how to write a freaking cover letter.
Hello programmers! From time to time at work, I have to sift through your resumes. A lot of them. I'm going through the most recent stack right now and the cover letters are, by and large, terrible.
So here's a tutorial: how to write a cover letter that doesn't suck.
- Write a cover letter, stupid. Don't just click "apply" on monster and send your resume. It shows that you don't give a shit. And the cover letter is your only chance to display half an ounce of personality.
- Cruise the company's website. Amazingly, most people don't do this. What does the company do? How long have they been around? Who are the managers? Have they done other interesting things?
- Don't start with a sample cover letter that you found online. Inevitably a stack of resumes has dozens of identically-phrased (and nearly content-free) cover letters. Lame.
- Skip the generic hyperbole. You're a self-starter, you have strong communication skills, you work well in teams, you're a fast learner, you're high-energy, you're results-oriented. Because... because you say so. Right. Listen, nobody reads this stuff. It doesn't mean anything. You may have specific strengths that are worth highlighting but these aren't them. If you don't have anything magical, that's fine -- your cover letter is still stronger without "I'm a fast learner" than with.
- Keep the skills summary to a paragraph. Don't repeat your entire resume. Talk briefly about your relevant skills and that's it.
- Write every cover letter from scratch. If you ignore everything else in this list, pay attention to this item. I mean it. Talk specifically about why you're interested in this company and this position. What makes you want to work there? (if you can't answer this question, this tutorial isn't for you.)
The bottom line is: every job application should be an individual one that you care about, not #54 in a 100-job resume blast. It's always, always easy to tell the people that want this job as opposed to the people that want a job. The people in the former group always get interviews; for the latter group, it's a total crapshoot.
Everything above seems completely obvious to me. But for most of the software engineering population, at least, it clearly isn't. And that's fine for big faceless companies with generic jobs. But if you're trying to get hired at a small place, you better actually try.