能获得面试机会的求职信写作建议
If you’re like most job seekers, you’re not taking advantage of one of the best ways to get a hiring manager’s attention: writing a great cover letter. Cover letters are crucial to hiring managers who understand that people are more than just their work experience – that people have personalities, habits and other reasons they’d be great at a particular job that aren’t easily seen from a résumé. After all, if this weren’t true, employers wouldn’t even need to bother to interview candidates; they could just screen résumés, verify that candidates’ experience and accomplishments were accurate and then hire the person with the best résumé. Here’s how to write a cover letter that will get you interviews. 1. Show personal interest in the particular job that you’re applying for. A strong cover letter will make a convincing case that you're truly excited about the opportunity. What grabbed you about the job description or the company? Why would you prefer this job over others out there? Why do you think you’d be great at it? What in your background demonstrates that you’d excel at the work? 2. Don’t summarize your résumé. Too often, job seekers simply summarize the contents of their résumé in their cover letter. With such limited initial contact, you do yourself a disservice if you use a whole page of your application to simply repeat the contents of the other pages. The cover letter should add something new to your candidacy – information that doesn't belong on your résumé like personal traits, work habits, why you're interested in the job, maybe even a reference to feedback from a previous manager. Speaking of which … 3. If something makes you especially well-suited for the job aside from what’s on your résumé, mention it. For example, maybe the position requires an inordinate degree of meticulousness and you frequently get teased for being obsessive about details. That’s a perfect thing to mention in a cover letter, and it’s information that wouldn’t be found on your résumé. If you’re having trouble thinking of those qualities, try thinking about what you would tell a friend if you were explaining why you were excited about this particular job and why you think you would be great at it. Does that explanation add anything that your friend couldn’t get from just looking at your résumé? It probably does – and that’s what you want to convey. |