Last Updated on October 20, 2022 by Chimezie Chidi
Writing a Good Cover Letter for your CV need not be hard. A lot of advice abound. But these essential 5 tips will get you started in the right direction.
Writing A Good Cover Letter For Your CV-5 Essential Tips You Should Know
Writing a good cover letter for your CV is one of the most essential skills you need for your job hunt.
A cover letter is the first contact you will have with a potential employer. In your job hunting campaign, first impressions are crucial. Cover letters are your first impressions, your sales pitch to be heard. It is your personal marketing tool designed to capture the interest of potential employers by stressing only – yea-only! – the most attractive features of you.
They may actually be the life-changing difference between getting your dream job or not.
Writing a good cover letter for a job application is not too difficult.
Here are 5 essential tips that will help you write a good cover letter for your CV or job application.
1. YOUR COVER LETTER SHOULD BE BRIEF.
Always remember that employers receive hundreds and in so cases thousands of applications for each job position advertised. No one is going to spend precious time reading the whole epistle of your life.
Be brief and straight to the point. State relevant facts.
Highlight one-yes- just one-of your accomplishments or abilities that makes you stand out from the pack. Why? This increases your chances of being remembered by your potential employer. And that means your chances of getting to the interview stage just went up a few notches.
It is there at the interview stage that you can now give all the details of your accomplishments…yes the whole complete episode from season one to…well 100?
Just kidding.
2. YOUR COVER LETTER SHOULD SHOW YOUR SUITABILITY FOR THE DESIRED JOB.
Try to explain how your background and qualification match the advertised position. This is especially important if you are applying for a job that does not directly fit into your experience.
For example, let’s say you are a bank cashier applying for a ticketing and reservations officer in an airline firm. Throughout your career, you have met various kinds of people and worked with computers on a daily basis.
A carefully written cover letter will emphasize your relevant customer service and computer experience while relegating your banking experience to the background.
3. PERSONALIZE EACH COVER LETTER.
A good cover letter for your CV or a job application cannot be mass-produced.
Don’t even think about it.
Your success depends not on the number of your applications but on the QUALITY.
Writing a good cover letter for your CV requires that you write something unique. Something that stands out.
Taking time to do research on each potential employer is a must and tailoring your cover letter to the results of such investigations is more effective than sending out hundreds of the same cover letter.
Your cover letter should show your personal interest in your potential employer. It should practically scream, “THIS IS WHERE I WANT TO WORK…AND I MEAN IT!!”
4. ADDRESS YOUR COVER LETTER TO THE MOST APPROPRIATE PERSON.
By ”appropriate person” I mean the most influential person; that person that has the highest chance of landing you your dream job.
For smaller companies it is quite easy; address it to the head of the department. If you are applying to a large company, it likely your job application will be handled by the Human Resource/Personnel section. In that case, try to find out the name of the most senior human resource manager. So then include the name and title of your possible contact on the envelope and letter or email.
This ensures that two favourable things happen to your application.
One.
You drastically reduce the number of hands your application passes through before it gets to the final decision maker.
And two.
Your letter will get through to the proper person, even if a new person occupies the previous person’s position.
5. ALWAYS SEND A COVER LETTER EACH TIME YOU MEET A PROSPECTIVE EMPLOYER
It does not matter if you are following up on a phone call, a job interview or a first-time inquiry. Even if you are following up on a job advert that says simply, “please send resume”, send a cover letter also.
As a general rule a resume does not have to accompany every cover letter but a cover letter must, yes, MUST be enclosed every time you send a resume.
So there it is. Was this article useful? What are your favourite essential tips for writing a good cover letter? Please feel free to let me know your views.
At times looking at examples will help you know the part you need to follow when writing a good cover letter for your CV or a job application. You can check and download some wonderful samples here and here.
