How Your Resume Cover Letter Should Look

How Your Resume Cover Letter Should Look

Your resume cover letter together with your CV is the first contact that you are making with a potential employer.

The purpose of a resume cover letter, just like the resume, is to convey the message that you meet the minimum requirements of a job that you have in mind.

Resume cover letters are most effective when it addresses a particular job opening but whether it is directed as a response to a particular advertisement or to an employment agency the format is the same.

When writing a cover letter, it will be very helpful to keep in mind that the person on the other side is scanning hundreds of resumes and resume cover letters and is doing a shortlist. It will help you a lot if you help the person on the other side by following simple guides

• Your resume cover letter must be brief, concise and to the point. It should only state facts that are of interest to the one reading the resume cover letter. It should be very readable. Fonts used must have clean and clear appearance. Tahoma and Arial are some of the most favored fonts for this.

• Your resume cover letter should be worded in a positive tone. Leave the negatives out like the reason for quitting a job, the gaps in the dates between jobs; these are better reserved during the interview when you have the time to counter them when asked.

• It should be friendly enough but formal. Being informal will cost you the interview as you could be interpreted as unprofessional.

• Your resume cover letter should fit in one page. As much as possible, aim for three paragraphs that are tightly knit and organized. Nothing is as frustrating to the person scanning the resumes as cover letters that look like autobiographical sketches, and styles that the reader will have to flip pages from time to time to follow what is being said. Long cover letters and long resumes could cost you the job.

• Avoid exaggerations, clichés and superfluous language. These may sound good and well written but it is not original and will not make you stand out. The hiring manager has heard all this already. Copying and pasting from other well-written resume cover letters are also a risk. Many have tried it and to the hiring manager, they are not original. Write with confidence, be original and that could even be appreciated.

• During the salutation be a little more personal. There is very little excuse not to know the name and designation of the person that you are addressing.

Yours sincerely. That is a safe and accepted way to end a resume cover letter.