Here’s What Should Go In Your Cover Letter
By Joy Ofodu ‘18
If you’re new to writing effective cover letters, know that you’re not alone! Like a perfect cake, it can be tough to discern what should go inside.
If you’ve been wondering about the recipe, wonder no longer! Here’s the structure I’ve used to land 11 professional roles over the last 5 years:
The Heading Is Essential - Like Flour
The first thing at the top of the page shouldn’t be your intro line: It should be a clean heading! This is the easiest part because you can copy & paste the heading you used on your resume. Be sure to maintain font size & color consistency, as well as spacing + indentation. Ensure it contains:
- Your Full Name
- Your Current City/State (Street Address NOT required)
- Your Cell Phone Number
- Your Professional Email Address
- A Blog, Portfolio or LinkedIn Link (Hyperlink this on a PDF)
In the first line of body text, write the current date in full. Follow it up with the company’s full mailing address (Google-able).
Address the cover letter (CL) CAREFULLY.
- Never address it “To Whom It May Concern”, “To The Recruiter”, “Dear Recruiter”, “Dear Mrs./Mr./Ms. Recruiter”
- Try Instead–”For [Company Name] Recruiting:”
- Or even better: Research the name of the campus or university recruiter on Google or LinkedIn, and address it directly to them
Paragraph 1 - Flavor
Your intro is vital and, like flavoring does for a cake, will set the tone for the entire letter. In 3 sentences, include:
- Your Name (it’s okay to have a straight up “My name is….”)
- Your University, or the name of your School, if recognizable and important to your audience. The music industry recognizes Thornton and the news media recognizes Annenberg, etc.
- Your Major (and minors if applicable)
- A personal connection or short anecdote about your connection with the company or brand. Tell them why you’re knocking
- The Title of the position you want to hold and a strong, brief why
- The Location of the position, if there is more than one office
Paragraph 2 - Eggs, Butter
If you haven’t made any spelling or grammatical errors, then you’ve successfully guided the recruiter to Paragraph 2. This is the meat of the matter, and the easiest paragraph to fail. It should NOT be a re-iteration of your resume. Go beyond it to address:
- Why you are directly qualified for the position. You can even say “I believe I am directly qualified because….”
- A point-by-point matchup of their job requirements to your previous experience. If you ignore all of my other tips, take this one with you. Cite each position directly: “As a Page for NBC Universal, I became well-versed in….”
- The point! What are you writing for again? Oh right, to bring all of your experience and skills to [Company Name]. Something like that, but much less cheeky.
Paragraph 3 - Sugar, Salt & Baking Powder
You’ve made it through the toughest part! Now for one final, short paragraph of essential extras:
- Communicate that you are ready for the opportunity and ask for the interview.
- In one sentence, summarize what makes you qualified
- It may be helpful to bring up a company value or mission statement and how it relates to your career goal or interest in the job
- Share your availability (i.e. mid-May to early August)
- It should be in your heading, but share the best method of contacting you
- Ask for the interview again by insinuating that you look forward to speaking with them about the opportunity
- Sign your name with an appropriate salutation (Thank you, All the best, Sincerely)
And with that, you should be ready to send your cake to the oven!
This is not the only right way to create a cover letter, but it is one effective way.
Pay attention to any tricky instructions from the company used to weed applicants out (i.e. “Mention grapes in your cover letter”)
Like your resume, your cover letter should be different for every single desired position. This structure has worked for me, and I hope it will work for you.
Write On!
By: Joy Ofodu ‘18
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