If you’re like most job seekers, you’re not taking advantage of one of the best ways to get a hiring manager’s attention: writing a great cover letter.
大多數求職者和你一樣沒用好吸引招聘經理的一個最好辦法：寫封好的求職信。
Cover letters are crucial to hiring managers who understand that people are more than just their work experience – that people have personalities, habits and other reasons they’d be great at a particular job that aren’t easily seen from a résumé. After all, if this weren’t true, employers wouldn’t even need to bother to interview candidates; they could just screen résumés, verify that candidates’ experience and accomplishments were accurate and then hire the person with the best résumé.
求職信對招聘經理至關重要，他們知道求職者不只有工作經驗——性格、習慣和其他能讓他們擅長某個工作的特質不容易在簡歷中看出來。畢竟，如果簡歷包括了所有內容，雇主都不需要費心組織面試了，他們只要篩下簡歷，確認候選人的經驗和成就沒造假，然后聘用簡歷最優秀的候選人就行了。
Here’s how to write a cover letter that will get you interviews.
下面是如何寫一封能讓你得到面試的求職信的辦法。
1. Show personal interest in the particular job that you’re applying for. A strong cover letter will make a convincing case that youre truly excited about the opportunity. What grabbed you about the job description or the company? Why would you prefer this job over others out there? Why do you think you’d be great at it? What in your background demonstrates that you’d excel at the work?
1. 表現出對申請職位的興趣。說服力強的求職信會讓人相信你是真的想得到這個機會。工作描述或公司的哪方面吸引了你?為什么比起其他工作你更喜歡這個?你為什么認為自己擅長這類工作?你的哪些背景條件能證明你會有出色的表現?
2. Don’t summarize your résumé. Too often, job seekers simply summarize the contents of their résumé in their cover letter. With such limited initial contact, you do yourself a disservice if you use a whole page of your application to simply repeat the contents of the other pages. The cover letter should add something new to your candidacy – information that doesnt belong on your résumé like personal traits, work habits, why youre interested in the job, maybe even a reference to feedback from a previous manager. Speaking of which …
2. 不要總結簡歷上的話。求職者常常只在求職信里總結簡歷的內容。篇幅本就有限，如果你整頁都只是重復下面幾頁的內容，你會害了自己的。求職信里要加些能加強競爭力的新信息——簡歷上沒有的信息，如個人特質、工作習慣、為什么對這份工作感興趣，甚至可以讓前經理當參考人。說到這里…
3. If something makes you especially well-suited for the job aside from what’s on your résumé, mention it. For example, maybe the position requires an inordinate degree of meticulousness and you frequently get teased for being obsessive about details. That’s a perfect thing to mention in a cover letter, and it’s information that wouldn’t be found on your résumé. If you’re having trouble thinking of those qualities, try thinking about what you would tell a friend if you were explaining why you were excited about this particular job and why you think you would be great at it. Does that explanation add anything that your friend couldn’t get from just looking at your résumé? It probably does – and that’s what you want to convey.
3. 除了寫在簡歷上的內容，如果有什么經歷讓你特別適合這份工作，要在求職信里提到。比如，這個職位可能要非常小心細致，而你經常因為執著細節被伙伴開玩笑。這就是寫在求職信里的完美內容，而且無法在簡歷中找到。如果你很難想出這些特質，試著想想當你告訴朋友為什么喜歡這份工作以及為什么能做好它的時候會說什么。在你說這些的時候是不是發現了朋友光看你簡歷無法發現的閃光點?也許，這就是你在求職信上要傳達的東西。
4. Stay away from hyperbole. Statements like "I’m the best candidate for the job” and “You won’t find a candidate better qualified than me” come across as naive. You have no way of knowing what the rest of the candidate pool looks like, and only the hiring manager is equipped to assess your candidacy against that pool. Keep the focus on why you’d excel at the job without trying to put down your competition. Your cover letter shouldn’t sound like an infomercial.
4. 不要夸大。像“我是這份工作的最佳人選”和“你找不到比我更合格的候選人”之類的話只能說明你太天真了。你不可能知道其他求職者的條件如何，而且只有招聘經理能評價你有多合適。把注意力放在你為什么擅長這份工作而不是看低競爭對手。你的求職信不該像電視導購那么夸張。
5. Be conversational. Job seekers sometimes feel that a cover letter should be as formal as possible, but the best cover letters are written in a conversational, engaging tone. Of course, don’t be overly casual; don’t use slang, and pay careful attention to things like grammar and spelling. But your tone and the language should be conversational and warm and engaging.
5. 語氣別太正式。求職者有時覺得求職信應該盡可能正式，但最好的求職信的語氣都是比較隨意、有代入感的。當然，不要太過隨意，不要用俚語，要仔細注意語法和拼寫之類的細節。但是你的語氣和語言應該隨意且溫暖。
6. Don’t use a form letter. Hiring managers can tell the difference between a letter that you’re sending with all your applications and a letter that you wrote specifically for this job. If your letter works for all the jobs youre applying to, that’s a sign that it needs to be more customized.
6. 不要用相同模板。招聘經理能區分你的求職信是發給所有申請公司還是專門為某個職位寫的。如果你的求職信對所有申請的工作都適用，這是在告訴你要“量身定制”了。