Careers and Employability

The Covering Letter

The covering letter is the recipient's first impression of you and is a powerful marketing tool. Along with your CV it needs to be a quality document which sells you effectively. If the covering letter does not achieve this the recipient may not bother turning the page to look at the CV. Never send a CV to an employer without a covering letter.

General guidelines

The letter should usually be no more than one side of A4 paper.

Always try to address the letter to a named person, avoid Dear Sir/Madam. Try ringing the organisation to find out who the letter should be addressed to.

It should explain why you are approaching the organisation, i.e. in response to an advert (name the source in your letter), a speculative approach etc.

Your covering letter should highlight and expand on particular aspects of your past that are relevant to the position applied for, rather than merely repeat information already present in the CV.

It is essential that you show evidence of holding the skills required in the job and how you developed them. If you are responding to a job advertisement, look closely at the job description and person specification to see what the employer is looking for in applicants.

Explain the particular attraction of the post and the organisation applied for and emphasise the contribution you could make to the organisation.

Include any other relevant information not already included in the CV.

Use the covering letter to touch on any potential weaknesses in your application such as poor A level grades or lack of work experience.

Include when available for interview (keep this as flexible as possible but obviously around exam times this is impossible), and when able to start work.