CV Cover Letter
If you’ve been spending a while looking for a job, you don’t need me to tell you how important the cover letter for your CV is. It’s the first thing that an employer looks at and is just as important as the qualifications and the work experience that you have.
Your cover letter is your first – and sometimes only – chance to make a good impression with your potential employer. It needs to grab their attention from the beginning and summarise exactly why they should be looking to hire you.
Grammatical errors along with poor punctuation and spelling can mean your CV is thrown into the bin before it’s even looked at, so take your time to get past this first hurdle as a poor cover letter will mean that your CV will count for nothing.
What to include in your cover letter?
Now obviously, each covering letter will be a little different depending on what sort of job you’re applying for and whether you’re planning to send your application in the post or electronically.
However, there are a number of basic rules that always need to be applied. They are as follows:
Do your research
Before you even sit down at your computer, make sure that you understand exactly what you’re looking to apply for and who will be responsible for fulfilling this role.
Read the job description: I’m sure you’ve already done this, but do it again. And this time pick out what you think are the two or three core skills and experience that the employer is looking for.
Make a note of them on a piece of paper and try to tie them into a couple of points on your CV.
Find the name of the person you’ll be working for:You’ll be amazed at how many covering letters that are addressed ‘To Whom it May Concern.’
Everybody likes to be addressed personally, and on top of that it shows that you’re committed enough to the job to a little bit further than everyone else who has sent their CV in.
If you’re already got contacts in the industry, then ask around and see what they can tell you.
If you haven’t, then do a Google search for the company’s website and see if you can find anything there. If you still end up drawing a blank, give the company a ring and ask to be put through to their HR department – they’ll be able to tell you the name of the person looking to recruit.
When you’ve done this, then you can start to construct your letter.
Format the top of your letter correctly
This isn’t quite so important if your cover letter is being sent by email, but if the letter is going to be printed out and sent to someone by mail, then you need to make sure it follows some simple guidelines:
Include your address: – A formal letter should always start with your name and address printed in the top left hand corner of the page.
A phone number is not necessary, but be sure to include your postcode/zip code where possible.
Today’s date – This should be inserted three or four lines below your address. There is no set rule as to whether this should be on the left or right-hand side of your page, but the general convention seems to suggest that it should go on the left. Write it out in full .
e.g. 26th June 2011
Name of contact person – Scroll down another three or four lines and then insert the name of the person responsible for the job role followed by a comma (you’ll have this from the research that you carried out above).
e.g. Dear Mr Jones,
The subject of your letter – This is an optional extra, but something that I’ve seen done a few times and something I quite like as it adds a level of professionalism to the letter and instantly lets the reader know why you’re writing.
The subject of the letter is usually inserted a line below the name of the contact person in bold and sometimes underlined. It should be centred and include the name of the job you’re applying for.
e.g. Head of Online Services, ABC Company LTD
The main body of your letter
What follows should be a quick summary of why you’re applying for the position on offer and what makes you think you’ll fit the role.
As a rough rule of thumb, aim for three or four concise paragraphs which are structured as follows:
First paragraph: Explain why you’re writing to the person in question … but take some time over this as it’s going to be the first thing that they see.
Try to avoid cliches like “I would like to apply for the position of abc after I saw it advertised in xyz” . Where you saw the role advertised is of no interest to the reader … instead aim for a short, concise sentence that packs a bit of power and makes your potential manager want to find out more about you.
The next one (or possibly two) paragraphs:
This is the area where you want to explain why you should be the person picked for this particular role. Give a brief summary of your qualifications and experience and link them to what you believe to be the key aspects of the position (you should have done this in your research above).
Be sure to show enthusiasm for both the role and the company by displaying a few facts that you’ve found online and explain how you can support what your potential manager in achieving the goals that he has set for the department.
This last bit is great and not something that everyone does. The truth is though that 99% of people in a company have to report into someone … and everyone wants to look good in front of their manager, no matter how high up the chain they are.
So if you can throw in a couple of things that will enable you to make your manager look good, then you’ll certainly be giving him/her some food for thought.
Final paragraph
This should be a brief, positive statement that encourages the reader to take action and organise an interview with you. Ask them to have a look through your enclosed CV and let them know when you’re available to discuss the role further.
Provide an email address or phone number and thank them very much for their time.
Sign off
There are a couple of rules when it comes to signing off your letter:
- If you’ve addressed it a specific person (which you should have done), use the phrase ‘Yours sincerely’
- If you have used ‘Dear Sir/Madam’ or ‘To Whom it may concern’, then sign off with the phrase ‘Yours faithfully’
Leave half a dozen lines where you will sign the letter in ink and then insert your name in-between parenthesis.
eg (Joe Bloggs)
Read and re-read
Once you’ve finished drafting your letter, I would recommend that you read it through half a dozen times before you send it off.
- Make sure your letter is no longer than a single page of A4. This is supposed to be a brief summary of why you think you’re a suitable match for the job … your CV is there to provide the in-depth information.
- Check your spelling. Seriously, with so many spell checkers around today, there’s absolutely no excuse for misspelling words. Copy and paste your letter into something like Microsoft Word to be 100% sure.
- Check the structure of your sentences to make sure that emphasis is placed on you and your experiencesWhat I mean by that is you need to own everything that you’ve done. Replace sentences such as “this opportunity allowed me to gain experience …” with phrases like “I gained experience by ….” This instantly places you as the subject of the sentence and comes across much more powerfully.
This doesn’t mean that every sentence should start with the word ‘I’ . That just makes the letter hard to read and should be avoided at all costs. Just vary your syntax slightly by using similar words such as ‘My’ and you should be fine.
- Remove any contractions – “You’ve” should become “You have.” “I’ve” should become “I have” etc
- Get rid of any slang or colloquial expressions – if you want to work for a professional organisation, you need to come across as progressional and educated yourself.
- Make sure you’ve included a positive vibe to your words … after all, if you’re not convinced about your skill set, you’re not going to be able to convince anyone else.
- Finally, it’s important to ensure that you’ve backed up everything you’ve said with something from your CV. Promising to “bring a wealth of experience” is just an empty remark and will mean nothing to a potential employer unless you also mention that you’ve just spent 5 years in a similar role within the industry.
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