Advice needed about covering letter for job please.
 

Hi,

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

I`ve reached the grand old of 43 with out ever having to write a covering letter for a job application. All the jobs i ever had never required one!

So, my question is, what info do i put in a covering letter and what do i leave out? Any other info of putting together aleeter would be great. Thanks. :D

Re: Advice needed about covering letter for job please.
 

Reading your post, I didn't even know what a cover letter was. Note; it's not a "covering letter".

Anyway, I Googled it, and it turns out I've probably written a few in my time, although I'd never really thought about it.

There are plenty of online guides. Take a look at a few that Google brings up:

About Cover Letters
About.com: Cover Letter Writing and Samples

... sounds pretty straightforward to me.

Re: Advice needed about covering letter for job please.
 

The net point of a cover letter is to tell the person at the other end why they should hire you into that particular job at that particular firm. Where as your résumé / CV will be relatively general, the cover letter should be very specific, and very short. Try and keep it under a page.

Edit: One easy way of writing a cover letter is to address each aspect of the job ad, saying exactly why you exceed each of their requirements.

Re: Advice needed about covering letter for job please.
 

What Adobepinon well said :)

Re: Advice needed about covering letter for job please.
 

Yeah, ditto.

Trouble is, you end up doing a different one for each job. Bit of a pain if you are out of work and just trying to land something. But hey ho. ;)

Re: Advice needed about covering letter for job please.
 

I agree with the above.

The resume should provide the information needed about education/training/work experience. The cover letter should specify why you want and why you are qualified for the job advertised.

Keep it short and to the point. People reading resumes typically have HUNDREDS they have to wade through (if they're not using an HR department), and they're probably only going to give the letter a quick eyeball. "You have 30 seconds to make a good first impression." :eek:

Oh, and have someone check it for spelling/grammatical errors. Nothing worse than a stupid mistake in a cover letter (or a resume) -- particularly if you're looking for a job as an editor!!!!! (me). :o: :blink: :mad:

Sarah

Re: Advice needed about covering letter for job please.
 

Thanks everyone. Got some very good advice.

Merry Christmas to one and all. :)