How To Make A Recruiter Want YOU (Before Even Meeting You)

Did you know that sometimes hiring managers already have the thought in mind to hire you, without having even seen you. How? It’s partially your resume but mostly it is an amazing cover letter that shows that you are going to perform well in the job, have a great personality, and will really fit in with everybody in the office. Sadly, a lot of people write typical boring by the textbook stuff in cover letters, and they waste this opportunity to impress. Here’s how to really stand out from everyone else and make a great cover letter.

Tell Them Specifically Why You Are Interested

Decision makers never want to feel like you’re repeating and copy pasting everything with the same pathetic boring cover letter. 

They want to feel special. And so, you need to make it clear that you’re approaching this organization for very specific reasons. 

Ideally it should not be the same very specific reasons that everyone else is giving. 

Example

Try a high-personality lead in like this: “Growing up with the love of wordsmithery and living within an imaginary world with my face glued to books, many of them published by your company, I understand firsthand how you have gained international prestige as one of the best publishers. For 15 years I’ve impressed as a reader, now I would like to impress other readers, as a writer.”

Outline What You Can Contribute To The Company

This isn’t you making a general proclamation of, “Hey, I’m great. I swear!” 

You need to scrutinize the job description and use whatever other information you’ve gathered about the opening, determine the key requirements and priorities for this job, and make it instantly clear to the reviewer that you can deliver the goods on these key things.

Example

Consider crafting a section within the letter that begins with, “Here’s what, specifically, I can deliver in this role.” And then expound upon your strengths in a few of the priority requirements for that role (they’re typically listed first on the job description or mentioned more than once).

Tell A Story (That’s Not On Your Resume)

As humans, we love stories far more than we love data sheets. (OK, I speak for most humans). So, what’s your story? 

What brings you to this company? 

Did you used to sing along to all of its commercials as a kid? 

Did the product make some incredible difference in your life? 

Do you sometimes pull into the parking lot and daydream about what it would feel like to work there? Tell your story. 

Just make sure you have a great segue. Random trivia can come across as weird.

Example

Say you’re applying for a marketing job with a music company known for its instruments and motorcycles (you know who I’m talking about hehehe). You may want to weave a sentence or two into your cover letter about how your first guitar from your father was an EG112 model electric guitar and has been with you ever since, and when you were 16 and got your B license, you bought a kapchai to ride with ur father and upgraded to an MT-09 later on. 

Address The Letter To An Actual Person In The Company

Not one employee at your future new company is named “To Whom it May Concern,” so stop that. 

You’ve got to find a real person to whom you can direct this thing.

This seems so hard or overwhelming, but it’s often easier than you may think. Just mosey over to LinkedIn and do a People search using the company’s name as your search term. Scroll through the people working at that company until you find someone who appears to be the hiring manager. If you can’t find a logical manager, try locating an internal recruiter, the head of staffing or, in smaller companies, the head of HR. Address your masterpiece to that person. Your effort will be noted and appreciated.

And a last, critical factor when it comes to delivering a great cover letter: Be yourself. Honest, genuine writing always goes much, much further than sticking to every dumb rule you’ve ever read in stale, outdated career guides and college textbooks.

Rules can be bent. In fact, if you truly want that dream job, rules SHOULD be bent.