Creating a cover letter can be a real challenge for many people. How should you convey all the things that you want to? How can you make yourself rise above the competition, which in today’s economy is fiercer than ever? One idea is to search for sample cover letters online to use as a guide. But even if you do that, you should know what a good cover letter looks like. The truth is that you can follow some easy dos and don’ts to help you realize what should and should not be done. Building on this kind of basic advice, you’ll be able to write your own unique cover letters that will help you acquire the interview that gets you the job you always wanted.

The first “don’t” to remember when writing cover letters is don’t write an entire autobiography. A cover letter should be one page maximum, unless you were specifically told otherwise. This brief page has to include all of the critical information that you want to highlight to this potential employer. This means relevant job histories and experiences, education, and more. Don’t try to make conversation, don’t add fluff material, and don’t drone on. Stick to the most important points and you’ll gain a good reputation of being direct, while also showing off all of your best traits.

Another good thing you should do is to tailor your cover letter as targeted as possible to the job that you’re applying to. In other words, you shouldn’t have a generic cover letter that you just copy and paste into every job application. Your cover letter should mention individual experiences that you’ve had or skills that you’ve gained that will apply specifically to this position. Talk about why this specific job excites you, and why you’d be a good fit.

Still, while you don’t want to have a generic cover letter that you send out everywhere, there’s nothing wrong with crafting a couple of cover letter templates that will speed up the process when you apply to several jobs. For instance, maybe you are applying to three types of jobs – marketing positions, sales team positions, and lower level sales team management. You can create a basic template of a cover letter for each of these three types of jobs, which go into detail about the experiences and skills that apply to each.

Each time you apply to a specific job, you can fill in the gaps talking specifically about why this job would be great for you, why you would want it, and why you would excel. You’ll still be writing unique, highly targeted cover letters, but you’ll be saving yourself a ton of time by not having to redo it from scratch every time out.

Lastly, the most important “do” of writing cover letters is that you absolutely should brag about yourself in a non-egotistical way. This is the place to show off. You should keep your resume to the facts, but the cover letter is the time to inject some personality and opinion surrounding the facts. Sell yourself, and make yourself stand apart as unique and desirable, or else you’re just another empty sheet of paper that will be dumped in the recycle bin.

Crafting a cover letter is not as an exact science. However, there are a few tried and true tips that can make the process easier. Follow these dos and don’ts and you will that much closer to crafting an amazing cover letter. When you do that, your dream job will finally be in your hands.

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