by Alison Graham

Created on: April 17, 2010   Last Updated: April 19, 2010

Having spent hours perfecting your CV, why would you waste the opportunity of sending a good cover letter with it by just using it to say ‘Please find enclosed, my CV’? Instead, make the most of this valuable tool, it is vital to your application.  Use the letter to point out to your prospective employer, the information that will demonstrate that you have the qualities the job calls for, and makes a statement about yourself and your suitability for the job.  It will enable you to add the personal touch that your CV will lack and make your application stand out from the crowd.  It will be even more important if the job requires that you fill out a standard application form for that Company, rather than submitting a CV.

Now onto the covering letter itself:-

1. In my view, it is important to hand-write your covering letter. 

I believe that it is important to demonstrate to a prospective employer that you can actually write, even in these days when most of us use a keyboard more often than a biro and certainly more often than a fountain pen!

When hand-writing your letter, don’t give yourself writer’s cramp by constantly redoing it by hand - work it out on computer first so that you can make all the alterations and adjustments you need to and spell check it.  Then, write it out on a sheet of the same paper used for your CV, do NOT use lined paper (if absolutely necessary, use a line guide under your page).  Use black ink in case the letter needs to be photocopied, black ink copies far better than blue.

If your handwriting is bad or even worse, illegible, it would be better to print your page and simply sign your name where required.  In this case, you should use the same paper and type font as used in your CV.  Fonts without serifs such as Ariel and Verdana are the most suitable.

2. Use the correct layout for your letter.

a) On the top right hand side of letter, put your address (laid out in block – each line starting under the other) – it is also acceptable to have your address as a header to the page, running across the top.

b) Under this but against the left margin, insert the date of the letter

c) Below this and against the left margin, insert the name of the person to whom you are sending the letter and the company name (this part written out as per the envelope – again, please see my Helium article on this subject).  ALWAYS try to find out the name of the person to whom

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>