Love them or hate them, cover letters are essential to the job search. With so much information on the internet about cover letters, it doesn’t take long before you start to feel overwhelmed. My advice is to keep it short and concise.

I can hear you shout through the screen, “What does short and concise mean?” Think of your cover letter as the appetizer portion of a meal. It should be just enough information to get the reader hungry for more. You should cover the basics: who am I, and why should you hire me?

Another element in today’s job market is making sure your cover letter stands out from the crowd. Forbes has a great article written by someone who has read over 300 cover letters and gave pointers on the good and the bad:

1. The Basics: Make sure you double-check for typos and that it doesn't read like a find/replace cover letter. Also, skip the over-effusive thanks and connect your qualifications with the job position.

2. The Opening Sentence: Recruiters have to read hundreds of cover letters, so you want your opening sentence to stand out. Remove the generic “I am writing to apply for the Copywriter position,” and change it to something like, “My passion is to create ad copy that will engage customers.”

3. The Examples: Similar to your unique opener, you want to stay away from the generic “my skills include X, Y, and Z.” Adding in an appropriate anecdotal story can add personality to your cover letter.

These are great tips to create a rockstar cover letter and help you land an interview. Do you have any tips to writing an amazing cover letter? We would love to hear from you. Comment below or send us an email.