It's easy to screw up an application letter. Even if you're addressing a perfectly solid lead -- like responding to a job vacancy listing -- there are many common pitfalls that can result in outright rejection. Fortunately the art of the application letter is not actually an art at all, so you can cease straining for every shred of creativity you can muster. The application letter can be optimised using fundamental principles of psychology to build the two determining factors of every hiring decision: Trust and Credibility. Both are required to be successful in your application, and this blog post shows you how to build them into every application letter you ever write.
| The structure of your psychologically optimal application letter looks like this:
| The whole thing need only ever be more than one page long if there are a lot of criteria to qualify, as the purpose of an application letter is to evoke a sense of trust and credibility in the reviewer sufficient to compel them to initiate direct communication with you. Each section of your letter is explained in detail below, including the basic principles of psychology behind each one. Note: Don't actually label the sections in your letter. Instead, let them segue seamlessly into one-another. These sections serve only as a means to enhance your letter to give it an edge, but the divisions are not relevant to the person you're writing it to, so leave out any headings. |
Salutation
"Dear Ms Thurgood," or "To the Director of Sales," are equally sufficient. If you don't know the recipient's name or title, simply address the letter to the organisation itself. Doing so connotes that you acknowledge the recipient as a representative of the organisation, and therefore that you acknowledge their authority. If you're submitting it via an online application portal, then it'll get to the right person regardless of whose name you put in the salutation. (And if you're submitting it by post then you're probably not reading this blog about the information age, in which case you're on your own, pal.)
Be sure to say "Dear," rather than "To." It may seem prissy, but it's actually formal, and no sane human mind is going to misinterpret the term as some kind of weird flirtation.
The psychology of the salutation, as you already know, is that it is simply good manners. Using the familiar format of a business letter also means it will be handled as one, which is the whole point.
Be sure to say "Dear," rather than "To." It may seem prissy, but it's actually formal, and no sane human mind is going to misinterpret the term as some kind of weird flirtation.
The psychology of the salutation, as you already know, is that it is simply good manners. Using the familiar format of a business letter also means it will be handled as one, which is the whole point.
Identity
State your name, your primary label, and your core value offering to the organisation in your first sentence. Your "primary label" is the term that you want this organisation to classify you as. It should relate to what you do, and what you do should obviously relate to the position you're applying for. If you're applying to university, use a label like "professional scholar", "PhD candidate", "sociology major", or other specialist title-orientated label. For a job application use the label that describes your profession, like "Senior Software Developer", "Investment Consultant", or "Sales Manager". In the military, when an officer addresses any member of the soldiery the first command is often to "State your name and rank." In social interactions when we meet somebody new, the first question out of a person's mouth is "What's your name?" and the second is "What do you do?". When someone dies, their name and occupation are printed in their obituary. Why? Because these two bits of data, the name and the label, are the base-line characteristics with which we communicate our individual identities to society and to other individuals across all aspects of our life. You may not like being labelled, but you must leverage the concept to be perceived favourably by others. It's how society works.
Some examples for this introductory line in your application letter:
Your value, as perceived by the reviewer, is the sum of the sense of trust and credibility you build throughout the application process.
The psychology of the introduction is all about being up-front and open about who and what you are. This establishes the basic initial level of trust by revealing your main data: your name and label. This information in possession of the reviewer means that you are now known to this person; and being known is the first step toward being trusted.
Some examples for this introductory line in your application letter:
- "My name is Sarah Jones, and I am a Clinical Psychologist accredited by the Canadian Armed Forces."
- "My name is Jock McLaughlan, and I am a Senior Project Manager with experience leading 25 successful software integration projects."
- "My name is Stacey Lee, and I am an Instructional Designer with 4 years experience."
- "My name is Roy Tinklington, and I am a salesman with 15 years experience in intellectual property sales and licensing."
Your value, as perceived by the reviewer, is the sum of the sense of trust and credibility you build throughout the application process.
