A few quick and simple tips to help you write a more compelling cover letter.
Write to somebody
Take the trouble to find out who you’ll be dealing with – whether that’s a consultant or an individual from a prospective employer organisation. Address your letter to that person – and please, please be sure to spell his/her name correctly.
Give a lot of thought to your Unique Selling Benefit.
That’s USB. The focus of your personal brand. What makes you different – more special – more valuable to this employer?
Work at it until you can get this essential snapshot into 1-2 revealing sentences. Then make sure it features prominently in the first couple of paragraphs of your letter. You can even consider highlighting, bolding or indenting these two sentences for maximum impact to a reader.
Relax just a little
It’s quite permissible (some might say desirable) to wind back from the essentially formal style of writing that you’ll use for your
resume. Your cover letter should be respectful but self assured, friendly and in a clear conversational style. In short, it will appear in much the same style as you will
be should you be granted an interview.
Remember the 30-second constraint
Don’t waffle. A trained Consultant will scan your cover letter and know – within 30 seconds or so – whether to put you into the ‘yes’ or the ‘no’ pile. Make it creative – yes. Interesting – definitely. Persuasive – of course. But never long and boring. One page will be ample unless you have comet trail of achievements to boast about.
Read the instructions
Work closely to the selection criteria. These may appear as specific dot points or they may be neatly submerged in the advertising copy. Use the SAO technique: (Situation), what you did and how you did it (Action), and what the result of your actions were (Outcome) to point up how well equipped you are for that job.
Sell your skills
Précis the key skills (sometimes called core capabilities) that you will have included in your CV. When you’re doing this, try and use different words to describe these attributes so that your total package doesn’t become repetitive.
Parade your achievements
You will have already laid these out neatly in your CV. Now choose just one or two examples that best represent your triumphs or transferable skills.
Expect a response
At Windsor, all electronic job submissions are automatically acknowledged. This immediate response will be followed up within a matter of days by a friendly Windsor Consultant who will talk to you about your application.
