How to write a cover letter when looking for a job in the USA: 7 tips

Over the years, it has been common practice in the United States to demand applicants for various vacancies, not only a resume, but also a cover letter. In recent years, the importance of this aspect has begun to decline - as early as 2016, only about 30% of employers demanded cover letters . This is not difficult to explain - HR specialists conducting the initial screening usually have too little time to read the letters, it only takes a few seconds to analyze the statistics themselves. Polls

howevershow that the phenomenon of cover writing has not yet completely receded into the past, especially with regard to positions related to creative, where writing is important. A programmer can find work with one resume in the form of a pumped profile on GitHub, but testers, analysts, marketers should take the time to write a letter - they will no longer be read by “eychars”, but by managers who select people to join their team.

I found an interesting post about how to write cover letter when looking for work in the USA today, and prepared an adapted translation of it.

Need to use a template

Usually, when actively searching for jobs and sending out resumes, there are quite often announcements, when responding to which you need to insert or attach a cover letter. A strange fact: even according to statistics, less than a third of employers read them, they require up to 90% of them to attach them. Apparently, this is considered as an indicator of the responsible attitude of the applicant and a way to filter out the most lazy.

But even if you are not too lazy to write a cover letter, doing it from scratch dozens of times is too tedious. Therefore, you need to use a template in which only the details associated with a particular position are changed. Here's what such a template might look like.

Be sure to include the title

Most often, a cover letter can be attached as an attachment, so it will not be superfluous to arrange it well. To do this, you can follow the rules for compiling business correspondence, which imply the availability of the following information:

• Name;
• Phone number or email;
• To whom you write (name of the manager, if indicated in the vacancy / company name);
• Links to your profiles on social networks / website.

Since this is a business correspondence, the style should be appropriate. If you do not have your own domain, at least use mailboxes with neutral names, all kinds of ones sexydude1988@mail.comwill not work. You should not write from the corporate mailbox of the current employer, even if you are not working in the USA now - if you are studying your resume, you will most likely go to this site and either will not understand and will be embarrassed, or they will understand, and everything will not look very right in relation to the current employer.

Use the three paragraph rule

The main task of the cover letter is to draw attention to your resume. That is, it is an auxiliary tool that should not draw too much attention onto itself, which means that it is not necessary to make it long. Three paragraphs will be more than enough. Here's what they can be about:

• In the first paragraph, it is important to try to grab the reader’s attention.
• In the second, describe what you offer.
• At the end - to consolidate the impression made.

Here are some examples of what specifically can be written in each section.

Introduction: Indication of Appropriate Experience

According to various sources, recruiters spend from 6.25 seconds to 30 seconds on viewing one resume . It is clear that they are also not ready to spend a lot of time on a cover letter. So the first paragraph is the most important.

Try to avoid long and overly formal offers. It is important to saturate the paragraph with details that make it clear that you are a good choice for this particular vacancy.

Bad :

I am writing to you in response to the PR Manager job posting. I have 7+ years of experience in PR and would like to apply to this position. / I respond to your vacancy as a PR manager. I have more than seven years of experience in the field of PR, I would like to offer my candidacy.

At first glance, this example is normal. But if you read it carefully and put yourself in the place of a hiring manager, it becomes clear that the text could be made much better. For example, it does not contain any details about why this particular candidate is suitable for this particular job. Well, yes, he has more than seven years of experience, and what, take it only because he did something, as he believes, similar to the tasks described in the vacancy?

Good :

I am an active follower of XYZ company, and so I was excited to see your job posting for the PR Manager position. I'd like to put my knowledge and skills forward to help in reaching your public relations goals, and think I might be a good fit. While working at SuperCorp company I was responsible for nationwide PR activities working on getting the company mentioned in media outlets like Forbes, and overall reach through this channel has increased by 23% in six months.

Transfer

I am actively following your company, so I was glad to know that you are looking for a PR manager. I would like to help you solve the problems facing the company in this area, I am convinced that I will do this job perfectly. I worked at SuperCorp and was responsible for PR at the country level, the appearance of brand mentions in the Forbes level media, and over the six months of work, audience coverage for this channel grew by 23%.

The difference is obvious. The volume of the text has increased, but the information load has also increased significantly. Concrete achievements in the form of numbers are shown, the desire to apply knowledge and experience to solve new problems is evident. Any employer should evaluate this.

