How to Elevate Your Executive Cover Letter

Once you have completed writing or updating your resume, the idea of writing a cover letter seems like a slam dunk.  Resumes are generally about facts and statistics, but the cover letter takes a different approach. You have a little more freedom to show your personality in your professional resume cover letter, which can be good or bad. The important thing to remember is having a cookie cutter cover letter isn’t going to get you recognized. Here are some tips for making yours stand out.

Grab the Reader

It’s important to hook your reader in the first sentence. Any cover letter writing service will tell you the opening sentences will make or break your entire cover letter. In fact, if you don’t grab the reader right away, they may not even continue reading after the first few sentences. The most important thing is to stay on topic and explain why you are excited about potentially working for their company, and why you believe you are a good fit.

Target The Company

By the time you are writing the cover letter, you have already done your research on the company, so make sure that is demonstrated in the cover letter. This is one way to get the reader’s attention. When writing a professional resume cover letter, targeting the company will make yours stand out over someone who just recycled theirs from a previous application. No matter if you give certain statistics or tell a quick story you learned about the company, the reader will be more interested when you talk about something they can relate to.

Show Confidence

Your cover letter is going to highlight specific accomplishments from your resume, so talk about these achievements in your career with confidence. As a professional, you need to be assertive in your cover letter, even if it’s natural for you to be humble about your accomplishments. Your cover letter writing service will suggest backing up your claims with facts and evidence, though, so your confidence doesn’t appear to be just words on a page.

Honesty!

Be prepared to back up anything you put in writing. This is a good policy for life, in general, but what you write in your professional resume cover letter could come up again later in an interview. If you’re honest in your cover letter, then you should have no problem answering those questions. However, any time you’re dishonest, most interviewers can see right through you and you’ll immediately be disqualified as an applicant.

Carefully Proofread

Many people forget to do this critical piece. Spellcheck and grammar check on the computer don’t count. It may take you a while and several visits to your cover letter writing service to make it perfect, but it’s always worth your time to proofread it closely. Many times an employer will seek out typographical or grammatical errors and throw out those resumes and cover letters right away.

Professional Resume Services is here to help you craft the perfect cover letter to increase your chances of landing an interview. We will work with you to show just the right amount of confidence, give targeted information, and present facts in a way that will hook the reader. If you ever need help with writing your cover letter, or if you just need another set of eyes to look at it, never hesitate to reach out to us at any time.

About the author

Erin Kennedy

Erin Kennedy, CPRW, CERW, BS/HR, is a Certified Professional Resume Writer/Career Consultant, and the President of Professional Resume Services. She is a nationally published writer and contributor of nine best-selling career books.

   

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