
Although you have a free hand in what you decide to tell about your qualities, do obey the rules about what a cover letter should be like. Allow yourself to be original, but within limits. I know people who applied for jobs in a bank and how they wrote about their athletic careers in the cover letter. It might appear as an inappropriate choice, but it wasn’t. You should present relevant information about yourself for the job that you have chosen, not just brag. My friend, who wrote about his experience as an athlete in his cover letter, did manage to get the job. And he got the job because he showed how that experience taught him to be disciplined, to endure hardship and to sustain long term efforts. Of course a bank would want you to be like that. They would want you to be able to give as much as possible to the company.
If you allow yourself to put in a little bit of honesty and personalize the cover letter, the process of writing it may end up helping you a lot. You may understand how much you like the job just by making this exercise of putting it all down on paper. Or, while you write the cover letter you may discover that there is nothing that matches between you and the job that you are applying for. Discovering something like that may be the best thing that has happened to you, although you may be disappointed on the spot because you may think that you have lost the job and that maybe you will never learn how to write a cover letter. However, in the end, everything will work out to your advantage.
Companies use the cover letter for many reasons when they select people. You can just guess what the reason is and adapt the content of your cover letter according to that. For example, if you are a foreigner, the company may use the cover letter simply to know what your level of written expression is. Other companies may want to test your ability to perform a task so they will provide information about how to write a cover letter and then expect you to fulfill those indications. There are jobs that require a lot of creativity, in which case the cover letter will be just a test of your ability to write something nice, an interesting piece of literature. But in most cases, the cover letter is just there to do the very basic function it was meant to do - to introduce you to the company and the people who will make the decision about your hiring and to prove that you are actually fit for that position.
The cover letter isn’t meant to be an impediment in your hiring process. You must think of it as a helping hand when trying to figure out what your contribution to the company is. Researching and putting a little effort in writing the cover table will surely help you get the job.
About the Author: Being tested is a part of life and you have to get used to it. Getting a job implies a lot of tests and among the first ones that you will have to pass is the cover letter . You have to know to express yourself and sell your abilities to the hiring company. In a few words – you have to know how to write a cover letter .
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