Career Advice

Former recruitment agency experts answer employment questions, candidly suggesting how to negotiate your salary, find a really good job, handle phone interviews, and more.

Sage advice like this is priceless.

How to create a cover letter

A poor cover letter can ruin a good resume. Don't give writing the cover letter any less care and attention than you give the resume.

Just about every job requires decent communication skills and the cover letter is the first indicator of how you communicate.

Here are some good tips on how to create a cover letter:

• Don’t use a generic salutation (i.e “To whom it may concern,”) if you can avoid it. try to find out the name of the person who will read the letter.
• Don't waste space with stating obvious things like “I saw your ad in the such and such newspaper.” The employer knows where they advertised.
• Don’t just restate info that is already on the resume. Go beyond that.

How to create a cover letter: What to include

Salutation:
Use a colon (:) - for example “Dear Mr. Smith:” is correct and “Dear Mr Smith,” is wrong.

The first paragraph: get their attention
Open with an interesting sentence that will get their attention

The main body:
Describe your skills that you have that make you a prime candidate.

The final section:
This section more or less indicates your resume is attached and that you look forward to hearing from them.

A cover letter is the first thing a hiring manager sees so try to make a good a first impression.

More Cover Letter Help:

  Check out our cover letter help service