How to Write a Perfect Human Resources Cover Letter (Examples Included)

How to Write a Perfect Human Resources Cover Letter (Examples Included)applying for a menschengerecht resources position can be kinda like having your parent as your teacheryou know youre not going to get away with much, because they know your game. unterstellung professionals landsee the best and the worst of application packages, and it can be nerve-wracking to join that fray. but you shouldnt see it as a daunting, close-your-eyes-and-jump kind of thing. rather, you should look at this as an opportunity to step up your game and impress someone who might very well spend his or her days wading through the good, the bad, and the ugly. googletag.cmd.push(function() googletag.display(div-gpt-ad-1467144145037-0) ) first lets start with the basics of a good titelbild letter.necessity 1 a rollealized introductionhuman resources professionals are used to being the middleman when it comes to job applicants. theyre reading your words, but those words are often intended for someone elses eyes (the hiring manager, a hiring committee, etc.). but if youre applying to join an hr department, its possible that the person who reads your deckblatt letter first is someone who will have significant input into whether or not you move on to the next level (or, even mora importantly, whether you get the all-important offer). either way, dont treat this person like an anonymous resume-reading robotpersonalize the intro as much as you can. whether its an schmelzglas (which can feel mora informal) or an honest-to-goodness letter (on nice paper and everything), its nice to dispense with blah greetings like dear sir or madam whenever possible.if you have a specific personenname from the job posting, greatuse that. if you dont have a specific name, you can do a little sleuthing to see if theres a human resources contact listed on the companys website. or you can even take the old-fashioned route and call the company on the dl to see who would be receiving your application package.its also important to use the right tone. definitely dont go too casual. the fact that youre likely submitting these online, or writing an email, can lead to a false sense of shortcut familiarity. so even if youre submitting your titelseite letter and resume digitally, treat the email like a regular letter.potential obstacle 1you have a name, but the gender is not clear. this one is stickyyou dont want to risk alienating someone before you even get to the meat of your cover letter. in this case, better to go a little vaguely formal dear mr./ms. works. it feels a little clunky, but thats better than missing the greeting entirely.potential obstacle 2making social assumptions about the reader. mr. is pretty straightforward, and will likely be so forever. female salutations can be trickier, because you dont want to make any assumptions about the reader. ms. is your safest option. calling someone miss or mrs. incorrectly isnt the end of the world, but the fruchtwein neutral option is the most pr ofessional option. elizabeth chung could be married, single, divorced, older, younger, from marsit doesnt matter a bit. ms. chung covers all those options neatly.good salutation examplesdear mr. chung,dear mr./ms. chung,greetings mr. chung,bad salutation examplesterry, (too short/informal)greetings mr./ms. terry anderson (too formal)hello (too impersonal)to whom it may concern (too formal/too impersonal)you want your cover letter to seem professional, but approachable. the salutation helps set that tone. if you make it seem too much like an impersonal form letter, or the stiff letter of a person who is uncomfortable talking about this job application, you run the risk of not engaging the reader. and i think we all know what happens to application packages that dont engage the reader. (spoiler alert they dont get read.)necessity 2 your elevator pitchbelieve it or not, cover letters have become controversial. personally, i disagreeand its a moot debate if a job description specificall y asks you for a cover letter anyway. if youre wavering on whether its actually necessary to do one, think of it is an opportunity to give the reader an elevator pitch about yourself. ideally, the reader will also be reviewing your resume, but your cover letter can be the eye contact and handshake that get the conversation started.potential obstacleyou dont want to give away the farm, so to speakthe person will be reading your resume, so you dont want to just summarize the same bullet points. instead, use 1-3 sentences as a narrative line for your resume/qualifications. you also dont want to leave it too brief, conveying little information about youotherwise, whats the point? its like saying, im forced to write a cover letter, so here you go. again, dont miss an opportunity to talk about how you fit well with the company and the job description.good exampleas a human resources professional with mora than 8 years of experience in benefits management, i welches thrilled to hear about your opening for a benefits coordinator. ive worked with companies of more than 500 employees (like vandelay industries), and i