Cover Letter For Employment

Your cover letter for employment is as important a document as your resume - so pay due attention to it. Your cover letter creates thefirst impression to your prospective employer so make it the bestrepresentation of you. A good cover letter can get you through to theinterview, and even the job, whereas a bad one could have undesirableeffects such as having your resume ignored at the starting blocksitself.

What does your cover letter for employment actually do? The purpose ofyour cover letter for employment is to interpret your resume, which isgenerally full of data and facts and figures, in a manner that makesyour employer look at your resume with interest. The cover letterconveys the gist of what the resume is validating – yourqualifications, your experience, your objectives – andpresents the employable ‘you’ in a nutshell. Yourcover letter should not duplicate your resume and should ideallycontain a personal touch.

Some of the important things that the cover letter for employment‘should do’ are listed below.

1. Explain why you are sending your resume:Don’t send a resume without a cover letter and expect thereader to guess your intentions because he obviously has otherinteresting things to do. Be specific whether you want a summerinternship opportunity, permanent position or are asking for futureemployment possibilities.
2. Tell specifically how you learned about theposition or the organization: It could have been through a flyer postedin your department, a web site or a family friend working in theorganization. Employers are always curious to know how you came to knowof them.
3. Convince the reader to look at your resume:Ensure that the cover letter has the right amount of energy andenthusiasm that convinces the reader to take a look at the resume.
4. Call attention to elements of your background:Be as specific as possible regarding education, leadership andexperience. This is a factor that would strike home immediately.
5. Reflect the best you: Your cover letter mustreflect the best you that you could be. It must reflect your attitude,personality, motivation, enthusiasm, capacity to deliver andcommunication skills.
6. Fill in the gaps: Your cover letter ought toprovide any information specifically requested in a job advertisementthat might not be covered in your resume. All gaps are thus plugged andyou send off a rounded application for a job.

Having sent off the job application, many applicants usually end up ona reactive note saying, “I look forward to hearing fromyou”. Here is where you could take an active approach if theemployer hasn’t banned phone calls. You could take theinitiative and inform the reader that he could expect a call in thenext two weeks “to see if you require any additionalinformation regarding my qualifications.” Now that finishesoff the cover letter for employment nicely.

Good luck!