If your CV has to fetch you an interview call, your cover letter needs to compel the prospective employer read your CV.
Make your cover letter an interesting document, from the reader’s point of view. It should be so focused on employer’s interests that he should not be able to decline reading the CV. If your cover letter can do this, it has achieved its purpose.
To ensure that you get it right the first time, there are some Dos and Don’ts of writing a cover letter. However, you may have to go against the suggestions at times, depending upon the need. There is no harm in doing so if you are doing it purposely.
Writing a cover letter:
- Keep it short and simple
- Address the letter to a person rather than to a Madam/Sir
- Every time you send it out, customize your cover letter
- Write from reader’s point of view rather than yours
- Start with something interesting about their job notification or their recent news, to catch their attention
- Direct the reader to your CV, mentioning about some key skills notified in the advertisement and how your candidature fits into them
- Be assertive but polite
- Get the spellings and the grammar correct
- Prompt the reader to take an action
Don’ts of writing a cover letter
- Dear Sir/Madam. Find out the name of the responsible person and address your cover letter to him
- ‘I’, ‘my’ in the cover letter make you egomaniac
- Aggressive language
- Spelling mistakes are the biggest turn off
- Addressing your self as Mr. / Ms.
- Sending out hand written cover letters
- Sounding tentative until you willfully want to.
One very important thing which you have to keep in mind while writing your cover letter, if you are addressing it to Dear XYZ, it needs 'Yours sincerely' at the end, while if you are addressing it to Dear Sir, it should end with Yours faithfully.
If you ensure that you follow these tips while writing your cover letter, the chances of your CV getting short listed for an interview are quite bright. So, when you want to draft your next cover letter, don’t forget to go through these tips before starting.