What’s in it for you?
It could be argued that human beings are self-serving by nature. I don’t mean this as a criticism of the human race, merely as a strategy to employ when creating a cover letter to be used in your job search. Instead of asking the question “what’s in it for me” ask the question “what’s in it for you” with the you being your potential new employer.
When you look at a job posting you’ll see what a company is looking for – skills they want the candidate to bring to the company so they can help the company become more successful. In other words, what can you do for the company. When you write your cover letter take this approach. Utilize the keywords, skills and background described in the advertisement to “sell” yourself to the hiring manager. Build upon your background as described in your resume and tweak it in the cover letter to better match what the company is looking for in a candidate. Never lie or fabricate skills to better fit the requirements of a position, and don’t take verbiage from your resume and paste it in the cover letter. Give some concrete reasons why your skill set would be worth considering based on what you can do for the company.