Selling Yourself in Your Cover Letter

Ah, advertisers. They try to suck us in within a matter of seconds. Sound familiar? Hiring managers typically spend less than 30 seconds reviewing a cover letter or resume—unless it grabs their attention enough so that they read on. The average television commercial is 30 seconds long. What about print? How long do you spend looking at an ad in a magazine before flipping the page? Or reading a bulletin board along the freeway (assuming you are not stuck in rush-hour traffic)? Those who write ad copy have to get a message across quickly. That means sharp, succinct, to-the-point writing.

What Are You Really Selling?

Yes, you are selling yourself and all that you have to offer: your skills, your experience, your attitude, and your personality. But think about it for a moment. Is that what you are really selling? Take the example of a health club membership. What is it that members are buying when they join the club? Access to classes and a large variety of strength training and cardio equipment? Sure, at the outset it looks like this is what you buy when you sign that one-year contract. In reality, health clubs are selling a desire: a desire to be in shape, a desire to be muscular, or a desire to be healthier.

When you are selling yourself to an employer, think about what the employer is really buying. An employee who shows up to work, does the job, and leaves? Or a person who can come to work and identify and solve problems? Someone who can fill the need of the company to make money, serve customers, and be a positive asset. To do that, the company needs employees who can save or generate profits, save time, enhance service, represent the company … qualities that help propel the company forward. In your correspondence, identify a need and offer a solution. Who can find hidden costs and eliminate them? Who is great at sales? Does this company need someone efficient? When you identify a specific need and show how you can meet that need, you become someone who will be a benefit to the company, not just another employee.

Think about how you can sell technical skills, for example. You can list all the technical skills that you have, such as software, hardware, and computer networking. This is like listing the features of the cell phone mentioned earlier. Or you can convey that your knowledge of accounting software allowed you to introduce a better program at your summer position as an intern, thereby reducing the time creating reports by 40 percent. The first method is simply a list of features. The second method demonstrates the benefit gained from putting those features (your knowledge) to work.

What sets you apart? Refer to everything you learned about yourself from your assessments. Pull accomplishments from your resume, and show in your cover letter why you are a benefit to the company—because you can accomplish X, Y, and Z. Go beyond simply stating your features.

Select the most impressive quantifiable achievements, reword them—or better yet, present them differently, such as converting information to percentages—and highlight them in the cover letter. If some of your accomplishments are dated, this is a great place to emphasize that information without drawing attention to the timeframe.

Know Your Audience

Who will be reading your letter? Will it be someone in human resources or the head of the department? If you are writing to human resources, for example, be sure to write in "plain" English rather than using a lot of technical jargon. If you are writing to a senior scientist, demonstrate your knowledge of the terminology used in your field, or you may come off looking inept. Write a personalized letter every time, keeping your audience in mind.

What is the atmosphere in the company? Is it corporate or a small, family-owned business? How you would address a hiring manager of a Fortune 500 company is very different from how you would address the CEO of a mid-sized private company.

Support Your Claims

You say you are skilled at obtaining contracts. Great. Now prove it. When writing your letters, do not simply state what you are good at. Show it. Give examples. Mine your past and come up with every possible example you can think of where you used the skills you claim to have. Make a list, and then choose the best ones to include in your letter. If you have a lot to choose from, keep the list so you can use different examples with each subsequent letter you send to a company.

Write Professionally

Remember that your letters are much different from your resume. You will not use the telegraphic style that you did in your resume. Write complete sentences; even bullet lists are generally an extension of a lead-in phrase, with each line of the bullet list creating a complete sentence as “add on” information. Use words instead of abbreviations. Use the active voice and sprinkle your letters with action verbs. Keep your correspondence brief and to the point. Do not include irrelevant information. Use a tone that exudes professionalism, not amateurism. Avoid using clichés and slang, and avoid any references to political or religious beliefs, or other unnecessary, unrelated information.

This content is excerpted from The Vault Guide to Resumes and Job-Hunting Skills, Second Edition. See the full guide for more information about cover letters, interviewing, and other skills you’ll need to land that perfect job.