The Subtle Importance of Personalized Cover Letter Writing

As we can all generally attest to, whether it is a customized résumé or an introductory cover letter, writing about ourselves for ourselves, can be a bit of challenge.

In a competitive job market, how one delivers their personal introduction through a cover letter can make all the difference in standing out amongst the competition and breaking through ATS and AI scanners.

Personalized attention matters – especially these days. Artificial intelligence tools are in fact quite amazing, however many job seekers become over reliant on them and their overuse can be detrimental. The lack of required refinement to their output is often overlooked in one’s haste to apply to as many job postings as possible.

Having objective help in developing and refining customized cover letters is part of the personalized outplacement program at CMS.

Take Rafi for example:

Rafi worked in IT as an end user support team leader with his previous company. He was well trained in his field and had a long track record in a variety of progressively responsible positions.

His résumé, once completed, was a testament to his career history and his accomplishments. When it came to the marketing component of the program, it became apparent to Rafi that he needed to develop professional, customized cover letters (not AI generated ones), depending on the role he was applying for and the audience he was writing to.

As part of our career-transition program at CMS, Rafi was able to see a variety of sample cover letters that he could copy and edit, customizing them for his own purposes.

He personalized our sample letters when applying to online job postings, when connecting with recruiters, and to follow-up with employers after initial interviews. As he practiced, he got pretty good at developing his own writing style and even though he wasn’t a natural writer, he learned a new skill that he could take forward in his life and career.

In one particular instance, Rafi had learned that his brother’s employer was looking for a new IT support team member and he wondered how he could use his brother’s influence to get a shot at the job.

The sample letter that he used in this circumstance was one that referenced a mutual acquaintance. And, with our help, Rafi put together a customized, friendly, and professional cover letter that referenced his desire to join the company and the key contributions he could bring to the role—along with his brother’s name as an immediate reference.

As it turned out, Rafi was granted an initial meeting and was subsequently offered the job after three rounds of interviews. Ultimately however, he accepted a role with a different organization that was closer to his home and held more promise for future advancement, but it was clear that had he not used his cover letter to reference her brother, Rafi would not have even had a chance at the job within his company.

Having access to our broad spectrum of sample cover letters which address almost every situation Rafi found himself in over the course of his career transition, was instrumental for him to: 1. strike the right tone, 2. include the required depth of detail, 3. use the proper format, and 4. effectively communicate why he was a good fit for each job.