The psychology of the introduction is all about being up-front and open about who and what you are. This establishes the basic initial level of trust by revealing your main data: your name and label. This information in possession of the reviewer means that you are now known to this person; and being known is the first step toward being trusted.
Qualification
This section forms the main body of your letter, and packs the most punch. Despite what you may have been conditioned to believe during the course of your formal education, your achievements, diplomas, certificates, degrees, and doctorates in your chosen fields are not what qualify you for employment. Your qualification for the position exists solely in the hiring party's perception, and that perception depends exclusively on your ability to evoke a sense of trust and credibility sufficient to compel them to consider choosing you over others. This is true whether the position to which you're applying is that of a paying student, a sponsored scholar, a contracted employee, or an intern.
To qualify yourself as someone who can meet the specific needs of the organisation, you need to know precisely what those needs are. Where do you get those needs? You take them verbatim from the specific criteria listed on the university brochure/job advertisement/application website. The part of the brief that says, "You will have experience with x, y, and z". If these aren't available, then qualifying yourself will be an exercise in speculation, and your odds of landing a job are greatly reduced because you don't have a means of qualifying yourself against the specific hiring criteria. If you need to, contact the organisation by telephone and ask for a list of the selection criteria. (If the organisation has that information and won't give it out to applicants, question whether this is really a system you want to be a part of. Probably not a whole lot of trust is going on there.)
Once you've copied the selection criteria text into your application letter, isolate each one into a separate line like this:
"Min 2 years recent experience in software sales or licensing
Knowledge of software release best-practices
Understanding of, and experience using, CRM software
Proven ability to work in sole-charge role"
Bold each line (to distinguish the criteria from your qualification beneath each one), and add a single line of your own experience under each. Quantify each one based on your actual experience and knowledge where possible, and separate them with a line break. The result should look like this
"Here's how I match up with the hiring criteria:
Min 2 years recent experience in software sales or licensing
3 years sales experience in web domain sales, and related service package upsell
Knowledge of software release best-practices
2 years experience adapting sales process to incorporate product updates
Understanding of, and experience using, CRM software
Advanced user of Insightly, some experience with webCRM
Proven ability to work in sole-charge role
6 months experience in sole-charge of sales material upkeep"
Depending on your experience and knowledge, you're not always going to trump their minimum requirements in terms of years of experience or sales numbers. In that case simply summarise something you have achieved that's relevant to the hiring criterion. (An underwhelming but truthful entry will trump a lie every time: never attempt to deceive in your career, it undermines the trust necessary for a successful application and could cost you your livelihood.)
The psychology of the qualification is two-fold. Firstly, it is achieved here through cold, hard facts. You have framed your own experience in the context of the hiring criteria, and (assuming the facts are sufficiently impressive) the reviewer can gain confidence in your abilities based on this knowledge.
Secondly, it appeals to the consistency principle. The reviewer's own hiring criteria in your letter will be immediately familiar to the reviewer, since they are either the person who wrote it or approved it. By isolating and addressing each criterion individually the reviewer's line of logic will follow a path similar to this one:
To qualify yourself as someone who can meet the specific needs of the organisation, you need to know precisely what those needs are. Where do you get those needs? You take them verbatim from the specific criteria listed on the university brochure/job advertisement/application website. The part of the brief that says, "You will have experience with x, y, and z". If these aren't available, then qualifying yourself will be an exercise in speculation, and your odds of landing a job are greatly reduced because you don't have a means of qualifying yourself against the specific hiring criteria. If you need to, contact the organisation by telephone and ask for a list of the selection criteria. (If the organisation has that information and won't give it out to applicants, question whether this is really a system you want to be a part of. Probably not a whole lot of trust is going on there.)
