Before this class I had never written a cover letter. I wasn’t very sure what I was trying to accomplish. After reading these readings I have a much better understanding of what I am trying to do. I have a better understanding of how make this cover letter. I now realize that your cover letter is to expand on what you talk about in your resume. This is where you can really sell yourself with more details about how you’re qualified for the job. I feel that it is important to make sure to focus the cover letter to your employer and position. Even though 40% of cover letters may not be read that is still 60% that will possibly be read. I would rather work on making my cover letter good than take my chances. I feel that it is important to make the intro of your cover letter interesting. If the reader takes no interest into the beginning of your cover letter they are going to have a hard time reading all or more of it.
I also discovered the importance of researching the company you are applying for before writing your cover letter. I noticed in the readings that it is more important to focus your cover letter on what your new potential employer wants not on what you want. If you research your company before writing your cover letter you will be more prepared to write the cover letter by knowing what they are looking for. You will be able to make your cover letter sound like your exactly the right person for the job. I like the thought of doing this. After all what you are really trying to do with the cover letter is sell yourself to the company so that you can get a job.
Brag yourself up.
I feel your pain on this subject because this is also the first time I have ever had to write a cover letter. I went into it a little apprehensive but after the readings I felt more confident about what to include in my cover letter. You make a good point about the intro needing to be interesting. If it wasn’t interesting who would want to read the rest of it? Your last paragraph hit the nail on the head because a cover letter is made to sell yourself to that particular job. These cover letters give you a chance to “brag” about yourself which may give you that edge you are looking for.
What the company wants
Just like you said, I also think that researching the company is very important for the cover letter. The company already knows what you want, a job, so you have to portray in detail why they would want you. You have to understand what the company does and what your possible position is responsible for. Focusing and expanding on key words from the job posting, as explained in the instructor blog, will tell the company how well you would fit in the position. Show them that you are really interested in the position and are not just sending out generalized resumes. Even though there is a chance that the cover letter may not get read by HR, your documents could get passed on to someone higher where it may give you that edge over the next person.
Quantity vs Quality
While this is not the first time I’ve written a cover letter, it probably will be the second or third. In mechanical engineering, I generally don’t find employers requesting them too often, and have often found them to be too time consuming and, I thought, unproductive. I always asked myself, “why fill out this resume and cover letter combo if I can fill out ten other resume applications in the same amount of time?” I think this weeks reading has definitely adjusted my focus, to the point where I think that I’m now more focused on quality than on quantity. If every application I complete is only one of 200 for a position, I think I’m much better of sending out 5 real top notch resumes and cover letters than 20 ordinary resumes with nothing to show.
Keeping Several Cover Letters and Resumes
It is important to research companies when you are interested in applying for a career with them. It is also essential to focus your cover letter and resume directly to the company you are applying for once properly understanding the company’s goals. You can organize your thoughts closer to what the ultimately desire in an ideal situation. This is not sometimes offered. For example, posting resumes online at CCO, Purdue and CareerBuilder.com. What I typically do is create a couple cover letters and resumes geared for the positions I generally apply to like “controls engineer resume” and “manufacturing design engineer resume.” Of course I would rather apply directly to the company but this offers me efficiency.
A Helpful Strategy
When applying to multiple positions, it can be difficult to tailor letters for each one. One suggestion, in line with what Young Yang is suggesting here, is to have several letters focused on particular kinds of work. What you can then do is have spots, such as the introduction and conclusion (as well as specific points in body paragraphs) where you can insert specific information about and keywords from the company. Be careful with this, of course. Without attention to detail, the seams will be obvious, and the reader will smell your generic letter from a mile away.