1. Be like a Wolf in  Sheepskin. If you’re going to spam out 800 copies of your resume, skip to tip #2. I would advise against that anyhow. Pick a place that you might actually like to be at, and with potential for job growth. You’ll be happy and live longer too. Once you have picked out a few potentially perfect places, learn about them. Pretend you’re going to go up on stage and talk about how awesome the company is for 5 minutes. Do you know enough? Dig through their history, their staff, and especially their company goals.

Look through the company’s website, their press releases, news updates and history section. It will most likely be sprinkled with a consistent message that their marketing team came up with. This is the message that they are proud of and want everyone to know about it. Now take this message and know it, believe it, live it. Now you can edit your cover letter accordingly and genuinely sound like one of their own people.

2. Making yourself Stand Out. Just put this into perspective and think from your employer’s point of view. As the boss, you decided your company is in need of extra help and asked your assistant to post a recruitment Ad on Monster, Workapolis. The next day, you get bombarded with 500 emails begging for the job, 30 love letters and 5 really funny yet scary offers. How are you going to find the perfect employee in all that mess?

You have to keep that in mind, and make the job easier for your future employer to find you. Open up your cover letter right now (yes you should have one) and see if it reads like everyone else’s. Does it sound like it came straight from a template? Does it sound robotic? Imagine you turned on the TV and a really boring TV Show intro comes on, you’ll want to change the channel in no time.

Bring up unique points that will make yourself stand out. Yes everyone else went to high school, loves to learn and can multitask. Think of a skill or experience that many others might not have. Maybe it’s a combination of them that makes it unique.

3. Stay Professional. Yes you have to get their attention, but even more importantly, you have to sound professional. You might have come up with an idea that’s so wacky it’ll get their attention for sure, but it might also make you seem gimmicky and without real substance to your skills and character. The key is to get their attention yet retaining good form. Sound enthusiastic yet thoughtful and intelligent. Use proper words and perfect grammar. Just ask yourself what James Bond would do in this situation.

4. Sound Confident. Nobody likes the unwanted, they would rather have what everyone else wants. If you sound desperate, it will raise serious doubts to your abilities. Sound like you’re confident. Talk like you’re full of experience and ideas, and just trying to find a new home to use your well-honed skills. Just remember to balance it out with some controlled humbleness, or you’ll sound annoying real fast.

5. Remove Fluff Words. Be concise and take out unnecessary words. Think of it this way: If you can sum up a paragraph into one short sentence, how would you write it? Make sure you get your main point across though. Now apply that same kind of summarization for your entire cover letter. Remember, after yours, there are another 10,000 resumes to read. Nothing annoys a prospective employer more than you wasting their valuable time.

6. Only mention Positive Points. You might think this is obvious but it’s often overlooked. I’ve read so many cover letters and resumes where they list out many of their strengths, but also potentially damaging weaknesses. Look at every single word and points in your writing. Is it irrelevant? Is it redundant? Does it make you look weak or stupid? Does it cast doubt on your abilities? Could it lead to other questions which you will not want to answer? Your employer will have plenty of time later to find out about your flaws, no need to help out in that area before you’re even hired.

In summary: The economy is terrible and many jobs are being cut. But cheer up. That just means companies are looking for individuals who are energetic and full of new ideas to help pull them out of the slump. Good luck!