Once you've copied the selection criteria text into your application letter, isolate each one into a separate line like this:
"Min 2 years recent experience in software sales or licensing
Knowledge of software release best-practices
Understanding of, and experience using, CRM software
Proven ability to work in sole-charge role"
Bold each line (to distinguish the criteria from your qualification beneath each one), and add a single line of your own experience under each. Quantify each one based on your actual experience and knowledge where possible, and separate them with a line break. The result should look like this
"Here's how I match up with the hiring criteria:
Min 2 years recent experience in software sales or licensing
3 years sales experience in web domain sales, and related service package upsell
Knowledge of software release best-practices
2 years experience adapting sales process to incorporate product updates
Understanding of, and experience using, CRM software
Advanced user of Insightly, some experience with webCRM
Proven ability to work in sole-charge role
6 months experience in sole-charge of sales material upkeep"
Depending on your experience and knowledge, you're not always going to trump their minimum requirements in terms of years of experience or sales numbers. In that case simply summarise something you have achieved that's relevant to the hiring criterion. (An underwhelming but truthful entry will trump a lie every time: never attempt to deceive in your career, it undermines the trust necessary for a successful application and could cost you your livelihood.)
The psychology of the qualification is two-fold. Firstly, it is achieved here through cold, hard facts. You have framed your own experience in the context of the hiring criteria, and (assuming the facts are sufficiently impressive) the reviewer can gain confidence in your abilities based on this knowledge.
Secondly, it appeals to the consistency principle. The reviewer's own hiring criteria in your letter will be immediately familiar to the reviewer, since they are either the person who wrote it or approved it. By isolating and addressing each criterion individually the reviewer's line of logic will follow a path similar to this one:
The reviewer's sense of credibility will be proportionate to the applicant's qualification across all criteria
By breaking evaluation of your qualification into this simple YES/NO cognitive process, you lay out plainly whether you have the desired skills, experience, and qualities that they are looking for. If you don't have them it will be apparent, and your application is likely to be rejected. But if you do have them adequately by the reviewer's standards, this will also become immediately apparent. The benefit of this method is by removing uncertainty from the review, creating a higher statistical likelihood of acceptance.
Disclosure
In the prior section you qualified yourself to each of the hiring criteria to establish credibility. Now you will disclose information about yourself that will make it easy for the reviewer to extend genuine trust.
But what should you disclose? For a start, your professional values. We all have many, many values. Your professional values are a subset of your personal values that guide you in your career, and which absolutely must be satisfied in order for you to enjoy your work. This will require some serious self-analysis, if it's not something you routinely think about. An easy to use tool for systematically defining your personal values is available here.
Once you are aware of, and have written down your current personal values, determine which of them you cannot compromise in the course of your employment. For brevity, only include the top 3-5 in your disclosure. It should look like this:
"My core values are open communication, knowledge sharing, integrity, and quality."
If you happen to genuinely share the vision of the organisation to which you are applying, point out this highly advantageous state of affairs in your disclosure.
"I share Trinity Steel's vision of a "making a tougher world", and I offer my genuine enthusiasm for steelwork to this position."
If you don't share the vision of the organisation you're applying to, consider whether this is the right environment for you. Doing something you're not passionate about is fairly ridiculous, and is necessary a lot less often than we condition ourselves to think.
The psychology of disclosure is a powerful way to build the trust necessary for your application to progress. A 2006 study[1] revealed a linear relationship between individualised trust and self-disclosure.
[1] "LAWRENCE R. WHEELESS and JANIS GROTZ, THE MEASUREMENT OF TRUST AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO SELF-DISCLOSURE http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2958.1977.tb00523.x/abstract"
But what should you disclose? For a start, your professional values. We all have many, many values. Your professional values are a subset of your personal values that guide you in your career, and which absolutely must be satisfied in order for you to enjoy your work. This will require some serious self-analysis, if it's not something you routinely think about. An easy to use tool for systematically defining your personal values is available here.
Once you are aware of, and have written down your current personal values, determine which of them you cannot compromise in the course of your employment. For brevity, only include the top 3-5 in your disclosure. It should look like this:
"My core values are open communication, knowledge sharing, integrity, and quality."
If you happen to genuinely share the vision of the organisation to which you are applying, point out this highly advantageous state of affairs in your disclosure.
"I share Trinity Steel's vision of a "making a tougher world", and I offer my genuine enthusiasm for steelwork to this position."
