You can find tips for writing a cover letter everywhere across the internet, but for this article, we wanted to compile our top 10 cover letter tips for easy reading. For quick advice on cover letters, you've come to the right place.
Cover Letter Template
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Free Top 10 Cover Letter Tips
1. Research the company and role
If you're looking to impress your potential employer, one of the best courses of action you can take is researching the company once you've found a job role that interests you. From the job advert page, find the company's individual website, and see what they look for in their employees. Look into their customer values, the type of people they employer, and refer back to the job description and these values in your cover letter. Hidden messages can be your strongest weapon when job hunting.
2. Go beyond your CV
A cover letter is about more than simply rehashing the skills and experiences that you've listed on your CV. You should be able to tell an enticing story using your employment history. One that shows the employer that you have the relevant skills to take on the new job that you're applying for. Companies don't like wasting time on people that need to be trained from scratch when they have other, more qualified applicants. Show the company that you can do the job.
3. Personalise a template
Templates are a great start to writing an amazing cover letter for your job application, but employers can often tell when you're using one if you don't edit it properly. The trick is to not copy and past the cover letter. Have the template open on one side of your screen, and a blank document file open on the other. Write using the template, instead of editing the template. This will keep you from using the exact same phrases, which employers will catch straight away.
4. Stay positive
The most off-putting thing you can do on a cover letter is be negative about yourself, your skills, or your lack of experience. A cover letter should remain positive all the way through; introducing yourself and your skills to an employer, but never apologising for any experiences that you don't have. No candidate has the exact same background as another candidate. It's about what you do have, not what you don't.
5. Be yourself, professionally
When you're writing a cover letter, try to use the same kind of language that you would use if you were talking to an employer face-to-face. It will be seen as quite odd if you get an interview with a company but the way you speak sounds nothing like how you've written your cover letter. Imagine yourself in a workplace setting, perhaps in a meeting with your boss, and write how you would speak to them.
6. Remember that all experience counts
You may not have the exact experience that you think you need to apply for a job, or perhaps you're applying for your first job and don't believe that you have any experience at all. Not true. You will have gained experience from extracurriculars, from meetings and networking events, and from University etc. Consider skills that everyone has: Organisation, time management, planning, communication. Focus on these and write your cover letter in a way that makes you come across as a person confident in their ability to learn.
7. Highlight your relevant skills
Compare the jobs you've had and the job role that you're applying for. In your cover letter, you should be pointing out the skills that match up between those jobs. By doing this, you're telling the employer that you have the skill set necessary to take on the new job role. Focus on a handful of skills in your cover letter, no more than 3 or 4, and elaborate on how these skills will help you if you were offered the position you're applying for.
8. Be extraordinary
It can be difficult to stand out in a crowd, but you need to figure out what makes you different to all of the other applicants that will be applying for the same position that you are. Tell the employer about any extra training you have, any certificates that you hold, team building workshops that you've participated in etc.
9. Create a call for action
Before you sign off a cover letter, it's important to prompt action from the employer. You can do this by writing something like “I look forward to hearing from you soon” or “If possible, I'd like to schedule a call with you to talk about my application.”
10. Proofread
Lastly, always proofread before you send off a cover letter. Grammatical mistakes are not professional.
With the cover letter tips and examples that we've written for you above, we hope that you'll find it much easier to write your job application cover letter.
How to Edit the Cover Letter Template
After learning the tips for writing a cover letter, I'm sure you can't wait to start creating your own cover letter. First, you need free download our PDF cover letter template and then use Wondershare PDFelement - PDF Editor, the best PDF editor, to edit and customize it. This tool can help you make changes to the texts, images and other elements in the templates.
Step 1. Open the Cover Letter Template
Step 2. Click on "Edit" and Enter Your Text as You Like
Step 3. Complete and Save Your Cover Letter
