With the daily rise in job losses, there has been a huge increase in the number of people who are unemployed, leading into more people looking for a job. While this can be detrimental looking at it from the outside, it is a great opportunity for you to stand out and get noticed. One of the best ways to get you noticed more is to become proficient in writing a cover letter.

Like many other Americans, you are probably not too fond of writing a cover letter and if you are, you are probably doing bare minimum, which is writing a generic cover letter for all of your positions. This is definitely not the way to get yourself noticed and it is not the way into a new position, so making sure that your cover letter is tailored for that position is going to be very important. The cover letter must be able to give the person enough information on you where they will want to find out more.

Over the years, it is extremely hard to find good cover letters that give you all of the details that you can offer as a potential candidate, which is why I have given you 3 tips on how to improve your cover letters.

Learn more About the Company- As Americans, we have gotten extremely lazy in creating cover letters, so we either dismiss the fact that they are important and we don’t do one, or we end up creating “one” cover letter that we use for all positions. Moving forward, make it a priority to find out more about the company and what products and services it offers as well as what they are all about that way when you are writing your cover letter, you can tell them exactly why you are applying for them and how well they fall in line with your skills.

Using Recommendations- Of course it is more credible when other people say great things about you, so when you are writing a cover letter you should make sure you add a small recommendation from someone who knows you on a business level.

Get to the “nitty-gritty”- Honestly, nobody wants to have to sit there and read 3 or 4 pages of information about you. You want to make sure that you allow the reviewer of your cover letter to know as much information about you in as little as one page. You want to keep it short and sweet by covering your best qualities that will benefit that company.

When you learn how to write a cover letter, the first thing that you will want to keep in mind is that short and simple wins the race. You definitely want to restrain from writing too much information because you do not want to overwhelm the reader. Get to the point and explain why you are the best candidate for that position.

Steps to Writing a Cover Letter

Now that we have taken a look at how to get your cover letter noticed, I will show you how to put it all on paper. Let’s take a look at what you should have in your cover letter.

Introduction-Of course the introduction is the first paragraph where you introduce yourself. Here you will want to share why you like the company and why you have applied for the position. Since you have done your research on the company you will be able to share why you applied for their company.

Introduction- In the first paragraph you want to let the reviewer know the reason why you applied for the position. This is where you will use some of the data previously captured about the company and make mention of how great it would fit your current abilities and past experiences.

Closing- Just like any other business letter does, you want to make sure that you thank the reader for taking the time to read your cover letter. This is the perfect time to tell them that you value their time. Moreover, you will want to let them know that you will contact them and when you will contact them in regards to the position. You will also want to give them your contact information and “tell” them what the best way to be reached is.

Writing a cover letter is something that can really be taken out of context when you are unsure about how to write one. With so many programs out there these days, you will see that writing a “short and sweet” cover letter does not have to be so hard.