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Covering Letters
For speculative applications it is essential to include a covering letter along with your CV. Ad responses should also be supported in this way. View it as an added opportunity to market your skills and, therefore, enhance the application. This is particularly true for those at the higher end of the career ladder simply because their CV will already be packed full of skills and achievements. There is no doubt that cramming a lifetime’s work into a few pages becomes more challenging as the years progress.
Bespoke Letters
Avoid the mistake of generating one letter and using that for every company you apply to. Create a foundation around which to tailor each application and make sure you change all address and salutation details accordingly. (It’s a little disconcerting receiving a letter addressed to ‘Dear Someone Else’, when that clearly isn’t your name. Not a good start from an interviewer’s point of view.)
Be Concise
A letter should spell out your intentions early on - in commercial writing, a ‘hook’ is used in the first paragraph aimed at catching the reader’s attention. Your letter should do the same. Interviewers may have dozens of CVs to peruse so it is essential that yours stands out from the rest, for the right reasons. (Avoid gimmicks in most cases. Exceptions may include creative roles in the media sector, for example, where innovation and lateral marketing techniques may form an integral part of the job description.)
An opening line plus two or three short paragraphs will have more impact and be easier to read than realms of lengthy dialogue. Include some bullet points in the middle paragraph highlighting relevant achievements and conclude positively and expectantly e.g. I look forward to meeting you in due course. This assumes that there will be an interview and it is simply a matter of when. Of course, no-one is going to invite anyone to interview based on how a covering letter is signed but this follows practice in the sales world where, after a pitch or presentation, the sales person always assumes he will get a sale. Here you are selling your skills and experience because you think you might be able to get a job. Your abilities should be of benefit to the reader and, therefore, the organisation.
Summary
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