Call to Action

Most 'call-to-action' information should be stationed central or directly coming after the introduction of your entire letter. It is crucial to lure your employer's focus as near to the start as possible.

1A: Offer specific proposals for contribution

Throughout the entire process of application building, we cannot stress enough the importance of avoiding redundancy.

• All-too-often, applicants fall into the habbit of basing their resume off of what a position could do for them or how it could advance their career specifically.
• Frankly, resume managers are well-aware of your necessity in finding a job; there's no need to stress that fact any further.
• Instead, use the availible space to appeal to the resume managers by listing off what you can do for the position or company. As the saying goes, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."

1B: Avoid repeating your resume

While past achievements are said to speak for themselves, there is no harm in directly appealing to a company's mission or targeted skillset.

• If you beileve your resume already 'speaks for itself', you may consider re-evaluating the content of your cover-letter to appropriately engage the employer's attention.
• Beyond merely trying to 'hook-in' an employer's attention, the cover-letter is meant to directly address an employer or company as a whole.
• Take the opportunity to halt reflecting on your own achievements/history/skills/mission and instead to refer to those of the company.

1C: Appeal to a company's mission

More often than not, a company serves the sole-purpose of making money.

• There is no need to 'flower' your application with hopes or promises you cannot follow up.
• Rather, appeal directly to the company's mission and align your skillset to what they are lacking.
• Focusing the discussion on what you can bring to the table is more likely to convince a manager than simply restating what you have brought to the table.

Skillset

A varied skillset is among one of the only distinguishing characteristics able to set an application apart from all the rest. Selectively featuring and advertising certain skillsets may have to give your application the extra 'nudge' needed to push it past the norm.

2A: Don't apologize for a lack of existing skills

Directly addressing a lack of skills may foment a sense of unqualification or inexperience throughout your resume.

• While indeed, you should show upmost honesty, there is no specific need to point out a lack of skills.
• Though, the exception to this case occurs when a resume manager specifically requests a particular skill you feel unqualified towards.
• Under such conditions, we would recommend stressing your ability to quickly adapt to a new skill; demonstrate how you are quick learner.

2B: Consider testimonials

What better way is there to give evidence to your qualification than with a peer or employer testimonial?

• Finding a close coworker or esteemed employer to write you a recommendation will indicate a greater sense of who you are as an individual.
• The testimonial also serves you the opportunity of indirectly 'bragging' about your achievments.
• While there's only so much you can do to uplift your own achievements in the first-person, providing a testimonial may help to create a break in continuity and make listing off achievements seem more natural.

2C: Demonstrate your capacity to learn new skills

When elaborating upon your skills, ask yourself, what is the employer truly 'buying' at the cost of your employment? Is it your knowledge, skills, or mindset itself... maybe a combination of the three?

• For a majority of employers, a lack of skills or relavent qualifications can be subdued by demonstration of commitment or ability to continue learning.
• Showing your employer first hand that you 'take matters into your own hands' and research during out-of-office hours will most certainly help to hide a lack of objective accomplishment.

2D: Think outside the box

Employers seek applicants who actively demonstrate creativity and whose contributions may bring fresh ideas to the company as a whole.

• Not all mentions of skills have to be directly labeled on the job listing.
• Showcase a diverse skillset by referring to unique qualifications, such as technical expertise or foreign-language skills.
• It should be noted, however, that there is a fine-line when it comes to your inclusion of miscellaenous information. Be sure that your skills are applicable to the company in some way, shape, or form; otherwise, you any just end up cluttering your application.

Relevant Qualifications

Whereas a skillset proposes the conception of qualification, a further section is needed to truly substantiate any claims previously made.

An applicant who only claims to have possessed certain skills may give off the appearence of unqualification. However, by elaborating on particular accomplishments or qualifications related to the skills at hand, a level of professionality and qualification becomes inherent throughout the application.

3A: Elaborate upon mentions of accomplishments

A mention of an accomplishment holds the power to bring a sense of credibility to your application.

• Though with that said, a mere elusion to an accomplishment without required elaboration doesn't serve much of a purpose at all.
• Be sure to explain how a particular accomplishment traces back to your skilset or how it may foreshadow achievement at a future company, such as the one to which you're applying.

