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Writing a Cover Letter
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Sep 27, 2023
This video is part of our professional development series focused on career paths, networking, resume and cover letter, interviewing, and performing in the organization. This series compliments our business and law lecture series. Visit https://TheBusinessProfessor.com for more information. Jason Mance Gordon The Business Professor
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0:00
Okay, now I'd like to talk to you a little bit about the business cover letter
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And not all applications allow you to put in a cover letter, but if they do, the cover letter
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is a unique tool that can add to your resume. It can do more than, it can continue to tell a story where your business resume left off
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Okay, so together the two make a great package for selling yourself
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for presenting yourself to the potential employer to make yourself attractive and hopefully
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but the objective here is to get an interview to hopefully get you into the interview stage
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So with regard to format, again we've posted a cover letter format for you to follow but generally
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it's going to be anywhere from two to five short paragraphs, generally two to four short paragraphs
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going to have the date in a date up at the top
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Generally you mark it as cover letter. Most of the time with cover letters you don't put the full heading on there the way you
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dissimilar to the heading on your resume. Rather you indicate cover letter at the top
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You put your contact information again down at the bottom and since it accompanies the
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resume it already has some contact information with it. So simply cover line in bold underline at the top with the date immediately blue
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it. Now the address to the individual who you're writing to and their address goes immediately
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after that to the left aligned and then below that is where you start dear sir madam
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to begin the cover letter and you end with the signature block. I like to align the signature
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block in the dead center so you highlight it and slide it to the dead center and
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So the first letter of the sincerely, truly, truly yours or whatever you put as your salutation
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or your ending salute, you slide that to the center of the page and skip a couple of spaces
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below it and then type your name so you can sign in between it. But sliding it to the center of the page rather than leaving it left aligned makes
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it more attractive when you put the enclosure, the E.N.C.L. Col. Resumé to the left. So you want to continually
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make reference to your resume. You don't want to repeat, ever repeat your resume in the cover
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letter, but you will make reference to it. And having it again at the very end in the ENCL
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enclosure, again, makes reference to it right at the end. Okay. So now for what you're
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including. Now this is my format that I made up for the cover letter. It's very effective
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because again what you're doing here is trying to get to the interview stage. So you're
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trying to tell a story So if you look at the resume itself what it is is a snapshot in history It tells what you did in the past There a few other things that does not tell though that an employer might be interested in
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Number one, why? Why did you do anything you did? Sometimes it's not obvious
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You may need to explain how what you did makes you a value proposition
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So let's start with the first paragraph. So, if we're, we're working off a four paragraph format now and with a total of, I would say
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about 17 to 22 lines total in the entire cover letter which isn't very long but broken
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down in the paragraphs that looks more structured and organized. So paragraph one, the first thing, since this is what we call in communications a deductive
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message, you're deducing the message from the immediate statement. So you make your main statement up front, okay
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And then from there you support that statement throughout the rest of the cover letter
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So start with what we call the attention getter. common parlance in sales messages but the attention getter simply says you what
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you want but it says what you want in a way that resonates I like to give people an
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example that you can simply say hi my name is Jason Goren and I'm applying for the
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job of accountant okay well that's not very captivating now it does tell what you
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want it what you're asking for a more captivating way to do that may be to say
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Now, dear sir, ma'am, after speaking with John Smith in your accounting department, I was
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very excited to learn about your new staff accountant position and begin the rest of the cover
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letter from there. Now what I've effectively said is, yes, I'm interested in the staff accounting position
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but I also mentioned the connection that I made, the individual that I talked to
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Now, if you're someone particularly in HR and a portion of the business who is reading
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this, you see someone relevant to the company's name there and I've made reference that I
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spoke with them about it. Now if you're reading that you're going to make the assumption that this individual
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might ask you, hey, did you receive Jason's resume? You don't want to say, well, yes, but I didn't read it
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So that alone may convince them to continue to read the rest of the resume
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resume, all right? Because nobody wants to be caught in that position where particularly if it's their boss
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ask them something and they didn't do it. So anyway, techniques like that can get their attention and in a situation like that can
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motivate them further to read the whole cover letter and resume thoroughly
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So you start off with that intention getter and then after that in three to five lines
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Well let me let me ask this to start with and this is a rhetorical question somewhat of a rhetorical question If I tell somebody I want something what a natural question that comes from that person Why
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Why do you want that? Well, I just said I want a job with you and you say, okay, well, why do you want that job
