"Letters
are expectations packaged in an envelope"
(Shana
Alexander)
If
your CV is a 30-second advert to get you an interview;
then your cover letter is the opening moment of
that advertisement, which will either cause the
reader to sit up and pay attention or to reach
for the remote control to change the channel …
Your
cover letter is the first thing about you that any employer
sees and will therefore form the basis of her/his initial
impression of you. A well-presented and structured piece
of writing will always favourably dispose the reader
to you, so give your cover letters the attention they
deserve.
A
letter appended to an application or CV should
neither be a re-statement of your CV,
nor should it be a cursory, “Here's
my CV …” note. All too often,
cover letters are just ‘dashed off’
and are nasty, generic documents. We all get “Dear
Occupant” junk mail in our homes and
our e-mail inboxes are stuffed with spam and everybody
hates it.
Well
hey, what a surprise! Employers feel exactly the same
way about “Dear Sir / Madam” or
“To whom it may concern” at the
top of a cover letter. Spelt the person’s name
wrong? They’ve just been promoted and you wrote
to them under their old job title? Welcome to the bin!
There
is no excuse for sloppiness of that kind. Find these
basics out and get them right! Whether your letter is
in response to an advertised position or part of a cold-call
process to an organisation that you would like to work
for, it needs to address three things:
 |
Why
you are writing to them. |
|
What
you have to offer. |
|
What
you would like to happen next. |
In
three succinct paragraphs. How hard could that
be? Let's have a look.
