In case you missed it, on the Monday September 12 we had a #lisprochat session about how to write great, customized cover letters to help you in your job search. As you can see from the above tweet that was posted by someone with experience hiring in libraries during the session, customized cover letters can do a lot to get you noticed. I decided that instead of just doing a Storify of the chat session I'd write a blog post wit tips, examples and resources, sprinkled with a few of the tweets that particularly caught my attention during the chat.
Tips & Examples
How important is a customized cover letter in earning you an interview spot? Well, here's some perspective from another library hiring manager in last week's #lisprochat:
Now granted that is just one hiring manager's perspective, but the body of writing on the topic (as you'll see if you check out the resources below) says that this is the prevailing attitude, so don't take the chance. Write a customized letter. Here are my top 5 tips for how to go about doing that:
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Don't worry if you can't find the hiring manager's name(s): Seriously, it's not important or expected that you address the hiring manager(s) by name in your letter. You just want a professional, respectful salutation. Examples that work: Dear Hiring Manager / Dear Hiring Committee / Dear [Insert Hiring Manager's Job Title Here]
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Be sure to answer this question - "Why should the hiring manager be excited to hire you?": Writing a cover letter doesn't have to be rocket science, your whole purpose in a cover letter is to explain why you specifically would excel at this specific job. How do you do this? Use the job posting to pull out some of the main responsibilities and construct a narrative that highlights your best accomplishments in these areas.
- Avoid cliched statements: If you're putting statements like "I am the most qualified candidate for this position..." or any variants of that - these statements make you sound cocky and out of touch because you literally have no way of backing them up. Some things you can say instead: "My experience and background in x and y make me a strong candidate because..." or "I feel that my background makes me a strong candidate for joining your team because of x and y" or something along those lines.
- Make the content unique: The information you include in your cover letter should not also be found in your resume, don't repeat yourself like that. You want to use your best and strongest and most relevant accomplishments in the cover letter. Your cover letter is to flesh out what's in your resume and really show the employer how what you have done can apply to them. What's the best way to do that? Well my trick is to look at each point of the job posting and try to figure out if I have 3 related accomplishments. From those 3 I take the strongest and highlight it in my cover letter and then the other 2 are on my resume to support that first one. There are other ways to do it of course, but that's my tip for you.
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Remember to make it readable: What I mean by readable is, don't make it overly formal. Inject your own personality and writing style otherwise you run the risk of coming off as robotic and not genuine. This is your first chance to introduce an employer to your unique voice so make the most of that. How? Well like I said, use your personal writing style, for example, in my writing I have been known to throw in asides in parenthesis, I've also happened to do that in a few cover letters and then been complimented on those cover letters (your mileage may vary on that, but that's the point, it's all down to the individual). The best example of how to do this I can give you is to link to a great, personality filled cover letter that someone submitted at Ask a Manager: "here's another example of a great cover letter."
Resources
Here are some of my preferred resources for tips on writing really great cover letters that will help you make it to the interview stage.
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Ask a Manager
The thing that I like best about Alison Green's advice is that she's no nonsense. She gets right to the point and she's very specific. This is legit advice from someone who has many, many years of hiring experience and still actively hires people. She definitely knows what she's talking about. I've been using her advice since 2010 and she's never steered me wrong.
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Open Cover Letters
What makes Open Cover Letters really interesting as a source of advice is that you're getting to see real cover letters that library and information professionals have used. Not just any cover letters either, but cover letters that resulted in the applicant getting to the interview stage. There are letters for all sorts of different specialties within the LIS industry on this site.
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The Daily Muse
Unlike Alison Green you're not getting tips directly from a hiring manager on The Daily Muse but what you are getting is well researched pieces from Freelance writers who specialize in career related writing. This is a site that puts out a lot of content and in my experience I've always found it to be good quality advice that jives with stuff I'm seeing on places like Ask a Manager and Evil HR Lady.
- The Savvy Intern
This is a blog whose target audience is current students and recent grads who are looking to get their first professional job, the title really should be the giveaway on that. I started following the blog when I was in Library school but I continue to follow it because their content, especially as it relates to job applications is usually still pretty on point and still just as useful for someone applying to their fifth job as much as their first so I've been known to share their content on my Twitter and Facebook feeds. In fact our cover letter #lisprochat last week was inspired by them.
When I asked in #lisprochat what people used as their go to resources for advice on writing cover letters we got a few more sources not listed above:
One caveat to remember when using Job Centers and other people, always double check their advice. Not all job centers give good advice and not all people know what they're talking about. If you can get someone who has experience hiring, or someone with experience researching the topic of writing cover letters that's probably a good person to ask for advice.
Now, on that note - go forth and write great cover letters! Good luck job seekers!
