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Episode Description:

Ah, the Cover Letter...just what you want to write after carefully updating every line of your resume. They can be a pain, but a well-written cover letter can set you light years above the competition and get you hired!

In this episode, Beth goes through her tips for writing a winning cover letter and setting yourself apart in the job search market.

Links mentioned in the episode:

Podcast:

The Type A Plus Podcast Instagram

Host:

Beth Lawrence LinkedIn

Beth Lawrence & Company Instagram

Beth will be back each week, delivering bite-sized tips (15-minute episodes or less) on how to optimize your life and work.

Episode Transcript can be found below:

Welcome to the Type A+ Podcast with me Beth Lawrence. I'm a certified meeting professional, award-winning event planner, entrepreneur, and the classic over-prepared overachiever. I'm the owner of Beth Lawrence and company an event planning firm that specializes in helping visionaries organize and execute impactful experiences.

In each episode, I'll be delivering bite-sized tips on organizing your business and life even during your most hectic times. So let's get started. Hello, welcome back. It's a two-episode week here on the Type A+ Podcast. Today we are going to be talking about writing an eye-catching cover letter. So the idea is that you have now gone through your LinkedIn you've optimized it looks beautiful, you're starting to network, and you're getting that confidence back.

And now it's time to actually apply for those jobs. You've made the right connections. People are asking you to apply for jobs, you're finding jobs on LinkedIn, and everything is coming together. Now the biggest thing here is you do have to write a cover letter. For each job that requires one, there can be a framework for it, of course, and we're going to talk about that today.

But make sure that you're personalizing it, make sure that the person who is reading it knows that you wrote it for that job. Now when it comes to the framework, first and foremost your basic contact information, name, address, email, phone number, and location are centered at the top, preferably, now it is time for the greeting. Now here, you want to make sure that you're addressing the hiring manager by name.

Typically on LinkedIn, you can actually find the hiring managers’ profiles, their name, their title, and everything. So make sure that you do your best to address the hiring manager by name in the greeting. Now, you're ready for the body portion of your cover letter. First and foremost, you have to do your research. As I mentioned, write a cover letter for each role you're desiring do not just write one cover letter, and copy-paste it. I love efficiency more than anyone but a standard template will not work here. The framework is okay, but definitely put time and care into each one. Do your research about the role.

What are the day-to-day tasks? What are the buzzwords in the job description? How can you make sure that you are conveying to the hiring manager that you understand the requirements of the role and why you can meet those requirements? When you're opening the letter opens too strongly with a hook. Here's where you can show something personal, you can show your personality, you can show that you did your research, right that you understand the company, and that you understand what is expected of the role. So a nice way to open is an association that you have with the company or industry that is positive or the reason that this organization, in particular, drew you in.

From there, you're going to showcase your past experiences including your career responsibilities, your volunteer roles, and your project-based assignments that align with the needs and expectations of the role. You're going to pull key highlights from your resume, including statistics, and any relevant numbers, but tell the story behind them, and make them come to life How did you really contribute to the success of the project? Then in closing, wrap it up, try to reference the hook in your wrap-up if you can, it's just a nice way to tell a story and bring it back again to the purpose of the letter. Thank the hiring manager for reviewing your letter Express.

Once again, with your genuine interest in moving forward and exploring conversations you're ready to send it off. I always like to try to have someone both in my industry and outside of my industry, review the resume if possible. So if you have folks in your network, I definitely would advise it. If not be confident. Be yourself, convey how much you want the role and how excited you are for this new opportunity and it will shine through.

I hope this was helpful. Looking forward to giving you a couple more tips next week. Have a good one!

Thank you very much for listening to this episode of The Type A+ Podcast by me, Beth Lawrence. New episodes will be released each week. Don't forget to find us on Instagram at the Type A+ Podcast and slide into our DMS with questions and episode ideas and introduce yourself. If you liked this podcast, please share give us a five-star rating, and subscribe. I'll see you next time.