Hi! We’re Top Applicant, and we’re very excited about the opportunity to become your newest career-building tool.
Does that intro sound familiar at all? Every career guru claims to have the secret sauce to landing your dream job. But the top applicants that trust our tools quickly come to understand that we don’t rely on secrets and fads. Instead, our platform is built around communication and providing the right resources to make the best first impression possible.
Take a peek at a couple of our cover letter examples and learn the dos and don’ts surrounding this important step in your career.
What Your Letter Should Cover
Instead of giving you a template, we’d like to share a few key things about your cover letter. The minds behind Top Applicant have seen good, bad, and ugly cover letter examples in over 40 years of combined hiring experience. So, we put our heads together and boiled down the top 3 things hiring managers are looking for in a cover letter.
Professional Details
This one is obvious, but it’s still worth the mention. Make sure any key points match up with the information on your resume, and you’re golden! The cover letter examples we love as hiring managers are really good at keeping things short, sweet, and informative.
Educational Details
DMA? CPA? GED? There are almost more acronyms in the educational world than there are in the military world. But what do those letters mean to you? Impactful cover letter examples don’t lie. No matter what, make sure you only describe the degrees and certifications you have fully achieved—not just the ones the employer requires.
Personal Details
Honesty is also the best policy when it comes to personal aspects of your life. If you have a gap in your resume, it’s better to explain it in your cover letter than to try hiding it throughout your interview. In the most effective cover letter examples we’ve seen, applicants’ professional lives go hand in hand with their personal details and journey.
How You Should Cover It
We cannot stress this enough: Keep your cover letter to under a page. Your future employer will have the rest of your career to learn your life story. For now, format your letter to focus on the three things we include in our cover letter examples.
Getting to the Point
“Burying the lead” is a term used in journalism to describe a roundabout way of making the purpose of your writing known. To understand how burying the lead works and why it should be avoided, just check out the first paragraphs of our first cover letter examples.
Hiring managers would rather know the who, what, and why in the first sentence, if not the first paragraph. The latter of our two cover letter examples shows how you can get to the point—and get an interview.
Keeping It Concise
Along the same lines, keeping your message concise is equally important. It may be a little difficult to decipher what we mean by this, so scroll to take a look at our two cover letter examples. While the first is long-winded and includes unnecessary sentences, the second includes examples and actions in almost every sentence. Keeping your message consistent and efficient is exactly what hiring managers are looking for.
Telling Your Story
Top Applicant is devoted to giving our users a platform to go beyond the resume. Your story is the biggest factor in your cover letter. Our cover letter examples are great ways to show how to overcome obstacles like job jumping or employment gaps, and how you can stand out by sharing your life beyond your professional experience.
Our Examples
Below are two cover letter examples to give you an idea of what employers look for and what to avoid. Read carefully to see the best ways to up your cover letter game and become a top applicant!
Horatio’s Cover Letter
My name is Horatio and I’m needing a career change to make more money and improve my job title. I’m a great addition to any office, even though I haven’t worked in one before. In my experience on the factory floor, I learned how to make friends with my co-workers and punch in and out every day right on time.
I went to Glendale high school. There I focused on getting through classes and I made a few great friends. I dropped out after spring break in my junior year to focus on my music career. After I released my first EP on SoundCloud, I got my GED and my job at the factory to keep a roof over my head while I wait for a label to sign me.
I’m really needing this job because I’ve been a material handler at GM since I dropped out and my back is really starting to kill me. Your company looks like a great way to make money while making friends and I think I’d be a great addition to your team. Give me a call, text at the digits below, or hit my SoundCloud at H.Ratio, talk soon!
Kylie’s Cover Letter
Hello! My name is Kylie Cadanza, and I’m a highly motivated professional looking to join your team as a risk assessment specialist. I believe I would be a great asset to the offices of Cogburn and Youngst because of my continuous drive to learn, my tenacity, and my prior experience.
My passion for helping others started at Glendale High where I volunteered at the Boys and Girls Club while participating in student government as the treasurer for my sophomore, junior, and senior classes. Upon graduation, I took a gap year to explore what I wanted most out of my career. I found that my passion for helping people paired well with my business acumen. So, at UC Irvine, I earned my business degree with an emphasis in finance and statistics.
Your office has made it clear that you respect integrity, intellect, and efficiency. My internship at Core Logics has prepared me to meet these expectations. Corey Decantur, my manager, was integral in showing me how to utilize statistics to accurately assess risk by looking at past data and using it to predict future possibilities. Feel free to reach out to him or any of my other references to learn more about my character and experience. I am excited to join the offices of Cogburn and Youngst as a risk assessment specialist, and I’m happy to answer any questions via email or call.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Key Takeaways
See anything different between our two cover letter examples? While honesty is important, there are many ways to say the same thing. Both cover letter examples state who the applicant is and what they want, but they say it in very different ways. Here are the top three takeaways our resume experts would like to share:
Communication Is Key
We understand that not everyone is a wordsmith. However, every top applicant should sound professional regardless of their experience. In Horatio’s cover letter example, he alludes to his tenacity as he discusses his work at the factory. However, his words are largely focused on describing himself as personable and promoting himself as an artist.
Kylie’s cover letter example may not come with as much work experience. However, as she describes her education, Kylie carefully pairs her education and experience with job descriptors. By doing this, she gives her future employer a picture of her passion while concisely describing how her experience helps her meet the demands of the job.
Don’t Take Shortcuts
In our cover letter examples, there are two clear ways of building a career. Kylie chose to build her education and experience to meet the job she was applying for. Horatio, on the other hand, seems as though his career path is just as muddled as his career as a musician. While staying concise is a good thing, keep in mind that you still need to be clear about what you want, why you deserve it, and who you’re speaking to.
Your Story Matters
Our founder created Top Applicant to help everyone make a great first impression. No matter what your past is, we believe everyone deserves a bright future. While Horatio may need to polish up his cover letter, there are many ways to take the next step in his career. To stay true to himself, we suggest that he goes deeper into his experience as an independent musician and a diligent worker at GM. We also suggest that he gives more detail about his day-to-day work that fits the job description, and maybe take out the bit about his SoundCloud.
In Kylie’s case, her story is not so different from many college graduates. While it may look good on paper, there is still room for improvement. We suggest that she goes deeper into specific examples in her experience with the Boys and Girls Club to describe how her work there applies to the job description. We also suggest that she includes specific examples of projects or assignments that pertain to the job description instead of relying solely on her references to speak for her.
Tell Your Story Land That Job.
We hope these cover letter examples give you a good idea of what hiring managers are looking for. Our experts at Top Applicant have decades of combined hiring experience with thousands of cover letters between them. So when you’re ready for that next step, take our advice. Let employers see the real you with Top Applicant’s video capabilities, modern resume builder, and more great features.
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