STEP 3 -THE MAIN PART

This is the most important part of your cover letter. (This is also the longest section of this book!) This is the part where you show the employer how you are a PERFECT MATCH for their company. You don’t need to repeat all the information that is on your resume, you need to highlight the relevant parts that show how your skills, experience and abilities would make you the perfect employee. An important thing to remember is that  your cover letter should demonstrate how you can benefit the employer – not  how the employer can benefit you. This is also the part of your letter to explain any employment gaps such as time taken off work to be with family, travelling, studying, volunteer work, consulting work etc.   Imagine that you are the owner of  a shop that makes suits. You advertise for a trained tailor, one that knew how to make business suits and got on well with customers. What would you think about the main parts of these cover letters?  

1)    I haven’t made suits before but I’ve made lots of dresses so I’m sure I will quickly learn how to make suits. I would prefer not to talk to the customers as I like working on my own. I would like to have my own business soon so could you give me some advice on this? How many weeks holiday would I get? Do you have a bonus system? Do you pay overtime?

2)    2) I have worked in the tailoring business for ten years and have gained extensive experience in making business suits. I feel that talking to customers is an important part of the job and one that I particularly enjoy. I also like to design my own suits and wonder if this is something that you would be interested in taking further should you consider me a suitable applicant.

Can you see how in letter 1 the applicant was more concerned with what the employer could offer them? In letter 2 the applicant is offering exactly what the employer is looking for – this applicant has even offered more in mentioning that they also design suits.   How do you match your skills to the employer’s needs? In the case of an advertised job, the best thing to do is to break down the advert into what the employer is looking for.

For example, here is a typical advert for an insurance claims handler :‘Insurance Excel is looking for an Insurance Claims Handler to join their dynamic team. The ideal candidate will focus on property, motor and liability claims. Your responsibilities will include the processing and administration of claims; assessing and accurately recording telephone claims; updating in-house databases; liaising with customers in a professional manner and pursuing settlement as quickly as possible. You will need the ability to use your own initiative and to be able to plan and prioritise your workload. Good telephone skills are needed as is the ability to remain calm under pressure. We are looking for a team player who is self motivated.’

This advert can be broken down into individual responsibilities and skills i.e. ·      
Dealing with property, motor and liability claims. ·       

Processing and administering claims. ·     

Assessing and recording telephone claims. ·       

Updating databases. ·       

Talking to customers.

Settling claims quickly. ·       

Use initiative. ·       

Prioritise workloads. ·

Good telephone skills. ·       

Calm manner. ·       

Team player. ·       

Self motivated.

List these on the left hand side of a piece of paper. On the right hand side write down what experience you have with these responsibilities and skills. For example, under  ‘dealing with property, motor and liability claims’ you might put ‘5 years working in the property claims department, 6 months in the motor claims department with 2 weeks training on liability claims’.   When writing your cover letter it is important to support your statements with examples. So, using the same example as above you could write: I have worked in the Home Claims Department for five years, the last two as a supervisor. I spent 6 months in the motor claims department which included a two week intensive training course on liability claims.   Supporting your statements with examples paints a picture for the employer and makes you more of a person rather than just another applicant with a list of qualifications.

Don’t spend a lot of time matching your experience to what the employer wants as you don’t need to include them all in your cover letter. Pick 3 or 4 of your strongest skills and go into more detail about them i.e. write supporting examples. Remember, your cover letter is highlighting the skills/ experience that matches what the employer is looking for.   If you are making a general enquiry to a company and are not sure what responsibilities and skills are needed you can search for job descriptions online. Type in what vacancies you are looking for and you are sure to find many job adverts that list the skills needed. Look at plenty so that you get a good overall view of what is needed. You can even look at online recruitment specialists such as Monster.com, jobsearch.com, totaljobs.com etc. Again, make a list of 3 or 4 of your strongest skills and write about them using supportive statements.   A general rule for the main part of your cover letter is to write three or four sentences in each paragraph. You might need two or three paragraphs to cover your important skills. Don’t write too much as you will make your cover letter longer than the ideal length of one page.   Another place to look before writing your cover letter is the company’s website, in particular, their mission statement (if they have one). This will show what their company stands for and what they aim to achieve. If the company feels that ‘customer care’ is important, you can state how important customer care is to you and perhaps give an example. If the company promotes ‘environmental issues’ you can give examples of how this is relevant to your existing skills. A lot of companies support charities, you may support the same ones, or you may have undertaken some charity work yourself recently. Mention this as it will show the employer that you are the type of person they are looking for.  

What if you haven’t got all the skills that the employer is looking for?