Career Resources

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Would you buy this cover letter?

If you saw an ad for a car that stated, "Doesn't get good gas mileage, but has a built-in GPS," would you want to buy it? Or would you go to a restaurant that was advertised as, "Our food isn't that great, but our service is super!" Probably not. However, this is exactly what some people do when they write a cover letter. If they are applying for a job and don't have one of the qualifications mentioned in the job posting, they will say something like, "Although I don't have any finance experience, I have taken courses in Financial Statement Analysis and Investments and Corporate Finance.” The recruiter or hiring manager already knows that you don’t have any finance experience from reading your resume so there is no need to point it out again.

What these statements do is set a negative tone and impression in the reader's mind. Once that tone is set, it may be difficult for the reader to hear the subsequent positive things about you. My rule of thumb is to never say what you don't have in a cover letter but only say what you do have. Is this lying? Of course not! If you state all of the qualities and attributes that you do have but omit what you don't have, you’re not lying at all. The reader may be able to figure out that you don't possess the missing qualities that you don’t mention, but at least you haven't created a negative tone for your letter or created a doubt in the hiring manager’s mind. Plus, you could "wow" the reader so much with all of your wonderful qualifications, that they don't care that you don't have one particular qualification. Remember, employers write job descriptions which describe their ideal candidate but are more often than not willing to hire someone who possesses some or most of the desired qualifications.

So how might you rewrite the statement above? “I have taken courses in Financial Statement Analysis and Investments and Corporate Finance as part of my business degree and am eager to apply what I’ve learned as a Financial Analyst Intern at your firm.” Can you see how much more positive this statement sounds than the one above? This is the kind of statement that will convince the reader to “buy your cover letter” and call you in for an interview.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very informative! Great information.

Christopher Blevins said...

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yashlittle said...

Wow superb writing.. I will definitely not buy such cover letters which you shared the frst. I mean being a common person i also doid't like the statements so how you can please the hiring manager?? Well i realy suggest people to read here as this is the ebst post among all.