4 Tips for Excellent Cover Letters

1. Address the cover letter to a specific person
   "To whom it may concern" letters will wind up in the slush pile or filed away.
   
2. Research the company
   The employer wants to know that you care enough about his/her company, organization, etc. to truly want to work there. Identify what service or product the employer provides that is of most interest to you.
   
3. It's not about you!
   Even though the cover letter is technically about you, it is really about how you will benefit the employer. For this reason, you will never send the same cover letter to two places. Rather, you will tailor each letter to that particular employer. Pick just two or three of your best skills and write about how they will benefit the employer.
   
4. Proofread, proofread, and proofread again!
   Sound familiar? The cover letter provides an example of your writing skills and detail-orientation to the employer, so it is essential that your writing be exceptionally good. At the very least, check and double-check and have someone else check again for spelling and grammatical errors. Read the letter backwards sentence by sentence to catch typos and grammatical errors.

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