how do you write a cover letter that gets read and gets you the job interview in this video i'll be teaching you the exact cover letter formula that has helped thousands of people land jobs and can make your cover letter as short as 3 sentences this is self-made millennial i'm madeline mann i am a human resources leader and job search strategist you may have seen me in these places new videos on thursdays a cover letter can be the deciding factor on whether or not you land the first interview and contrary to popular belief it doesn't
have to be a long drawn out sonnet and iamic pentameter okay check out here jeanette who used this cover letter formula and said it was the first time it didn't feel like painful drudgery yes and stay to the end because i will teach you how to do the fluff test on your cover letters to determine if it's effective or not this will help you to realize if your cover letter needs some major edits or if you're on the right track mac two very common ways to start a cover letter is to whom it may concern
or the classic dersa you certainly will never be accused of not being professional with these but they're a bit formal and generic the best option to say in my perspective is dear or hi name of hiring manager or recruiter i come from the tech industry where hi is typically the way people start most emails now how do you know who to address the email to it's time to use your internet sleuthing powers for good and check the company website and do some digging on linkedin it's actually not crucial that you have the exact right name
but you can tell often based on the title and location when you're searching for people on linkedin another great option is company name team this is customized and not overly formal just please make sure you double triple quadruple check every time you write a cover letter because dang it i have seen so many cover letters where they write the wrong company name at the top it happens so so often so i want to save you from that double check it now before i dive into what to write in the body of the cover letter i
want to quickly address the heated debate of does anyone read cover letters anyway here's the thing if you are applying to a large brand name company that gets so many applications the odds that they read your cover letter are rather low everyone wants to work there and so google doesn't need to read one more cover letter about how someone's passion for innovation and desire to work at google is driving them okay however small and medium-sized organizations have a much higher rate of reading cover letters why because for lesser known companies it's more difficult to find
people who are truly passionate about the work of that company and every person added to those companies makes such a bigger difference because their employee population is much smaller so they tend to try to understand more about you before extending an interview such as when i worked in the blockchain industry at a mid-sized company we were more likely to grant an interview to someone with some of the job requirements but a huge passion in understanding of blockchain technology than someone with most of the job requirements but no apparent interest in the technology they just responded
to the job posting because it had their target job title they know nothing about the company so it's a coin toss as to if your cover letter will be read but if it's a good cover letter it can make or break the odds that you will land the interview do you rarely or often write cover letters right rarely or often in the comments i am very interested to see what the typical habits are what to include in your cover letter the perfect cover letter has three parts and when done right this simple formula should help
you craft a cover letter that complements your resume now you must know that if you have a poor resume a cover letter ain't gonna save you so i will link a free resume master class on exactly how to elevate your resume so you can get that six second yes from a recruiter who's reading it even if you are an unconventional candidate i'll link that below now most cover letters make you feel like minions from despicable me are applying to your job opening they all sound the same and the content of the letter could seemingly apply
to all of the candidates here is an example of what i see day in and day out to whom it may concern please find my resume for the position of executive assistant i'm experienced in office administration and have great time management skills additionally i'm highly organized and have been successful working in both individual and group settings i strongly believe that my educational experience strong work ethic customer service experience communication skills and eagerness to learn will enable me to make a positive contribution to company thank you for taking the time to review my application i look
forward to hearing from you soon can you tell me one thing that was unique about that person based on this letter no probably not and that means it was a waste of everyone's time it didn't give us anything about the candidate that wasn't already in their resume it just self-describes just gave them adjectives with no examples and it wouldn't have helped a hiring manager or recruiter one bit there is one magic ingredient that will ensure you never write a cover letter like that again why a good cover letter answers questions like why are you a
great fit for this specific role why is this role the logical next step for you why are you interested in this company these are the sorts of answers that tell them who you are and why they should care i almost passed up on someone because they were going for a project management role and their experience in the past was in design but their cover letter perfectly explained why they were making the career switch how they built the skills for the switch and why they were specifically interested in the industry i was hiring in their short
cover letter made me confident about giving them an interview and i'm glad i did that's the special good burger sauce and so now here's the three part formula to put this into part one who are you write one sentence about who you are as a professional this could sound like i'm a social media and content professional with experience in the ad tech industry and a strong focus on data-driven content strategies part two how are you a fit for the role this is the part where you might be tempted to start saying vague things about how
your organizational skills or resourcefulness is really going to make you the best person resist the urge reread the job description and pick out the major themes and biggest problems that will need to be solved then use the section to tell them why you are uniquely fit to solve it tell a story or explain why you are a fit despite an unconventional background do not simply repeat the experience listed on your resume here's an example my career in content began as a side task when i worked in sales and volunteered to run the company's social accounts
on top of my existing responsibilities within a year i'd worked to increase their social reach by 120 and more than double their lead generation and website traffic via social media this led me to transition into a career where i can focus on social strategy and content management full-time part three why this company explain why you are interested in this particular company this could be as short as one sentence something like i'm especially interested in your company because your current marketing already has such an authentic relatable voice and the fact that you're looking for someone to
build a social content strategy from the ground up is my favorite work that i've done in the past and it excites me all in all this three-part example cover letter is five sentences long and covers all of your bases but don't be afraid to shorten it even more if you can answer all three parts with a single sentence each there's nothing wrong with a three sentence cover letter if each sentence is spicy now here's the fluff test to help you get rid of unnecessary fluff read every sentence and ask yourself could this apply to most
other candidates for example maybe you closed your letter with i appreciate your time and i'm interested in learning more about your company okay this provides no new information about you it just takes up space and it takes time out of everyone's lives so cut it i'll also link a free tell me about yourself worksheet okay people go bonkers for this worksheet it has helped thousands of people both in their job interviews answering that question and in their cover letters to articulate their value so i'll link that below like this video and subscribe to this channel
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