A cover letter is still a valuable and persuasive tool in your job search, and communicating your value within your cover letter without replicating the content in your resume is essential.
Related:4 Inside Secrets To Writing A Great Cover Letter
So, how do you show the value you offer a potential employer without repeating yourself? Here are a few tips.
1. Keep It Concise
Avoid the tendency to get overly wordy. In fact, if you can keep your cover letter to 150 words or less, you're really doing GREAT. Write everything you'd like to say within the cover letter, and then check your word count, then go back and start deleting superfluous words.
2. Know What They Want
Know what they want, and then address it. Start your cover letter by hitting a vital pain point the employer has. Here's a good model to follow:
Are you looking for a (insert: job title here) who can (insert: deliver something you know they need really badly here).
So for me, if I were writing this to my prospective clients, it would sound like this:
Dear Executive Job Seeker, (title of person I'm addressing)
Are you looking for a $100,000 - $1M+ executive-level position? (what my clients need)
3. Focus On What You Accomplish
Here's the most critical part of showing how you add value; you must focus on what you ACCOMPLISH—not on what you do. Write three short bullets—and by short I mean one line, no more. Additionally, the bullet point must contain $$ or %%%. Here's what this would look like if I were writing it to my target audience.
Here are some of our results:
99.6% interview-winning success rate in less than 60 days.
Job searches shortened from 9+ months to 3 months or less.
50% secure interviews in less than two weeks.
The three bullets include numbers, percentages, and time frames. These all communicate how I offer value to my clients. Model your cover letter the same way. Keep your bullets brief and focused on what you've accomplished for your prior employers. The key is to not get caught in the trap of writing about what you do every day.
The three tips above provide a detailed outline of exactly how to write a cover letter that expresses the value you offer employers. Once you start incorporating these tips into the cover letters you write, I'm positive your response rate will increase significantly. Is writing just not your area of expertise? We write cover letters and value proposition letters for our clients every day. PS: Don't forget to add a PS to your cover letter that tells the reader where they can find more information out about you! (i.e. a professional website or your LinkedIn profile). And while you're on LinkedIn, let's connect. You can send me an invitation here.
The leaves are changing, the kids are back in school, and that familiar chill is in the air. You think it's the perfect time to look for a job, and it is! But are your job search fears preventing you from making that leap?
It's not uncommon to feel lost when embarking on your job search journey. After all, school teaches us everything except how to get a job. What should you put on your resume? What questions should you ask in an interview? How can you stand out in the hiring process when there's so much competition?
Are you feeling spooked yet?
Believe it or not, there's no need to be afraid of the job search process! You can land your dream job with the right tools and strategy. You can find a job that won't give you nightmares. Here are three spooky secrets every job seeker should know as they look for a job this fall.
1. An Effective Job Search Starts With An Interview Bucket List
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Despite your fears, you've decided to take the plunge and look for a new job. You might be asking yourself, "Where do I start?" The answer is simple: start by creating an interview bucket list.
An interview bucket list is a list of 10-20 companies you'd love to work for. Are you passionate about a company's products or services? Do you feel connected to its mission? Can you relate to its values and beliefs as an organization? If you answer "yes" to any of these questions, that company probably belongs on your interview bucket list.
Once you create an interview bucket list, you'll be able to conduct a targeted job search, one with direction and a foundation upon which everything else will be built. An interview bucket list helps you focus your job search and networking strategies on the right opportunities, making it easier to get your foot in the door at one of your dream companies.
2. Your Job Application Needs To Disrupt Hiring Managers
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In order to stand out in the hiring process, you need to disrupt recruiters and hiring managers. You accomplish this by doing two things: optimizing your resume and writing a disruptive cover letter.
A well-optimized resume includes keywords from the job description. This ensures your resume gets past the ATS and into the hands of the hiring manager. Once it's in front of the hiring manager, it needs to grab and keep their attention. Quantifying your work experience—adding numbers to your bullet points—will make you stand out from other applicants. Hiring managers will want to know more about you and your accomplishments, and that's how you land a phone interview.
Before that, though, a hiring manager will read your cover letter. To disrupt them, you need to write a disruptive cover letter (obviously!). A disruptive cover letter gives you the opportunity to tell a story about why you feel connected to the company you're applying for. It's that storytelling aspect that will stand out to hiring managers and compel them to pick up the phone and give you a call.
3. Employers Hire You Based On 3 Things
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You can't get hired unless you know what employers are assessing you on in the interview process. While your skills and expertise matter, companies actually hire for three things: personality, aptitude, and experience (in that order).
Most job seekers don't realize how important it is to demonstrate their personality, aptitude, and experience in an interview. You could have the right experience for a job, but if the hiring manager doesn't think your personality is a good fit for the company culture, you probably won't get a job offer.
Make sure you demonstrate your soft skills and learn how to answer behavioral interview questions to prove you're the best candidate for the job you're applying for, not just the most qualified.
Want To Learn More Job Search Secrets?
As you look for a job this fall, it might be helpful to know some more spooky secrets so you can get over your job search fears and finally take control of your career.
We know the job search process can be scary. However, it's important to get clear on what you want to do next and focus on conducting a strategic job search, or what we refer to at Work It DAILY as job shopping. This is the only way to effectively market yourself to employers. If they can't see exactly where and how you add value, then that's going to decrease your chances of landing the job.
The competition is fierce, and there are a lot of factors that are out of your control. But the one factor you can control is your job search strategy, the tools and tactics you use to land a job.
If you want to learn the secrets to conducting a strategic job search, sign up for our Job Search Bootcamp, a two-hour, on-demand video workshop that comes with a free workbook.
In this video workshop, you'll learn:
How to use backchanneling to get directly to hiring managers.
The secret to using a connection story to stand out against the competition.
How social media can be your secret weapon to get job interviews.
The resume format that is getting job seekers more job interviews.
