The employment outlook for new graduates is still gloomy, but you have a good chance of landing a job if you launch an aggressive search. A well-crafted cover letter should be part of this proactive strategy — experts say that customizing your letter can open doors to new opportunities. Here\u2019s how.<\/p>\n
Know the Employer<\/span><\/p>\n While distributing the same cover letter to every employer saves time, you won\u2019t stand out from the crowd of applicants doing the same thing.<\/p>\n \u201cResearch the company, learn about their culture and business needs, and speak directly to those needs, says Kim Mohiuddin, certification chair for the National Resume Writers\u2019 Association and president of Movin\u2019 On Up Resumes, a resume-writing firm in San Diego. \u201cThis personalized approach shows that you care about and are qualified for the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n Louise Kursmark, coauthor of Cover Letter Magic also advises graduates to customize their letters. \u201cShow your enthusiasm and connect your knowledge, experience and career interests to the specific employer and job opportunity,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Kursmark also suggests customizing not only what you say in your cover letter, but also whom you send it to. \u201cMake a personal connection with someone who works at the company and ask for a referral to the hiring authority,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n What to Include<\/span><\/p>\n You might lack real-world work experience, but your cover letter can be chock-full of activities that demonstrate your potential to succeed.<\/p>\n These activities could include \u201cvolunteer work, class projects and extracurricular activities, as well as special interests such as traveling or playing sports,\u201d says Barb Poole, president of career-management firm Hire Imaging in St. Cloud, Minnesota.<\/p>\n New grads can also mention a high GPA, school leadership positions and seasonal jobs in their cover letters to stand out, says Betty Williams, a nationally certified resume writer and owner of BW Custom Resumes.<\/p>\n Williams suggests finding out what skills are important to the employer, then showing how you have used those skills.<\/p>\n For example, Williams assisted a graduate in the tourism field who was applying for outdoor recreation course instructor positions. She included the following in her cover letter to highlight the leadership skills that were vital to the job: \u201cMy leadership experience includes serving as a backpacking trip leader for an on-campus club that coordinated outdoor adventures. I also designed and implemented ropes programs for community groups of up to 100 participants.\u201d (See a sample cover letter for a recent graduate.)<\/p>\n Be Passionate<\/span><\/p>\n Communicating that you\u2019re genuinely into the kind of work you\u2019re seeking is key, says Anthony Spadafore, director of Pathfinders, a Washington, DC-based career-consulting firm and coauthor of Now What? The Young Person’s Guide to Choosing the Perfect Career. \u201cShow that you\u2019re walking the walk by how you have already been doing what you want to do,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you want to work for a company that builds Web sites, do you have a portfolio of Web sites or blogs that you designed for friends?\u201d<\/p>\n Your passion and motivation for launching your career is a selling point — this type of excitement isn\u2019t always evident with more experienced workers. \u201cIn the cover letter, talk about one or two pertinent examples from your major life choices, lifelong interests, hobbies and passions, with the goal of showing how your proclivities and ideals are aligned with the employer\u2019s projects and contributions to the world,\u201d Spadafore says.<\/p>\n Cover Letter Format<\/span><\/p>\n Your cover letter is not your autobiography — hit on the key points that would interest employers, but keep the letter short.<\/p>\n \u201cInclude a brief opening paragraph that mentions the specifics of the position you are targeting, followed by four to five bullets reflecting qualifications that are relevant to their requirements,\u201d Poole says.<\/p>\n The final paragraph should end with a bang — clearly state how you would contribute to the employer\u2019s operation, and confidently ask for an interview.<\/p>\n Unsure of Your Career Goal?<\/span><\/p>\n Do some career exploration before writing a cover letter. \u201cHiring managers should not have to figure out how your skills meet their needs — do that work for them,\u201d Mohiuddin says. If you have more than one possible direction, write different cover letters for each objective.<\/p>\n \u201cAs you gain clarity about what you\u2019re good at and most want, you\u2019ll be ready to communicate from a genuine, confident space,\u201d Spadafore says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The employment outlook for new graduates is still gloomy, but you have a good chance of landing a job if you launch an aggressive search. A well-crafted cover letter should be part of this proactive strategy — experts say that customizing your letter can open doors to new opportunities. Here\u2019s how. Know the Employer While […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-68","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-resume-cover-letters"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.sg\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.sg\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.sg\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.sg\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.sg\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.sg\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39401,"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.sg\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68\/revisions\/39401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.sg\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.sg\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foundit.sg\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}