Six Ways to Improve Your Job Application Cover Letter

Introduction

When you've read thousands of cover letters, like I have, you tend to simply flick past them and move immediately to look at the resume or statement addressing selection criteria. In fact, many employers provide an application form or cover sheet to avoid cover letters.

Application forms or cover sheets, as they are also known, capture the same standard information you want from each applicant eg, name and contact details, equal employment opportunity data, qualifications, and perhaps current employment details.
A cover letter is technically, a letter of transmission ie, it's a letter that says why you are sending or transmitting your resume, CV or other documents. If you must send one, you need to take the following considerations into account:

Purpose of Cover Letters

The purpose of a cover letter is to:

1. Introduce yourself as an applicant
2. state for which job or jobs you are applying
3. sell the key knowledge and skills you can bring to the employer, and how those will provide a benefit
4. attach your resume or other documents
5. provide contact details

Improving Your Cover Letters

You don't want to bore your reader to death right? And you want to give a good impression ... so here's what to do:

1. use a proper business letter layout (no pink paper with flowers or puppies, no fancy typefaces or graphics)
2. go to the trouble to find the name of the person to whom it should be addressed, it's better than a "Dear Sir/Madam" approach
3. make it short and succinct ... don't try to tell you life's history. One page is enough.
4. focus on the benefits you can provide for this employer, not all the certificates or degrees you have and how you think you are a team worker, excellent leader etc
5. offer yourself as available to discuss your application; give your phone number and state clearly when you are, or are not, available
6. sign off "Yours sincerely"

And one last thing. If the job advertisement tells you what to send and it doesn't specifically ask for a cover letter eg, if the advertising employer has an application form, don't bother with a cover letter. It will just piss someone off and end up in the waste bin.

Copyright Robin Henry 2008
http://www.employment-one.com

Robin is an educator, human resources specialist and Internet marketer who owns a number of sites including Employment One He is a prolific writer and earns some of his income from helping businesses improve their efficiency.