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Well, after the attention getter, you should spend the next three to four lines explaining
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something about the company that interests you. Right? Whether it's their mission, what they do, their values in the company, how quickly they're
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growing, their management structure, their incentives, their outlook towards growth, their outlook towards employee client relations, whatever it is
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Generally pick the things that the company itself brags about. So if it's a smaller company then that's obviously an individual maybe doing the hiring
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is the individual you're writing to. So in that situation you want to record, you want to let them know
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that you know enough about the company and that you recognize their values
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In a larger corporation, those values are probably part of the training with which the
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individuals that are doing the hiring are indoctrinated. So again, you would impress them to show that you already understand the values of the
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company, okay, what it is they care about or what, so you can visit their website, go to the
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mission pages, the in the news pages, things like that to learn about the company
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So, when you're writing this initial paragraph, you can demonstrate, yes, you've done your research and two, you know the company and it makes a great justification for why you want to work there
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So, again, first paragraph, attention getter and three to four lines about why you want to work there and, like I say, work in some of the information that they're proud about, their mission statement, etc
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Okay, in the second paragraph, the second paragraph of cover letters say that you would download offline, Sam
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examples, what you'll see there is basically it's the paragraph where you explain to the
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employer how your past experiences, training, etc., makes you a value proposition, makes
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you a good value proposition to the company. Well, you can get some great examples off the line for that, but what a form cover letter
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can't do is can't tell why about yourself, why you've pursued the things that you've done
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in the past. Okay, your resume, again, was a snapshot in history
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That begs the question, why did you do any of it? Why are you studying business? Why are you studying, concentrating in marketing
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Why are you, etc. Especially people have compelling stories, say international students or students from unique backgrounds
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first generation in college, worked the entire time you were in college, things like that
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It gives you the opportunity to explain things about your resume that you need to highlight
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And you don't want to repeat the resume. You simply make reference to it
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As you can see in my resume, I've recently graduated from ABC University
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During that time I worked a full-time job in ABC while studying this
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That something you highlighting that you did this Now explain why that is relevant or why that important in a line or two And you can translate from that why that history that you want to explain about yourself
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into how you will be a value proposition for the company. And what I learned from my experience in sales and whatever has taught me to be dedicated
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leadership skills, interacting with individuals. etc. The things that you can rightfully brag about yourself, the skills and abilities that
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you've acquired in the position, that's where you can start to put that forward. So that's
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the second paragraph. Now the third paragraph is largely optional, but I like to add it, and I call
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this the aspiration paragraph, because what you're doing here is you're telling them where
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you want to go. Okay? Now remember, this is a sales message, so it's a you message. It's always
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about them. You told them you want a job with them. Why? Because you like them. You tell
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why about yourself and how that translates into value for them. So now in the third paragraph
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what do you aspire to? Pick a position that exists in the company that's within a reasonable
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reach, five to ten year timeframe. Say it's a marketing manager. You're coming for an
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inter-level marketing position. You want to be a marketing manager or brand manager. And that's on the
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five to ten year horizon. Well, by mentioning that, that these are your aspirations, it shows one that you understand
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the structure of the company, two, that they offer what you want out of a career
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So you won't be there just a short time. You have something long term you're working towards or for
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Very impressive to the corporation and it serves those two functions. Then always follow up with humility
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Again, flattering the individuals there. applying to this company you want to be like these people to be able to work at
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this great place so say something about your willingness or your eagerness to
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learn and grow from great or consummate professionals just it simply again
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demonstrates humility and shows your eagerness to be a part of a great organization flattery will take you places don't go overboard but you
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understand it does have a a solid use and then the fourth paragraph is just a
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couple of lines. Thank you for your consideration. I look forward to speaking with you about this further
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It's confident but not pushy and then say I can be reached at email address or phone number
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Thank you. And then like we said sincerely with your name sign there
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And together you've got the resume that's a snapshot in history and then you've got your
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cover letter which attention getter and why about yourself and your past and how that translates
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and the value for the company, what you aspire to, you want to learn and grow
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Thank you and please contact me. You can see how together it makes a complete sales package that if you've got the resume
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on one hand, the cover letter, another and you're reading them together, together that
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presents yourself in the best light possible. And for a business resume, that's about as well as you can do
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