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 We've already talked about how you can give your resume that extra edge by using power words. That same approach can be applied to the topic of cover letter power words. Your cover letter is likely the first document that will be read by a potential employer - even before your resume. So it pays to make sure your cover letter is sending the right message.
What is a Cover Letter Power Word or Phrase?
Quite simply, cover letter power words or phrases are those "buzz" words that can grab the reader's attention and results in them taking a closer look at your resume and ultimately calling you in for a job interview. These words or phrases add to your marketability by instilling a positive feeling in the reader.
As was explained in our article on resume power words, these are action words - usually verbs or adjectives. They are words you can use to more powerfully describe exactly what you accomplished.
Power Word Examples
We've talked a lot about how to go about writing cover letters. We're not changing any of that advice here. What we are talking about is tweaking your cover letter so that these powerful words help your accomplishments stand out from the rest of the pack. It's a competitive job market out there so you really need to make sure your cover letter is in optimal condition.
Cover Letter Template
As a reminder, our cover letter template includes four parts or components:
- Introductory Paragraph - this part of the cover letter is a fact-filled overview of your skills and achievements that later already appear on your resume.
- Objective Statement - a summary of the job opportunities that you want to pursue with a particular company. This paragraph explains why you are writing the company.
- Achievements - these achievements are pulled directly from your resume and are repeated here in your cover letter.
- Closing Statement - a simple statement of your optimism.
So in the cover letter we really have three opportunities to choose our words carefully - in the introductory paragraph, in the objective statement and in the achievements section.
The introductory paragraph is an overview of your skills and achievements, while the achievements section includes those pulled directly from your resume. Your achievements section provides the best opportunity for examples of using these powerful words in your cover letter.
Achievements Section
Our article on resume cover letter samples explains that we want to include four to six accomplishments in our cover letters. This is just one of the ways we can introduce key words or phrases into the cover letter. For example the following achievements demonstrate how to make your cover letter more powerful through the use of action words or phrases:
Results Achieved Include:
- Performed in-depth calculations and analysis that generated significant reductions to expense budget, totaling $3.5 million in the areas of depreciation, benefits and utilities.
- Created the framework and was promoted to a position which centrally manages profitability studies and capital planning activities for ABC Company and its operating subsidiaries.
In the example above, the key words or phrases that make these statements so powerful have been highlighted. As a reader, you should be able to sense how these words add to the strength of these statements.
Picking Key Words and Phrases
In addition to applying the concept of power words and phrases to your results or accomplishments, you have a second opportunity in the cover letter to use this technique. That second opportunity is in the objective statements.
The objective statement section of a cover letter is a simple summary of the job opportunities that you want to explore with that particular company. Here you have the chance to not only tailor the objective statement to a particular opening, but also include power words in the objective statement itself.
An example of cover letter objective statement follows:
I have applied my superior skills in advertising, product promotion, marketing and sales in the cosmetics industry to deliver outstanding bottom line results. As the Manager of Advertising at a top cosmetics company, I have moved fourteen different product lines from the bottom shelf to the counter top in every major department store.
Once again, we've highlighted the power words appearing in this objective statement so you can see how they are used.
Power Word List
We're not going to repeat a list of power words that we've already published elsewhere in this publication. Power words are the sam exact words, regardless of whether or not they are appearing on your resume or cover letter. In our publication on resume power words, we've got a list of over 300 words from which you can choose. That should be more than enough to satisfy even the most ambitious of cover letter writers.
About the Author - Cover Letter Power Words
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