If you don't share the vision of the organisation you're applying to, consider whether this is the right environment for you. Doing something you're not passionate about is fairly ridiculous, and is necessary a lot less often than we condition ourselves to think.
The psychology of disclosure is a powerful way to build the trust necessary for your application to progress. A 2006 study[1] revealed a linear relationship between individualised trust and self-disclosure.
[1] "LAWRENCE R. WHEELESS and JANIS GROTZ, THE MEASUREMENT OF TRUST AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO SELF-DISCLOSURE http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2958.1977.tb00523.x/abstract"
Call to action
The call to action is vital, as it gives the person evaluating your application an ideal mechanism for cognitively processing the trust and credibility that the content of your application letter has evoked into a decision of either rejection or acceptance (acceptance, that is, into to the next part of the application process).
In short, it provides a focal point for the reviewer to make a decision right then and there.
The chance always exists that the reviewer will simply decide to reject your application. But by providing the call to action you avoid the equally negative outcome of no decision being made (in which case you lose by default, and rather unfairly at that).
By reducing the number of possible outcomes from 3 (Acceptance, Rejection, Indefinite deferral) to just 2 (Acceptance or Rejection) you increase the base likelihood of an Acceptance outcome from 33.3% to 50%. This, obviously, is significant advantage.
The psychology of the call to action is that it directs thought to the process of decision-making, which is a state of mind that has already been anticipated by the reviewer, and which they are therefore likely to take. When faced with a clear decision (what is sometimes called a "problem" in cognitive science), the human brain's natural impulse is to apply critical thought in order to reach a decision (i.e. to solve the problem). The easier the "problem", the more inclined we are to tackle it immediately. This is why a simple call to action has been proven to be such an effective technique in prompting humans to take action.
In short, it provides a focal point for the reviewer to make a decision right then and there.
The chance always exists that the reviewer will simply decide to reject your application. But by providing the call to action you avoid the equally negative outcome of no decision being made (in which case you lose by default, and rather unfairly at that).
By reducing the number of possible outcomes from 3 (Acceptance, Rejection, Indefinite deferral) to just 2 (Acceptance or Rejection) you increase the base likelihood of an Acceptance outcome from 33.3% to 50%. This, obviously, is significant advantage.
The psychology of the call to action is that it directs thought to the process of decision-making, which is a state of mind that has already been anticipated by the reviewer, and which they are therefore likely to take. When faced with a clear decision (what is sometimes called a "problem" in cognitive science), the human brain's natural impulse is to apply critical thought in order to reach a decision (i.e. to solve the problem). The easier the "problem", the more inclined we are to tackle it immediately. This is why a simple call to action has been proven to be such an effective technique in prompting humans to take action.
Signoff & contact details
Sign-off your letter (no need for a handwritten signature on a digital letter) and include your contact details. If your call to action asks for a telephone call, include your phone number first.
Elementary psychology here: simply make it as easy as possible for the reviewer to do what you want them to do (contact you) so you can get what you want (that interview).
Elementary psychology here: simply make it as easy as possible for the reviewer to do what you want them to do (contact you) so you can get what you want (that interview).
Once you get your interview, and throughout the rest of the application process, it is vital to focus on building trust and additional credibility. Trust is a byproduct of interpersonal interaction, which is why your application letter is unlikely to achieve the caliber you need to get hired all by itself.
If you want to test different variables for their effectiveness, then keep track of all the jobs you've applied for with a spreadsheet like this one. Once you fill it with data, you'll be able to see patterns. Like the frequency with which you attain interviews when using the Concept Frontier cover letter compared to using other cover letters. That data doesn't lie: learn from it, and you'll gain more control over matters of employment.
If you want to test different variables for their effectiveness, then keep track of all the jobs you've applied for with a spreadsheet like this one. Once you fill it with data, you'll be able to see patterns. Like the frequency with which you attain interviews when using the Concept Frontier cover letter compared to using other cover letters. That data doesn't lie: learn from it, and you'll gain more control over matters of employment.
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