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8 Tips for Better Email Cover Letters
Larry Buhl | HotJobs
Keep It Short and Dynamic
Managers and recruiters are busy. They want to get the gist of your pitch in 150 words or fewer. The first paragraph is crucial, according to Ramsey. “Hook the reader in the first paragraph by selling him or her your abilities,” she says. “Use short paragraphs and short sentences to give a very brief bio on who you are and what you can do for them, and wrap it up in the second paragraph.”
Keep It Simple
If you write a cover letter in a word-processing program, strip away all formatting and save the file as plain text. The ideal line length is 40 characters. Some email packages automatically do word wrap for you, so your cover letter doesn’t arrive in fragments. If your program doesn’t do this, go to FormatIt.com, drop in your text and the free service will format your email for you.
Don’t get cute. Save emoticons, abbreviations, and wild colors and fonts for your nonprofessional emails. The same goes for humor. Chances are, the reader won’t think it’s funny, and may even find it irritating.
Be Specific
Don’t respond to an ad for a copywriter when you’re really a graphic designer, says Diana Qasabian, talent director at Syndicatebleu. “It may be the tight job market, but we’ve been receiving more and more letters responding to a specific job from candidates who are not at all qualified for it,” she says.
“We look for specifics in email cover letters, which means skills and abilities,” she adds. “Embellishment and fluff are not necessary. It’s not necessary to write, ’I’m a hard worker.’ That goes without saying.”
