There is a reason professionals pay money for someone else to design a cover letter and resume! Many people don't have a clue where to start, and most of us have to battle through a few versions of our cover letters and resumes before we find one that starts yielding results. What I mean is, don't beat yourself up if it seems like you don't know where to start. We've all been there.
While your experience may not change from one employer to another, how you use that experience in the workplace will vary considerably. The majority of a cover letter will be similar, on that you are correct. That's why you have to research the company you want to apply to. That's how you make the letter personal. Pilot DAR, like always, hit the nail on the head for how to get started:
Is my first impression of you to be a letter with my company name, my position in the company, and maybe even my name on it? (you thought to personalize it) Or, a less thought out "to whom it may concern" (which was photocopied to everyone)? Two otherwise same resumes on my desk? The one which has my company name/my name, and your handwritten signature on it gets picked up first.
I was never the guy who had his name on Pilot Career Centre or AvCanada as the contact for hiring, it was always the Chief Pilot. That's the first part of making it personal: who is Chief Pilot or, failing that, the recruiter. That immediately you've proves you've taken at least 30 seconds to find out who runs the show. The next part is, did you dig a little deeper to find our what parts of your skillset the company may want from a pilot, but that they don't advertise. Let's take some non-specific examples to see how this plays out: a bush operator, a corporate operator, and an airline. This runs long, and I don't mean to suggest you do this for every job, but rather it gives you an idea of what I thought about when I finally got the hang of writing a cover letter.
The bush position will be for a company that requires a fair amount of heavy lifting, early starts, late finishes, going in and out of the cold, and some on-demand flying. You'll be flying to remote locations in non-ATC environments with very limited support (if any) from the company, likely with limited navigation aids save for a panel-mounted GPS and your eyes, and with (or without) up-to-date weather information for the locations you'd be flying to. It may include rotation work or week-long stays at a base camp, and will likely include some mix of passenger and cargo flying, Landing on pavement will be a luxury you will have maybe at the beginning and end of the day. The focus applying to a location here is stamina and ability to follow directions, taking the initiative, and learning quickly. What do you have in your past that would be an asset to a bush pilot?
The corporate position will be for a company that has a very varied route structure, if you can call it a structure at all. Regardless, you'll likely be responsible for flight planning and, in some smaller locations, you'll be responsible for obtaining flight and overfly permits, visas, customs declarations, et cetera. You'll have to be at least familiar with Canadian and American airspace, if not higher level considerations such as RVSM and, if you're lucky, oceanic operations. You'll be on some form of on-off period, and when you're on, it could be 24 hours notice or 20 minutes notice to go flying. You could be flying for 1 hour or find yourself on the other side of the world. In some corporate positions, saying no to a trip is not an option (especially if you stay on long enough to get those sweet end-of-year bonuses that can amount to your yearly pay). The good corporate pilots have the airplane ready to go whenever the client wants to go flying. The best corporate pilots have the airplane ready and the cabin stocked with the clients favourite drinks, magazines, and snacks - some play the part of pilot, buttler, and confidante. They learn about clients work and family and can converse about a variety of topics should the client want. They learn to anticipate when the client may want to go flying based on their business and what is happening in the news cycle for that industry. The focus here is on attention to detail, taking the initiative, being nimble, a people person, and available at a moments notice. What do you have in your past that would make you a successful corporate pilot?
Finally you have the airline position. The airline environment is very structured, and you will be expected to follow standard procedures to the letter. The focus is on safety and on-time-performance above all else. You will operate within a set, but varied, route structure with more resources that you could ever hope to know in your head. Knowing where to find information is often more important than knowing that information. You will know your schedule a month in advance and will either hold reserve (they call you) or a block (anywhere from 1 to 5 days of flying). You will be part of a team: 2 pilots and maybe a few flight attendants. Your job is to fit in with that team, and knowing what someone is expected to do at what time is key. Risks are evaluated well ahead of time; the focus when airborne is a loose term called flight optimization - ensuring we get to destination by the scheduled time using the least amount of fuel and giving the passengers the smoothest ride possible. The focus here is strict adherence to procedure and attention to detail. What do you have in your past that would make you a successful airline pilot?
As you can see, there are differences, but similarities. The recruiter knows you don't have a lot of flight experience, so they're looking to see what other experiences you bring that will benefit their operation that is not necessarily involved in flight ops. Only you know how your previous experience could help them, and that's how you make it personal from you to them. It doesn't need to be long. My last cover letter was 5 paragraphs:
- A single intro sentence stating my intent,
- a single sentence that described my then current position, why I was looking to change, followed by a table that outlined how I met the companies specified experience levels,
- a single sentence that outlines the skills I believe make me a hireable asset,
- a three sentence paragraph that highlights additional skills not directly attributable to the job, but that could be used by the company at a later date, and
- a one or two sentence concluding paragraph.
I modify the first paragraph to include the details of the company I am applying to. I modify the table in the second paragraph to match the experience called for in the job ad. I modify the third and fourth paragraphs to fit what I think the company is looking for now and in the future. I may modify the fifth paragraph if I feel it no longer flows with the first four. I then finish it all off with "Thank you for your time and consideration
....Kindest Regards
....+TSRA" - or something like that!
I don't think you would need the fourth paragraph at this time. For me, I used that to highlight my experience with record and document control, supervisory duties, and training program development, among other things. You could use it to highlight other aspects in your past to do the same, but you'd want to be very selective and careful at this point in your career. You don't want to make it seem like fixing to be the next Chief Pilot or Training Captain. But, you could say something that alludes to your previous instructing history and that you'd like to continue down that avenue when you and the company feel you've developed enough as a pilot to move further with the company...something like that.