Many employers bemoan the fact that writing a dynamite cover letter seems to be something of a lost art. In an age of video CVs and social media headhunting, the simple act of writing a cover letter explaining why you’re suitable for a certain job and what you can bring to a business seems to have become less of a priority for those looking for a job.
Writing a brilliant cover letter can definitely help you stand out from the crowd in an increasingly competitive jobs market. As an experienced London recruitment agency, we've helped many candidates create great covering letters,so check out our top tips to ensure your cover letter is the best of the bunch.
Respond to the job advertisement
Don’t just fire off a few generic statements about how hardworking you are and how you think you’re really suitable for the position. Read the job description properly, and respond to it carefully. A job description is essentially a company’s wishlist for the right candidate – you can leverage that wishlist to demonstrate exactly why you’re the person they need to hire.
Use numbers
Try to include some statistics in your cover letter. Obviously, don’t bombard the employer with endless facts and figures about your career – but use statistics sparingly and they can be a powerful feature of your cover letter. For example, if you want to let them know that you’re great at managing clients, tell them how many clients you retained, or how much money your clients brought into the business in the last year.
Don’t repeat yourself
Your cover letter shouldn’t simply be an extended version of all the information that’s in your CV. Rather, the two should complement each other, with one providing the basic information and the other going into more detail. Your CV is for fast facts, employment history, and qualifications. Your cover letter is to give the employer an idea of who you are as a person.
Research, research, research
Always do some preliminary research on the company you’re writing to. You can’t possibly tailor your cover letter appropriately if you don’t know anything about the company’s values or goals. Talk about why you admire the company you’re applying to – whether it’s their commitment to environmental issues or their reputation for innovation. Anyone with experience reading cover letters will immediately be able to tell which applicants have done their research and the ones who are simply sending generic cover letters to a number of firms.
Contextualise your skills
It’s not enough to simply list examples of skills you have – that’s what your CV is for anyway. You need to provide examples of how this can help the company you’re applying to. For example, “I speak a number of languages,” sounds impressive, but “My fluency in a number of languages means I’ll be able to liaise effectively with colleagues from international branches” is sure to knock their socks off.
If you want more tips gain a top PA job in London, a permanent office support role, or an exciting office manager opportunity, explore the Love Success blog today!
Love Success is a leading PA and secretarial recruitment agency in London.
Our recruiters can help you find top PA jobs in London and Office Support jobs.
View our latest job opportunities here
Permanent PA Jobs, Temporary PA Jobs, London PA Jobs,
Office Support Jobs, Executive Assistant Jobs, Secretary Jobs, Receptionist Jobs