We shall cover the following in this session:
Why do you need a covering letter?
Suggested structure for your covering letter
Emailed letters
Targeting your CV
Emailed CVs and Web CVs

Why do you need a covering letter?

The covering letter is vital to your CV. This is why it is the first page and not an addition. "Please find enclosed my CV" won't get you very far.

Your covering letter demonstrates your writing style better than your CV (which is usually more brief and factual).

The covering letter puts flesh on the bare bones of the CV. It points out to the employer the information showing that you have the qualities the job calls for, and makes a statement about yourself and your suitability for the job. It should give the personal touch that your CV will intrinsically lack.

What are the Suggested structure for your covering letter:

First Paragraph
• State the job you’re applying for.
• Where you found out about it (advert in The Guardian newspaper etc. - organisations like to know which of their advertising sources are being successful)
• When you're available to start work (and end if it's a placement

Second Paragraph
• Why you're interested in that type of work
• Why the company attracts you (if it's a small company say you prefer to work for a small friendly organisation!)

Third Paragraph
• Summarise your strengths and how they might be an advantage to the organisation.
• Relate your skills to the competencies required in the job.

Last Paragraph
• Mention any dates that you won't be available for interview
• Thank the employer and say you look forward to hearing from them soon.

If you start with a name (e.g. "Dear Mr Bloggs") you should end with "Yours sincerely". If you start with "Dear Sir or Madam" you should end with "Yours faithfully".

Put your covering letter as the body of your email. It's wise to format it as plain text as then it can be read by any email reader.

Emails are not as easy to read as letters. Stick to simple text with short paragraphs and plenty of spacing. Break messages into points and make each one a new paragraph with a full line gap between paragraphs. DON'T "SHOUT" (WRITE IN UPPER CASE!) Your CV is then sent as an attachment. Say you'll send a printed CV if required.

If they have already emailed you, reply back in the same style, so if they have signed their email "Jenny", write Dear Jenny, but if they have signed it "Ms Smith", write Dear Ms Smith.

If they have emailed you and addressed you Hi Dave, then it's OK to reply Hi Jenny.
Also mirror the way they sign off, if they use "regards", "best wishes", then it's safe to do the same.

Targeting your CV

Please can you post a sample?

If your CV is to be sent to an individual employer which has requested applications in this format, you should research the organisation and the position carefully.

In the present competitive job market, untargeted CVs tend to lose out to those that have been written with a particular role in mind. For example a marketing CV will be very different from a teaching CV. The marketing CV will focus on persuading, negotiating and similar skills where as the teaching CV will focus more on presenting and listening skills and evidence for these.

If your CV is to be used for speculative applications, it is still important to target it - at the very least, on the general career area in which you want to work.

Even if you are using the same CV for a number of employers, you should personalise the covering letter - e.g. by putting in a paragraph on why you want to work for that organisation.

On a final note,

• Graduates sent out 25 letters per interview gained.
• The average graduate will send out about 70 CVs when looking for their first graduate job. Of these, the average number of responses will be 7 including 3 to 4 polite rejections and the remainder inviting the graduate to interview or further contact.
• There was a direct link between the number of CVs sent out and the number of interviews gained: the more CVs you send out the more interviews you will get.
• Applicants who included a covering letter with their CV were 10% more likely to get a reply.
• 60% of CVs are mailed to the wrong person: usually the managing director. Applicants who addressed their application to the correct named person were 15% more likely to get a letter of acknowledgement and 5% more likely to get an interview.
• Applicants sending CVs and letters without spelling mistakes are 61% more likely to get a reply and 26% more likely to get an interview. "In the age of the spell checker, there is no excuse for spelling mistakes". The most common mistakes to not show up in a spell check were: fro instead of for, grate instead of great, liased instead of liaised and stationary instead of stationery.
• Set your spell checker to UK English or you will get center
instead of centre, and color instead of colour.
• Other turnoffs include:
o misspelling the name of the company or the addressee;
o not having a reply address on the CV;
o trying to be amusing;
o Using lower case i for the personal pronoun: "i have excellent attention to detail".

You can visit https://coverlettersandresume.com/ for different samples of cover letter for different job positions.

Thanks for the time