Cover letter – Recruiter's guide

The cover letter is the optional second application document, after the CV, to which the recruiters pay attention during the process of searching for the ideal candidate for a given position. Unfortunately, such letters are not often interesting and meet expectations. According to recruiters' opinions, only a few percents of letters are written in a convincing way and are worth reading.

Let's take a look at the main elements of this document:

• The cover letter can by in two forms:

1) when you write it as a response to a specific job offer,

2) when you want to inform the company that you are interested in working for it and you do not know if they are currently looking for employees.

• Remember that this document should present yourself in terms of experience, skills, and achievements which can be useful in a given position or for a company in general. You can write about what the studies have brought to your professional development, how your previous have organized something or participated in any activities, etc.
• Make sure that the information you provide is relevant to both the company and the job offer. This will make it easier for the recruiter to decide whether you are the person he or she is looking for. It is worth focusing on a few of your strongest points and bringing them to the fore.
• Do not copy your CV. If you write about your skills or qualities, base them on life examples.
• Do not copy ready-made formats from the Internet - get original, but remember that a cover letter is a formal document.

How to write a letter which will include all important elements, but not make it too long?

• First of all, as in the official letter, the address of the sender should be written in the top left-hand corner and the recipient on the right-hand side under the town and date.
• Start with a formal welcome. It is appropriate to use the form Dear Sir or Madam / Dear + surname. The end of the letter should be equally formal: "Sincerely", "With respect", etc.
• Ensure that the content is clearly arranged. The letter should fit on one A4 format page, use line spacing 1.5, and paragraph spacing. If you want to distinguish something, you can use bold text.
• Before you send the letter, check it several times for spelling, grammatical or stylistic errors. Avoid shortcuts, colloquialisms, and typos.
• If you send a letter by post, remember to sign it.

We would like to suggest you one rule, the name of which is "1+3". The idea of it is to write an answer to 3 questions, each of them may be presented in a separate paragraph, but the layout of the text is not key here. It is important that the content of the whole letter allows the recruiter to understand that you know the answers to the questions:

1) Why do you want to work for this company?