Interest in Company on Cover Letter

Water Cooler Careers
#1

Dear all,

I am struggling to come up with a somewhat unique paragraph to show my desire to work at a company that I am applying for.

On the one side I don’t want to write something generic which can probably be seen on almost every letter, but on the other side it is not very economical to do an hour long research just to come up with something tha MAY be perceived as unique.

My questions are:

  1. How important do you think this aspect is in a cover letter in general?

  2. Do you have any tips and tricks on how to tackle this without spending too much time, i.e. write something clever but not spend too much time researching?

Thanks for your feedback!!

#2

Desire doesn’t really cut it in cover letters.

Just take the description and job responsibilities for the position you are applying to, write out very similar responsibilities that you have experience with in the past, put it in paragraph form, add some other stuff if you like, and there you have it.

#3

Hi Isaiah,

Thanks for your reply. This is basically how I built up my letter indeed. What I mentioned above is something I would like to add on top of responsibilities, experience, etc.

#4

You can always say “I’ll give my left nut for this position”

That should do the trick.

#5

It can be important if you actually have something meaningful to say in the letter that might differentiate you from other candidates. If you’re just saying you really want to work there, then join the queue.

#6

Agree. As a hiring manager, I don’t think I have ever seen a cover letter. I get a bunch of PDF and Word resumes with the letters stripped off, which in my case, means the cover letter is (maybe) only read by the recruiter, who typically knows dick about the job. They are screening the resumes to make sure the candidate best matches the job req.

The biggest favor you could do for yourself would be to tailor your resume as best you can to the specific job description as written in the job req. Pay attention to the nuances as typically that job req has been written by me, the hiring manager.

#7

are cover letters even used (required) anymore?

#8

Most of my interviews and offers didn’t even have cover letters.

There was one exception, I was applying for a CFO position for a small growth company and wrote a 6 page letter on my skills, experience, how it relates to the company and a plan for strategic growth. The CEO was really impressed and quickly responded for me to come into the office for an interview, but didn’t get the role.