understand the organizational and communications challenges that can arise along the way. ive spent my career working to make those challenges into opportunities for better and more efficient communication throughout the company. i believe my highly developed skills in training and corporate communications would work very in the role of benefits coordinator.bad examplesi am applying for a job at vandelay industries. please see my attached resume, and let me know if you have any questions.basically, make sure that your cover letter has some of your big talking points, but dont just rehash your resume. take the opportunity to set the narrative.necessity 3 a strong finishalways have a closing that leaves room for follow-up. yes, the reader knows that they can email you with any questions, but its a conversational way to close out the letter and move the reader on to your resume.good closing examplei would love to have the opportunity to join your team, and look forward to hearing more about the benefits coordinator position. please let me know if you have any questions, or if theres any more information i can provide about my experience coordinating benefits.bad closing exampleplease let me know more about this job opening. thanks.in these examples, one writer reminds the reader that the writer is focused on this job and his or her qualifications for it. the other writer closes with the most generic close-out possible, and could apply to a job opening for a line cook or a podiatrist. you want to make sure youre aligning yourself with the job in the readers mind, and this is your last chance to do so before they read your resume.necessity 4 keep it cleanlike with your resume, you want your cover letter to be clear and easy to read. that meansa standard font. this is not the time to test out fun fonts. plektron something clean and basic, l ike times.no huge blocks of text. in a letter, unbroken paragraphs can look like the ramblings of a manifesto. you want your reader to see a series of separate, elegantly outlined points. short paragraphs, a few at most.short length. a cover letter should never be more than a page, and even a full page is definitely pushing it. brevity is the soul of wit, and the friend of application readers everywhere.good letter body exampleas a human resources professional with more than 8 years of experience in benefits management, i was thrilled to hear about your opening for a benefits coordinator. ive worked with companies of more than 500 employees (like vandelay industries), and i understand the organizational and communications challenges that can arise along the way. ive spent my career working to make those challenges into opportunities for better and more efficient communication throughout the company. i believe my highly developed skills in training and corporate communications would work very in the role of benefits coordinator.i would love to have the opportunity to join your team, and look forward to hearing more about the benefits coordinator position. please let me know if you have any questions, or if theres any more information i can provide about my experience coordinating benefits.bad letter body exampleas a human resources professional with more than 8 years of experience in benefits management, i was very thrilled to hear about your opening for a benefits coordinator. ive worked with companies of more than 500 employees (like vandelay industries), and i understand the organizational and communications challenges that can arise along the way. ive spent my career working to make those challenges into opportunities for better and more efficient communication throughout the company. i believe my skills in training and corporate communications would work very in the role of benefits coordinator. i would love to have the opportunity to join your team, and l ook forward to hearing more about the benefits coordinator position. please let me know if you have any questions, or if theres any more information i can provide about my experience coordinating benefits.in the bad example, the information is crowded and tough to read. its also made even more unreadable by the font. and emojis are great for texting, but they have no place in your application package, sorry. if you want to convey tone, youve got to do it the old-fashioned way through your words.once youve got the body of the letter in shape, all thats left is the closing. like the salutation, you want to err on the side of formal, but friendly.good closing examplesbest wishes,sincerely,bad examplesthanks. (brusque tone)fondest wishes, (too flowery)nameno greeting (too abrupt)call me, (too informal and oddly personal)and after that, youre done human resources professionals, maybe even more so than any other professionals, can appreciate a well-constructed cover letter. they also see a lot of them, so its important to get in, present your information in a clean, engaging way, and get out. you want them to remember you, not the person who sent the wacky/inappropriate/super-formal cover letter.lets take a last look at the good example cover letter as a wholedear mr. chung,as a human resources professional with more