What then: describe the benefits of collaboration

After the initial attention draw, you need to build on success and give even more details - this requires a second paragraph. In it you describe why cooperation with you will bring the company maximum benefit.

In the example above, we considered a cover letter to respond to the vacancy of a PR manager at XYZ. The organization may need a person who:

Has extensive experience working with various media, bloggers and blogs, has worked with incoming requests for product reviews, etc.

He understands technology, monitors trends in this area - after all, XYZ is a startup in the field of artificial intelligence.

Here's how to respond to these tasks in a cover letter:

...
At my current company SuperCorp, I am working on organizing and handling the PR support of new releases from planning to media outreach, and media relations to reporting. For example, this year my crucial challenge was to increase media coverage in top-tier technology-related publications (TechCrunch, VentureBeat, etc.) by 20%. By the end of the first quarter, the number of mentions in the media from the list had increased more than by 30%. Referral traffic now brings about 15% of overall website traffic (compared to 5% the year before).

Transfer

At my current place of work at SuperCorp, I do PR support for new product releases, plan campaigns, and do reporting. For example, one of the most important tasks this year is to increase the number of references in top technology media (TechCrunch, VentureBeat, etc.) by 20%. By the end of the first quarter, the number of references in publications from the list increased by 30%, and the share of referral traffic now makes up about 15% of traffic to the site (a year ago the figure did not exceed 5%).

At the beginning of the paragraph, the candidate described his tasks in the current place, indicated that this work is similar to the tasks that the new employer is now facing, illustrated the achievements with numbers. An important point: the entire text is built around the benefits for the company: higher audience reach for top media, more traffic, etc. When the hiring manager reads this, he will immediately understand what exactly the company will receive if he hires precisely this specialist.

Explain why you want this particular job.

It is clear that you don’t need to get very sprayed on the topic “what attracts you to our company”, but at least it’s basic to describe what attracts you to the tasks of a particular vacancy, but it will not be superfluous. You can do this in three steps.

Mention some event related to the company, its product or service.

Explain why you are interested, show a certain degree of immersion.

To emphasize once again how exactly your experience will help improve the results of this project / product.

For instance:

...
I've read a lot about your new AI-based shopping recommendation app. I am interested in this project both from a personal (I am a passionate shopper) and professional perspective (It is always an exciting challenge to get a new project off the ground). I believe that my professional experience in media relations and a network of connections in online technology-related media will help in generating traction for the project.

Transfer

I read a lot about your app with recommendations for future AI-based purchases. I like the project both as a user — I often go shopping, and as a professional — I love working on promoting just launched products. I think that my experience with top media and a wide network of journalistic contacts in technology media will be useful to attract new users.

Important: everything needs to be double-checked

Once again - the cover letter should not be long. The 300-word rule must be applied to it - anything that exceeds this limit should be reduced.

In addition, it is necessary to get rid of typos and grammatical errors. To do this, run the text through a specialized program.

Bonus tip: postscript can be useful

The PS section of any letter attracts attention - this is a psychological moment. Even if the reader simply scrolls the text, the look will catch on to the postscript, because at the subconscious level we think that there will be something important in this part of the message. Marketers are well aware of this and actively use this fact, for example, in email newsletters .

With regard to composing a cover letter, this method can be used to provoke feedback, offer help, etc.

PS If you are interested, I would be happy to share my ideas on getting into TechCrunch and Business Insider as well as attracting more leads around your new product based on my previous experience with SuperCorp.

Transfer

PS If it is interesting, I will gladly send my ideas about how you could organize the launch of your product on TechCrunch or Business Insider, attract more users - all based on experience with SuperCorp.

Conclusion: bugs and tips

In conclusion, once again we list the errors in the preparation of cover letters for responding to vacancies of American companies and ways to avoid them.

• Focus not on yourself, but on the employer and the benefits that the company will receive if you hire.
• Use the three paragraph rule. You can add a maximum of a line PS. All text should not exceed 300 words.
• Use a template in which you add keywords from the vacancy that you are responding to, link the description of achievements to the tasks specified in the announcement.
• Double-check everything - ask someone to read the text and run it through the software to search for typos and grammatical errors.