Published on November 1st, 2012 | by Surminga

Innovative ways to make your covering letter stand out from the crowd

Your covering letter is something which prospective employers will use to find out if you are worth their time for an interview. It seems a little cruel to think that your future employment relies on a piece of paper, but this true for a majority of possible positions. If you are looking for a job and you want your cover letter to stand out, make sure that you consider these important tips.

Never Repeat Cover Letters
When you are sending out a lot of cover letters at a time, there is a great temptation to simply use the same cover letter over and over again. The truth is that this is incredibly obvious, and most companies won’t give the time of day to someone who is doing this. Write an individual cover letter for each place you apply. This doesn’t mean that you can’t reuse certain chunks; just introduce a little personalization!

Keep It Short and Sweet
When you are writing a cover letter, you do not need any more than three paragraphs. The first paragraph tells them who you are and how you heard about the job, the second paragraph tells them about some of your relevant accomplishments and the third paragraph tells them how you will use your skills to serve them. Too many people ramble and ramble, which puts the human resources representative right off.

Weird Facts
Remember that the point of the cover letter to make you stand out. While it is important to be formal and to mention pertinent experiences, remember that you can still show off some of who you are and what you have done. If you have climbed a mountain or performed some other out of the ordinary feat, make sure that you mention it. At the very least, you will make your cover letter leap out at the reader. Sometimes, what you need is to make sure that you stick out in their memory when they are doing their review.

Say Something New
They already have your resume there. If they want to know about where you worked last or where you went to school, they have your resume. However, what your resume can’t tell them is what you took from the experience, how it changed you and why it makes you a good hire. The more you are willing to move forward with your personality in your cover letter, the better your chances will be of grabbing the reviewer’s attention.

Remove All Qualifiers
You cannot afford to be seen as weak when you write your cover letter. This means that you must remove all doubt that you are ideal for the position. In turn, that means removing lines like “I think,” or “I feel.” If you see these words in your text, take them out. It can feel uncomfortably like bragging or being aggressive, but this absolutely what needs to happen.

Consider how you are going to make your cover letter stand out and go from there.

Sally writes for a leading NHS & locum agency with healthcare vacancies such as health visitor jobs throughout the UK and further afield.