Customizing Your Cover Letter

Always have a general cover letter prepared. You can then tailor your letter to each job to which you are applying. Following are situations in which you definitely want to customize your letter accordingly:

1. You know someone at the company

If you know someone at the company, then use that as your opener:

"Your colleague Jeff Sandson felt my skills and background might be valuable to your division and suggested I get in contact with you."

2. Someone referred you to the job

If a mutual friend or acquaintance referred you to the job, then make that your introduction.

"My good friend and former colleague Sarah Johnson called the other day saying she thought this opportunity would be a perfect fit. I know you have worked with her for years as well, and as we both know, she is so well respected for her spot on instincts."

When there is a third person involved, people feel anywhere from obligated to intrigued to look into it further and respond. This will give you a much better shot at getting the interview.

3. You recently read an article about the company and want to refer to it in your letter

"Congratulations on the well deserved article in The New York Times last week. I have been following the success of your company over the past year and would be thrilled to become part of the team that will undoubtedly continue to make cutting edge advancements."

Even if the company has not had any press, you can still send them an article of interest. This can be extremely powerful, but it cannot be forced. The article has to be relevant to the company, their way of doing business or current industry challenges and issues. Make sure it makes sense, but if it does, by all means, send it. It will set you apart.

"I came across the enclosed article in the Wall Street Journal last week and thought it might interest you. As this article clearly reiterates, your way of doing business is the future of book publishing. Zion is exactly the kind of forward thinking company I want to be associated with, and with my background in getting start ups off the ground, I have plenty of experience applying the kind of out of the box thinking you are looking for in your next new business development manager."

4. Your qualifications and experience match up specifically with the qualifications they specify in their job description. Only do this kind of comparison if several of your qualifications line up with the specifics of their job spec. If you only have one or two of the specific qualifications, using this method will shine a light on what is lacking.

Your Qualifications
5 years experience
Management experience
Proven track record of
bringing in new accounts

My Skills
3 years at an agency, 3 years at a private firm
2 years management experience, managing a total of 5 people
Brought in 3 blue chip and 9 other accounts in my 3 years at current company

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