3B: Relentlessly promote yourself

You must remember, the very purpose of the cover letter itself is centered around promoting your accomplishments; there is no shame in giving the impression of over-confidence or arrogance when it comes to listing off achievements.

• Be sure to coherently link accomplishments, employment history, or skills to a central collage of your candidacy for a position.
• Paint a picture of why you are deserving of a position, passed the granted fact that you are in need of a job or that it could boost your career in some way.

3C: Mentioning education or other training

The 16+ years of education underwent by most professionals should not be over-looked.

• Pay homage to this huge portion of your life by explicitly stating how your education has enlightened your viewpoint or brought unique qualification to your skillset.
• Be wary of focusing too heavily on educational background; whatever information you decide to include, experience should always be noted more prominently.

3D: Refer to technical expertise

Especially in technology-related industries, expertise may reign superior to educational background or even in extenuating cases, experience in a field.

• Use jargon that is understandable to your employer.
• Address specific technologies requested in the job listing, as well as your profficiency with them.
• Order your qualifications according to relative significance or profficiency level.

Employment History

One of the core considerations brought up by the employer is whether or not an applicant is perceived to be an easy-to-work-with collaborator. Signaling detailed employment histories, working with teams or otherwise individually, may help an employer to get a sense of how easy you are to get along with.

4A: Whip out statistics

A statistic serves the purpose of quantiatively substantiating your contribution at a company.

• Mentioning statistics provides you with the opportunity to send a resume manager a sense of how much you've contributed to a particular company.
• Whereas description of skillsets or even qualification to some degree may fall short in letting your employer know how much you actually did, statistics will send out a data-oriented and factual analysis of your employment history.

4B: Show honesty

The credibility inherent across a cover letter plumments as the applicant begins to inflate the signifiance of their contributions or to boast about achievements which they never made.

• There is absolutely no need to include mentions of false or otherwise misleading achievements.
• Simply stated, your objective should be establishing a line of trust with your employe, as a way of gauging whether working with them would be a good fit.
• Providing misleading information will most certainly betray the aforementioned trust and may very likely land your application in the reject pile.

4C: Avoid irrelevant dates

In spite of any sentimental or nostalgic signifiance a date may bear in your head, most of the time, the resume manager could care less.

• When scanning through dates or other numbers, the hiring manager is usually trying to find a length of tenure or overall number of years of experience.
• A specific date in time (January 1st i.e.) has nothing to do with the poise of an applicaiton. Remember, you are trying to establish a case for your candidacy at a company, not give a detailed run-down of life history.
• Our overall recommendation: save time on behalf of your resume manager and skip any mentions of dates.

Styling

Relatively minor in comparison to other discussion points, styling options are based around a few major guidelines. We wouldn't advise sticking to any of the following tips too strictly, as the choice of styling should reflect an applicant's unique design foot-print.

5A: Start off with a template

Negative labels associated with templates have lately clouded our understanding of their use cases in general.

• We would like to stress that using a template is far from forbidden, and in fact, in many cases, can be considered the best option in helping you get going.
• The key focus, however, when working out a template is to customize it to a great enough degree as to set your application apart from the other hundreds or thousands of applicants using a similar format.
• You must also make sure that your choice of template reflects your unique employment history.

5B: Understand the benefits of peer-review

There are only so many details you, as the penman of an application, can catch up on.

• Recruiting a friend, family member, coworker, or employer to take a scan through will help ensure you aren't missing out on any grammar errors.
• Furthermore, attracting help from a range of professionals of varying experience levels will help fool-proof your application from the guise of the employer.

5C: Use good quality paper

Seemingly obvious, your choice of paper says a great deal about you as an applicant.

• This is perhaps the simplest of all tips, and the easiest to follow along with...
• Find high quality paper which reflects your commitment to a company or job position.

5D: Familiarize yourself with formal styling conventions

There are a multitude of set styles and business formatting conventions.

• Rather than trying to reinvent the wheel (i.e. designing all aspects of the application yourself), do some research on common business formatting practices.
• Applying any tips you may come across will establish a great level of credibility and showcase your commitment to professionality.