than 8 years of experience in benefits management, i was thrilled to hear about your opening for a benefits coordinator. ive worked with companies of more than 500 employees (like vandelay industries), and i understand the organizational and communications challenges that can arise along the way. ive spent my career working to make those challenges into opportunities for better and more efficient communication throughout the company. i believe my highly developed skills in training and corporate communications would work very in the role of benefits coordinator.i would love to have the opportunity to join your team, and look forward to hearing more abou t the benefits coordinator position. please let me know if you have any questions, or if theres any more information i can provide about my experience coordinating benefits.sincerely,barbara franklinthejobnetwork is your best spot to find the exact job hr you seek in your area. take a look at listings for the following jobs, or search for your own specific termshuman resources manager jobshuman resources assistant jobsstaffing specialist jobs

Working Mom Natalie Portman Has the Perfect Clapback When a Man Describes a Woman as Crazy

Working Mom Natalie Portman Has the Perfect Clapback When a Man Describes a Woman as Crazy Ratherbei than responding with major eye roll the next time you hear a man calling a woman, who likely isnt crazy, crazy, you might want to try shutting down that dude the way Natalie Portman does.While onstage to accept an award atVarietys Power of Women luncheon last Friday, the Oscar-award-winning actress and mom shared some steps people can take tohelp women advance, and one of them dealt with men who gossip about women. Stop the rhetoric that a woman is crazy or difficult. If a man says to you that a woman is crazy or difficult, ask him what bad thing did you do to her? she said.Natalie continued, Crazy or Difficult is a code word. Hes trying to discredit her reputation. Earlier in the speech, the actress, who expressed her support for the Times Up movement, discussed how discrediting women was a tactic former film producerHarvey Weinstein used to silence his accusers.Natalie hit the nail right on the head. Plus, what does a guy even mean when he calls a woman crazy or difficult? More often than not, he gave her the label because she dared to express that she wasnt happy with him or she did something he didnt like, and for him, invalidating her feelings or ruining her reputation, is easier than trying to understand where shes coming from.During her speech, Natalie, who shares son Aleph, 7, and daughter Amalia, 1, with husband jngste Millepied, also dispelled aworking-mom myth that women mainly leave the workforce to spend more time with their kids or because their workplace isnt family-friendly. She said that there are too many women who either dont choose to have children, do not yet have children or who have grown children to account for the gaping lack of women in leadership positions in almost every industry, and also mentioned that many professions that might be considered incompatible with motherhood, or arent considered family-friendly, are almost entirely fem ale, like gynecology, or makeup and and wardrobe departments on TV and movie sets, respectively.Its much more likely for a woman tostay in a job for her children than to leave for her children. Consider all the women in the restaurant industry or domestic workers who sometimes work many jobs at once in order to support their kids. So lets stop saying that women are choosing to drop out of the workforce because of their families. Thats wrong, she said. Of course, there are women who have a personal preference for being full-time parents, and thats a beautiful and admirable choice, and way harder than working all the time in my opinionand unpaidbut they dont account for all the women who should be in the leadership positions who are not there.Natalie clarified that family-friendly policies and workplaces, likefamily leave or daycares at work, can help keep women in their industries, but the lack of both isnt whats causing many of them to leave. Instead, she suggests a reason that move ments like Times Up are shedding light on.Lets be clear the reason women are leaving in nearly every industry and are not being represented in powerful positions is because women are being discriminated against or retaliated against for hiring and for promotions. When they do get the jobs, they are being often harassed and assaulted, and they are being paid less than their male counterparts, all of which coerce self-preserving women into finding safer options for themselves and different ways to feel valued. Many women are further oppressed by intersections with other marginalized identities, whether by sexual orientation, race, age, class, religion, physical ability and are subject to multiple avenues of discrimination and harassment at work at once. And then if they try and report it, theres often a second harassment and their reputations are smeared, their future hiring is jeopardized, and they are further harassed.Preach, Mama.--This story originally appeared in Working Mother.