Seven Elements of a Compelling Cover Letter
By Kara Caplivski |
When I earned my college degree, it was 2009—“The Great Recession”—and it was extremely difficult to get a job. Everyone was telling me, “There are no jobs! Stay in school!” With that encouragement, I obeyed and enrolled in graduate school—but I still needed a job. Having lots of education and no experience created a marketability problem; I had to find someone who was willing to take a chance on me so that I could get the much-coveted “experience”. I shed my pride and applied _everywhere._ Considering how bad the job market was, it was surprisingly easy for me to get interviews, but many times over I was told “no”. However, a prospective employer reached out to me once just to tell me that although I’m under qualified, he wanted me to know I wrote the best cover letter he’s ever read, and to reapply when I’m qualified. That’s a bittersweet compliment, but I believe I can get an interview because I can write a compelling cover letter.
In a twist of irony, I ended up taking an interim position as a human resource’s assistant, where part of my job was to sort through résumés and cover letters to find the best candidates. I wasn’t trained on how to do this (most people making this kind of decision aren’t), but the first question I tried to discern was _how serious is this person about getting this job?_ In my mind, including a cover letter answered showed great intentionality. When comparing a résumé with a cover letter to one without, I always favored the one with a cover letter. Then, I would spend about three seconds reading the letter before deciding if I should review the résumé or if the résumé went in the discard pile. Letters take time to craft, and it’s courageous to be willing to show your writing ability and even a little bit of your personality. It is tempting to avoid writing a cover letter because they are intimidating and hard work; however, cover letters, if done well, can get you an interview.
These are the considerations I believe contribute to a great cover letter:
