Customizing the Covering Letter

Many workplace experts endorse customizing cover letters--and many insist that you can't find a job without a customized letter. There are many different ways to customize a cover letter--and here are some tips to help you customize your cover letter.

1. Simple Way: Change the name. While a perfectly tailored cover letter is wonderful, sometimes it's just not in the cards. So while every letter should convey the appropriate message, it should not always have to go too much into detail. Consider simply changing the name in your salutation. If you include the recipient's address that would--of course--be changed too, in that case.

2. More Detail: Change the introduction. Assuming that most of your cover letters have the same body that explains your skill set, you can change the introductory paragraph (in addition to the name and recipient address) to show more tailoring. For example, you may want to include the title of the job you're applying for and the name of the company. This is a very useful approach because it lets you tailor your pitch and you will remember that all of the information that needs to be changed is in that first paragraph.

3. Tell Them Everything: Use bullets. You can use bullets in any formal cover letter, but some people want to match the job requirements and translate them into bullets showing that they have the experience. Hint: Don't copy/paste the job requirements. For example, if a job requires that you have 4 to 6 years of experience in the editorial arena; a bullet may read "5+ years of expertise in copywriting and editing. Additional experience as a journalist."

Source: Net