Maybe your co-workers called you “the client whisperer” because of your skill in calming upset clients. Or maybe your last boss told you that you were the most accurate data processor she’d ever seen, or came to rely on you as her go-to person whenever a lightning-fast rewrite was needed. That’s not something you could put on your résumé, but it can go in your cover letter. For example, if you’re applying for an assistant job that requires being highly organized and you neurotically track your household finances in a detailed, color-coded spreadsheet, most hiring managers would love to know that because it says something about the kind of attention to detail you’d bring to the job. Instead, your cover letter should go beyond your work history to talk about things that make you especially well-suited for the job. And if you think about it, your entire application is only a few pages (in most cases, a one- or two-page résumé and a one-page cover letter) - why would you squander one of those pages by repeating the content of the others? And yet, probably 95 percent of the cover letters I see don’t add anything new beyond the résumé itself (and that’s a conservative estimate). This makes no sense - hiring managers don’t need a summary of your résumé! It’s on the very next page! They’re about to see it as soon as they scroll down. 1 mistake people make with cover letters is that they simply use them to summarize their résumé. Whatever you do, don’t just summarize your résumé. It’s tough to learn much about those things from job history alone, and that’s where your cover letter comes in. Managers generally aren’t hiring based solely on your work history your experience is crucial, yes, but they’re also looking for someone who will be easy to work with, shows good judgment, communicates well, possesses strong critical thinking skills and a drive to get things done, complements their current team, and all the other things you yourself probably want from your co-workers.

The whole idea of a cover letter is that it can help the employer see you as more than just your résumé. So let’s talk about how to do cover letters right.įirst, understand the point of a cover letter. When a cover letter is done well, it can significantly increase your chances of getting an interview, but the vast majority fail that test. What I can tell you from enduring that experience is that most cover letters are terrible - and not only that, but squandered opportunities. If you’re thinking that sounds like really boring reading, you’re right.

I’ve read thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of cover letters in my career. Photo-Illustration: by The Cut Photos: Getty Images

Should you write a cover letter