Cover Letters
Cover Letters are as much an integral part of the job seeking process as your resume and as such need just as much care and attention given to them. Your cover letter will help the employer to discover what kind of a person you are and what benefits and experience you will bring to their company. When submitting an application, make sure your cover letter is the first page potential employers will see whether your sending it via snail mail, fax or email.
A great many people decide not to bother with a cover letter when applying for a job thinking that their resume is all they need but this one of the biggest mistakes you can make. Cover letters give off a sense of professionalism and can be used to give employers information about you which doesn't belong on the resume. You should remember that many companies will receive a large number of applications for any job opening they offer so they will be far less likely to bother looking at those without a cover letter or other key elements.
When writing your cover letter, make sure to type it in the same font and style as your resume. This shows a sense of professionalism which will be picked up by the employer. You should try to find out who to address the cover letter to personally as this also shows you know your business. When ending your cover letter, you should always indicate when you will be following up your application and if you haven't heard from the employer, make sure you do follow it up. Finally, one of the most important details of a cover letter is to make sure there are NO spelling or grammatical mistakes. Your cover letter needs to be perfect.
Cover Letter Template
Whether you decide to use our cover letter template or use one of your own, you should still make sure to include all the following information:
- Your address goes top right, include as much contact information as you can
- Include the date under your address details
- Next comes the employers details which go on the left
- Try to find out exactly who to address the cover letter to
- Include a reference to the job description/number you are applying for
- Your opening paragraph should be short and to the point
- The main paragraph needs to include as much information as possible which is relevant to the job you are going for
- Include a third paragraph letting the employer know you will contact them, this keeps you in control
- Sign off 'Yours Faithfully' including your signature and a printed version of your name
To help you out, we have typed up a cover letter template for you to download and use as you see fit. You should use the cover letter as a template only and try to make your own cover letter as personal to each employer as possible. The cover letter template is self explanatory and can be downloaded for free and altered as much or as little as you want.
Download: Cover Letter Template