How to write an impressive cover letter

For a start, it is best to start writing without thinking about whether it is worded correctly or if it is a good start. Then, get what you want to say and help yourself out from your support words. Then, completely ignore the structure and finish.

Sometimes it can be challenging to write if you do not know who you are writing to. Therefore, try to figure out who will read your letter. Maybe it is already in the ad? Perhaps you can look at the companys website and find an HR manager? If you get a face and a name for a person, it often feels much more effortless. Then you will subconsciously or consciously write the letter to them. On the other hand, if you do not find the person you think will read your letter, you can find a person and imagine that you are writing to that person instead.

Once you have what you want to say, you have the first draft to continue working from.

At this point, do not worry about it being perfect or even good. Expect that you will still throw away most of what you write. Just make sure that there is some valuable content, and in the following steps, we will hone it further.

The introduction to your letter needs to be exciting and make the reader want to read on. Some recruiters have hundreds of applications to go through and quickly reject an application that does not seem interesting at first glance.

It is common to start your letter by repeating the information you have already provided. For example, "My name is Carolina, and I hereby apply for the position as xx because I find your organization interesting". It may seem nice to present yourself in the introduction, but it is not very interesting. It is also stupid to repeat yourself on the small surface in an application. Instead, you can start your letter in one of the following ways:

• "I have followed your development in recent years and am fascinated by…"
• "My goal since school time has been to specialize in…."
• “When I was little, I used to sit under my dads desk and listen to his phone calls with customers. Ever since then, I have wanted… ”

You can, of course, capture a readers interest in a variety of ways, and there are no given answers. If there were a trick to take, it would quickly bore a seasoned recruiter when more people learn the trick… So instead, try to look at the text you wrote and see if there is any part that stands out and could make the reader stop.

You must end your letter in such a way that the last thing the reader brings with them after reading your letter is a strong and positive feeling. The very last short paragraph in your letter should therefore be summarized with the most important thing you want to say with your letter - your main argument - and a line that you look forward to hearing from them, meeting them or the like. Also, do not forget to end with a greeting and your name.

A cover letter easily gets too long; it should not be longer than 3-4 paragraphs of about 7 lines each and fit on one page. Therefore, it is crucial to be concise in the message and formulations, to still get what you want to convey.

After finishing your cover letter, you should go back and make sure that you avoid repetitions or lengthy explanations. Make sure it is as short as possible but that you still get what you want to say. It is more complicated than it sounds because you want to tell everything that is to your advantage for the job you are looking for, but the truth is that you rarely hear anything when you say too much. You probably recognize the concept of "I do not see the forest for all the trees that are in the way", which can be applied to an application to the highest degree.

Also, remember to structure your cover letter so that it is both easy to follow the text and keep up with your arguments and reasoning, but also so that it is possible to navigate it if you want to go back and read about parts of it. Let each paragraph have a central argument to make it easier for the reader and make your letter clear and easy to understand.

How formal you should be in the letters tone depends on the job you are looking for. A tip is to stick to the same manner as in the job advertisement and on the organizations website. An application letter for a job within an academic and strict organization should thus have a more formal language than if, for example, you are applying for a job at a young startup.