Self improvement

This course will help your cover letter stand out from the crowd

Key Ingredients
Hiring Mangers Name
Finding the hiring manager's name and addressing it to them is an
easy win.
On LinkedIn, search for the company name + two keywords that would describe the hiring manager's job title.
After you hit “search,” you’ll see some advanced search options on the top of the screen.
Check the box next to “People”
et Voila!
Find the person most likely to be looking for you and use their name and title.


Key Ingredients
Hiring Manager's Name
** If you can't find the hiring manager find the head of department
instead and address it to them.**
If you can’t find a single real person, aim for something that’s still  a little specific, like “Systems Engineer  Hiring Manager” or “Account Executive Search Committee.”


Key Ingredients
Think about the company's pain points
Their pain points are the problems they need someone to solve.
Don't talk about how great the position will be for you. That's a no-brainer. Instead, think about what you can offer the company and tell that story.
To find the pain points read the job description and for each item they need ask yourself : Why do they need someone to do that?
In particular pay attention to parts of the JD that are different to others you've read.
Is the company growing? changing ways of working? Looking for someone to organise the department?


Key Ingredients
Think about the companies pain points
** Once you've found the pain point, reference it in your opening. **
When you're confident you've found one solid pain point you can use it to make your opening stand out (more on that next lesson).
You'll then be able to build on that in the rest of your letter, bringing relevant experience to bear on the problems the company needs to solve.
But which experiences are the right ones to use?


Key Ingredients
Highlighting the right experiences
Often the most important experiences are the first ones mentioned or the most frequent.
To figure this out you can copy and past the text of the job  description into WorldClouds.com.
That'll show you what's most important to the hiring manager and will give you a clear steer on what you need to focus on.


We've got the core elements of a covering letter nailed.
Now let's write one!


The fundamentals

Structure
Limit it to one page and 3-5 paragraphs
Use an opening that makes them want to keep reading
Share what makes you different
End with them wanting more


Starting Fast
First of all let's look at what not to do:
“I am writing to apply for [job] at [company],” or "I am writing in regard to your job opening of {Target Role}. As a candidate with extensive experience in {job title}, I am highly skilled in
{Hard Skills to JD}."
Yawn, Scrunch, 3 Points!
That was your letter being thrown into the digital bin of boring and the hiring manager picking their phone up and playing candy crush.
If you lead with the above you're the same as 99.9% of the other candidates who applied.


Starting Fast
Instead we want something that's memorable and relevant to the company or the manager.
We can do this in a number of ways, but to make it authentic we want to combine three things:
Your passion (i.e. what you're good at and what you like to do)
The hiring manager's pain points (see the previous lesson)
Your skills and experience


Let's look at an example starting with this customer care role
From the description this managers pain points are performance: "exceptional service" AND "develop operations"
They've included a lot of elements of the operation that
need improving.
So their team is outdated, underperforming and in need of a refresh and our poor hiring manager is too busy


** Enter stage left, you, customer care enthusiast and retail change manager**
"My favourite phase to hear at work is "We've always done it this way". Why? Because that's my signal to start making things better. I've spent most of my career searching for ways to improve sales,
operations and customer experience, no more so than in my last role at Monsoon where I halved the average response time of our contact centre team and improved net promoter score by 10 points."
Hopefully that gives you the idea.
Unique opening line + relevant piece of experience that's quanitified (if possible)


Finishing Strong
We don't want to sign off with a whimper.
Typically people will end with something like this:
"I look forward to hearing from you, thank you for the opportunity."
Remember this is the last thing the manager's going to read. So we want to say something of value and we want it to be memorable.
It could address a concern, e.g. a gap on your CV, or a gap in qualifications. Or you can use it to highlight the great fit or your passion for the company.


Finishing Strong
Using our example above let's finish with a flourish.
"My passion for premium retail knows no bounds and as part of the team at Reiss it would be a pleasure to lead the customer care team on their journey to exceptional service. I can't wait for the chance to join such a diverse and forward thinking team #IAMREISS."
I've used the close to show I've researched the company and  I've highlighted my understanding of the role and my fit.


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How to write a cracking cover letter

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