The Job-Finding Toolkit
Your job finding tools are your resume and your cover letter, but many people misplace the importance in these documents.
Your resume backs up your claim that you can speak the right language and handle the job you’re applying for.
Your cover letter convinces the recipient that it would be a mistake to pass up an opportunity to interview an incredibly valuable asset - You!
Your cover letter is the most important part of this entire game. Most of your daily job hunting effort should be spent on tailoring a cover letter that convinces the recipient of your value as an investment. You must present yourself as an opportunity to grow their business.
A Winning Cover Letter
I follow a tested format that has secured job offers for many clients that went on to secure offers anywhere from $40,000 to $180,000. Here’s a paragraph breakdown:
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Introduce your triumphs and goals. Mention a sound byte of your most effective professional accomplishment and humanize yourself with your latest personal goals. Are you training for a marathon? Just celebrated a big anniversary? Avid Home-brewer? Pick one and get it in there.
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Talk about the business you’re applying for. Talk about what you admire about them, explain that you understand the problem the role they’re hiring for is intending to solve, and mention that you have exactly what they’re looking for.
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Talk about your growth over your career. Mention your best wins and biggest periods of growth. Talk about how how your experience gives you the advantage over anyone else for their specific problems they have.
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Finish with excitement and desire for that fantasy of what could be and suggest, to mutual benefit, the first step of establishing dialogue so an interview can be booked.
The key is to always keep your audience in mind. The audience of your cover letter is often someone very focused on business growth, and return on investment. Hiring an employee is an investment so appealing to the readers desire to grow and expand their business might be your ‘in’.
And just to be clear; If you’re uploading your resume and cover letter to an online application system each document is a separate attachment. If you’re sending an email to a business with your resume attached the email is your cover letter. You don’t need to attach a cover letter and a resume.
Don’t Forget To Be Human
From a business owners perspective the resume is about qualifying ability, but the cover letter is about finding great people. If your resume qualifies you, and your cover letter makes the reader feel like there’s a human being on the other end with a rich lifetime of experiences, relationships, and challenges which we all undeniably possess; then you’ll receive just as much interest in you as you’re sending out.