Cover Letter: Do’s and Don’ts!
Cover Letter: Do’s and Don’ts!
Today we thought we would follow on from a previous post about CV writing with top tips on how to write a memorable cover letter.
It is so important that your cover letter makes an impact on the employer.
This is the first piece of information they receive about you and you want to persuade them that you are a suitable candidate.
Here at Vocational Impact we recruit, employ and support university students gain transferable skills, hands-on work-experience and land that all important first job post-university. So we know all about landing that important first gig.
We have a 90% track record for helping students gain employment after university. We support students access skills exchange programmes and work placements that feed into their valuable university degree and essentially land them their first job.
Here is our guide to making your cover letter stand out
It is important that your cover letter should be addressed to a named person, it shows that you are making the effort to find out who they are.
Your cover letter should not be more than one page (A4) and your paragraphs should be clear and short.
Do your RESEARCH, it is essential that you target it towards your potential employer. It shows you are keen to go the extra mile to fit the position in the company.
- When researching an employer, you want to show your interest in their company, focus, mission and work. This means;
- Understanding what the company or organisation does.
- Who they work with (this could be there clients if they are a company or it could be the people they aim to look after such as children)?
- It is also so important that you look at some of their recent news, have they had a new structure put in place or are they expanding, what key projects are they working on.
- What makes this company different from their competitors.
- And most importantly; Why are you applying to them specifically?
Use your cover letter to highlight relevant experience and information that is in your CV
If you’re applying for a volunteer role, you should relate back to any past expertise that you may have in this field.
Your cover letter can also be used to explain any irregularities that have arisen in your CV. Such as gaps in employment. But more importantly, it can be used to highlight all the COOL and AMAZING things you have done that might show your courage, or communication skills or creativity.
Don’t feel afraid to SHOUT about yourself. It’s great to see achievements and good things that you have done on a cover letter. This makes you memorable, for example; ‘I was promoted to team leader whilst volunteering for a project’.
It is important to be as truthful and honest as possible in both your CV and cover letter, you don’t want to be in the interview with the employer and them to call you out on something you wrote in your cover letter but it wasn’t the whole truth!!
When concluding the cover letter, make sure to thank the employer for taking the time to read your cover letter and for considering your application for the job role.
We hope that you can use some of these insights to help you improve your cover letter. Whether you are applying to one of our volunteer projects or you have already been and are now applying for jobs we wish you the best of luck.
At Vocational Impact we understand how important professional development is and what makes a person stand out. Don’t hesitate to get in touch to talk to us about your career path, we are happy to help.
Ask us about our career opportunities and graduate jobs. Talk to other graduates on our forums and attend one of our talks at a university close to you.
UP next:
We help university graduates land their first graduate job. We do this by providing advice and support in applying your degree to international work-experience.
Furthermore, you can find out more about Vocational Impact here.
Questions? Would you like to participate? That’s great – feel free to email us or call/whatsapp us on: +44 (0) 7704 129 816
Alternatively, complete an application to begin the process of volunteering, and we’ll be in touch with more details!
