Test Your Cover Letter

Test Your Cover LetterTest Your Cover LetterHow does your titel letter rate? Use this test to score your cover letter before you submit it with your resume and job application.Before you submit your cover letter to recruiters and hiring managers, ansturm through this battery of questions to gauge its readiness.Q How is your cover letter addressed?A. Personally addressed to the person responsible for vetting job candidatesB. Dear Hiring Manager or Dear Sir or Madam or To Whom it May ConcernC. Yo, wassup?Troy Harrison, president of sale training and development company SalesForce Solutions, told Ladders ho-hum cover letters are overly generic. Letters addressed Dear Hiring Manager or that reference the open position, suggest the job seeker isnt taking the time to personalize his application. I hire salespeople, so I assume that how the applicant pursues a job will be the way an applicant pursues a customer. If an applicant doesnt care enough to personalize a cover letter, theyre really better off not even including one.Q How does your cover letter show youre the right fit for a job opening?A. Mentions one or more stated qualifications from the job posting and outlines how you meet them.B. Highlights your accomplishments regardless of whether they correspond to the job postings list of qualifications.C. Its the same letter I send for all job openings. Why tinker?Cheryl E. Palmer, CPRW (Certified Professional Resume Writer) and president of Call to Career, said she counsels her clients to take the guesswork out of the equation. If the vacancy announcement states that the candidate needs to have 10 years of experience in executive sales management in an IT organization, the cover letter needs to be clear that the job seeker meets this qualification.Q How does your cover letter show the employer that youve read the job posting?A. Follows instructions regarding how to apply, specifically mentions qualifications listed in posting, specifically mentions the job listed i n the posting.B. Talks about what a great job you do and why any employer would be lucky to hire you.C. Well duh, of course I read the posting. Im responding to the proper e-mail addressI tire quickly of ?blast letters that are sent out 20 at a throw, just hoping something will stick to the wall, Harrison said. Let me know that youve read and understood the ad, and that youre a real, live candidate for it, and why.Q What job opportunity does your cover letter say youre interested in?A. The specific job mentioned in the job posting.B. The specific job for which your skills and experience have made you a perfect fit.C. Any potential openings.The worst cover letters are the ones that are very specific - to a job that is nothing like the one Im hiring for, Harrison said. Its great that you want to be a top-notch computer programmer why are you telling me this when Im hiring for an industrial salesperson?Q Which most closes matches your writing style?A. Standard geschftlicher umgang Eng lish with correct spelling, punctuation and grammar.B. You totally should have a Facebook page for one, and for two you need to like lighten up, for a window frame company you guys are like a total drag, you have to see through your product, be more transparent, get it?C. Im wrtng 2 u 4 the job.Thanks to Catharine Bramkamp, adjunct professor and Writing Coach, for her example (B) of what college students tend to write and say in correspondence and the inappropriately casual tone they tend to take.SCORINGGive yourself 2 points for all As, 1 point for Bs and 0 point for Cs.10 Congratulations Youre reading job postings carefully, customizing your cover letter to address what you see, and doing your homework to ensure your correspondence doesnt sound like form letters.510 Youre doing a fair job and might be interesting employers enough to interview you. To up the chances of an interview, focus on customizing your cover letters to make sure they fit the position.05 Your cover letters are hitting the slush pile. Do more research on jobs customize your cover letter for openings and acquire a more businesslike, professional tone.