If you’re like most job seekers, you’re not taking advantage of one of the best ways to get a hiring manager’s attention: writing a great cover letter.
大多数求职者和你一样没用好吸引招聘经理的一个最好办法：写封好的求职信。

Cover letters are crucial to hiring managers who understand that people are more than just their work experience – that people have personalities, habits and other reasons they’d be great at a particular job that aren’t easily seen from a résumé. After all, if this weren’t true, employers wouldn’t even need to bother to interview candidates; they could just screen résumés, verify that candidates’ experience and accomplishments were accurate and then hire the person with the best résumé.
求职信对招聘经理至关重要，他们知道求职者不只有工作经验——性格、习惯和其他能让他们擅长某个工作的特质不容易在简历中看出来。毕竟，如果简历包括了所有内容，雇主都不需要费心组织面试了，他们只要筛下简历，确认候选人的经验和成就没造假，然后聘用简历最优秀的候选人就行了。

Here’s how to write a cover letter that will get you interviews.
下面是如何写一封能让你得到面试的求职信的办法。

1. Show personal interest in the particular job that you’re applying for. A strong cover letter will make a convincing case that you're truly excited about the opportunity. What grabbed you about the job description or the company? Why would you prefer this job over others out there? Why do you think you’d be great at it? What in your background demonstrates that you’d excel at the work?
1. 表现出对申请职位的兴趣。说服力强的求职信会让人相信你是真的想得到这个机会。工作描述或公司的哪方面吸引了你？为什么比起其他工作你更喜欢这个？你为什么认为自己擅长这类工作？你的哪些背景条件能证明你会有出色的表现？

2. Don’t summarize your résumé. Too often, job seekers simply summarize the contents of their résumé in their cover letter. With such limited initial contact, you do yourself a disservice if you use a whole page of your application to simply repeat the contents of the other pages. The cover letter should add something new to your candidacy – information that doesn't belong on your résumé like personal traits, work habits, why you're interested in the job, maybe even a reference to feedback from a previous manager. Speaking of which …
2. 不要总结简历上的话。求职者常常只在求职信里总结简历的内容。篇幅本就有限，如果你整页都只是重复下面几页的内容，你会害了自己的。求职信里要加些能加强竞争力的新信息——简历上没有的信息，如个人特质、工作习惯、为什么对这份工作感兴趣，甚至可以让前经理当参考人。说到这里…

3. If something makes you especially well-suited for the job aside from what’s on your résumé, mention it. For example, maybe the position requires an inordinate degree of meticulousness and you frequently get teased for being obsessive about details. That’s a perfect thing to mention in a cover letter, and it’s information that wouldn’t be found on your résumé. If you’re having trouble thinking of those qualities, try thinking about what you would tell a friend if you were explaining why you were excited about this particular job and why you think you would be great at it. Does that explanation add anything that your friend couldn’t get from just looking at your résumé? It probably does – and that’s what you want to convey.
3. 除了写在简历上的内容，如果有什么经历让你特别适合这份工作，要在求职信里提到。比如，这个职位可能要非常小心细致，而你经常因为执着细节被伙伴开玩笑。这就是写在求职信里的完美内容，而且无法在简历中找到。如果你很难想出这些特质，试着想想当你告诉朋友为什么喜欢这份工作以及为什么能做好它的时候会说什么。在你说这些的时候是不是发现了朋友光看你简历无法发现的闪光点？也许，这就是你在求职信上要传达的东西。