cover letters

Your cover letter is where you make a case for why you’d excel at the job, aside from what’s in your resume. A good cover letter can be the thing that gets you an interview. Here’s how to write one.

how to write a great cover letter

I’ve read a lot of cover letters in my career — thousands of them, maybe even tens of thousands. (If you’re thinking that sounds like really boring reading, you’re right.) What I can tell you from doing that is that most people make the same mistakes over and over, and they waste the opportunity cover […]

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these are bad ways to start your cover letter

People often really struggle over how to start a cover letter, and as a result they often end up with lines that are overly salesy, gimmicky, or just very tired. Here are popular opening lines that you should purge from your cover letters. * “If you are seeking…” — as in, “If you are seeking a […]

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here’s another real-life sample of a great cover letter

I regularly get asked for examples of good cover letters, and I’m always nervous about sharing them because PEOPLE STEAL THEM. But a reader sent me a great one and gave me permission to share it, and I thought it was a good example of how to write a letter that talks about what differentiates you, […]

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how to write a cover letter that will help you get an interview

When you’re applying for jobs, your cover letter can be the determining factor in whether you hear nothing from an employer or whether you get called for an interview. And yet job seekers regularly give their cover letters short shrift – writing deadly dull missives that make hiring managers’ eyes glaze over or using them […]

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whoever told you to be creative in your cover letter has led you horribly astray

A reader sent me this real-life cover letter that she received from a job applicant: Hi. This very professionally-beginning cover letter should immediately alert you to my easy-going and comprehensive approach to task completion while making it strikingly obvious that I am both interested in and capable of performing HR duties with sophisticated exactitude. The […]

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here’s another example of a great cover letter

I often get asked for examples of good cover letters, and a reader recently sent me a great one that I want to share. One thing I like about this one is that it’s shorter than others I’ve previously shared and so is a good demonstration of how you can go shorter and still be […]

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how do I write a compelling cover letter when I don’t have much work experience?

A reader writes: I’m applying for administrative/production assistant jobs, and I don’t know how to start the cover letter. I hate starting with, “I was excited to see a position open…” or, “I’m writing in response to [position title] opening.” The third example I’ve seen, while ideal, doesn’t apply to me: “As [director/editor/higher up title] for […]

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