Anatomy of a cover letter

In an earlier post about cover letters, I mentioned a cover letter checklist. With every cover letter you write, whether it's applying on freelance job boards like oDesk or applying to a normal job, you'll want to be sure to include vital pieces of information.

At the same time, however, you do not want to recycle your cover letters. While it's okay to reuse generic portions (such as your rates and typical timeframes), you always want to tailor each cover letter to the job you're applying to!

The importance of spelling and grammar

Before I break down the checklist, I want to emphasize the importance of tone, spelling, and grammar in your cover letters. Proper spelling and grammar are vital to your cover letters! If your cover letter is riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, the person on the receiving end will assume two things about you:

1. You're too lazy to check your cover letter for errors, and because you're too lazy to check for errors, what else will you be too lazy to check for while working for them?
2. You're stupid.

You don't want either!

What about tone?

As for the tone of your cover letters, there will always be differing opinions. However, in my personal experience, I've had the most success with a semi-formal tone.

I've found that this strikes the perfect balance between professional and easy-going. I write with contractions, but I leave out slang and abbreviations (unless I'm talking about specific technology, like TCP/IP, DSL, IMAP, and so on).

Whatever you do, though, do NOT use "chat speak". You'll want to make sure you form complete sentences and spell out all of your words (i.e.: don't use "exp", spell it out as "experience").

Cover letter checklist

• Introduction to yourself
• Introduction to your skillset
• Questions for the buyer
• Portfolio samples relevant to the buyer's job
• Information on how fast/slow/efficiently you work
• Closing statement with an invitation to ask questions

Who are you?

A brief one or two-sentence introduction to yourself should be first on your cover letter. This can be as simple as giving them your name and what you do.

Hello,

My name is _____ and I've been _____ for ____ years.

What do you do?

Give them a brief overview of what you're good at – after all, this is what they are looking for.

I'm very familiar with _____, as I have done _____ for clients in the past. My specialty lies in _____, and I believe your job is right up my alley!

Don't be afraid to ask questions

On most job borads, questions for the buyer will usually come easily – most job descriptions are sparse and don't provide a lot of detail. If they buyer has posted enough information to not warrant any questions from you, it'll probably be a job you want to try extra hard to get!

I noticed that your job description mentioned _____, but it doesn't mention _____. I'd like to get more information on how you would like _____ implemented, and what your thoughts are on _____.

If you have questions to ask, it'll show your buyer that 1) you paid attention to their job description, and 2) you can help flesh things out to potentially make things easier on you, should the buyer actually hire you!

A portfolio is worth a thousand words

Sometimes, it's difficult to show work you've done previously, especially if the majority of your work is in a commodity market. However, if you work in a field where you can show tangible results, flaunt your examples! If you have multiple sources of examples, be sure to show samples as closely related to the job you're applying to as possible.

Below are some examples that focused on _____, as you require for your project:

www.link1.com (this project uses _____ and _____)
www.link2.com (this project does _____)

How do your do your job?

You want to be sure to tell the buyer how you work. If you work fast, let them know. If you always double-check your work, tell them.

Typically, for a project that requires _____, my turnaround time is _____ [hours/days/weeks]. I always _____ and _____ to ensure you are completely satisfied with my work.

Close it out with an invitation

Close out your emails with a summary, if you'd like. Be sure to invite them to ask questions of you. Any buyer worth working for will have questions for you. Consider this a pre-emptive strike to let them know you are looking forward to their assault!

My working hours are usually _____, and you can reach me at _____. If we are able to discuss your project in detail, I'll be able to give you better estimates of costs and timeframes. If you you have any questions, please feel free to ask!

Thank you for your time,
_____

And that's it. Try to keep your cover letter relatively short, if your cover letter is a mile long (like this post is), the buyer will probably skip it. More often than not, a buyer will have more applications than they can sort through in a timely manner, giving them too much all at once can have a negative impact.

Of course, after time, you can forget about all of this.

Eventually, you'll work up your own cover-letter-writing system, and maybe even then, you'll be able to say, "That Danalyn doesn't know what she's talking about!" and write your own cover letter article. But until then, what have you got to lose? It works for me, and so I shared it with you.

Just give it a try.