Critical Tips for Writing a Cover Letter
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Many people who write their own cover letters do not realize the real purpose behind it. There are two ways to make mistakes when writing a cover letter. The first is to leave out important information that needs to be included and the other is to put too much information in it so that it is difficult to read. Both mistakes need to be watched out for when writing this document.
The following are some more tips that are critical when writing a good cover letter than can get you gainful employment.
Humor
Never use humor in a cover letter. While you want to show your personality, the recruiter is not amused when they are reading hundreds of resume cover letters at a time. The want to get to the meat of the letter as quickly as possible.
It is also a very inappropriate time to use humor and it shows that you may not have the desired self control to work for their company. Leave the humor behind and save it for your friends who may appreciate it more.
Do Not Write the Cover Letter in One Draft
What this means is that you do not want to spend a half an hour writing the cover letter and then immediately send it off. You want to take your time with it to make it as perfect as possible. Write it once and then leave it alone for a few hours or even a day.
Print it out and read it again after this time has passed. Take a red pen and edit out any spelling or grammatical mistakes. Read it out loud and make sure there is a good flow to it. After you have edited it, rewrite it with the mistakes corrected. Print it out again and have a friend read it and take their red pen to it. Only when it is perfected should it be sent to companies.
Be Clear and Direct
You are selling yourself in your cover letter. You should never be shy about your accomplishments. Get to the point quickly so that the recruiter is engaged in reading it. They are more inclined to read an entire cover letter that is direct than they are by one that hedges around the main points.
You can do this by listing your accomplishments and awards and then creating sentences around them. Some say that you can use bullet points but it is much better to use full sentences. Save the bullet points for your resume.
The most critical of all the tips is to check for any spelling or grammatical errors. If you have mistakes on your cover letter, this shows a lack of attention to detail. No matter how many times you state on your resume that you have this skill, your cover letter shows the truth.
Make sure that your cover letter shows you in the best possible light so that your resume is actually read and you get that call to come in for the interview.
