This week I’ve been interviewing for the position of Student Services Advisor. We received lots of applications – some of them were great but many were let down by the email which candidates sent to accompany their CV.
They had obviously spent lots of time crafting and polishing their CVs but then they spoiled things by sending a scrappy covering email with poor grammar and spelling mistakes. Some people had obviously been applying for a wide variety of jobs and they hadn’t even bothered to ‘customise’ their email to this particular job. All l can say is that when that happens they get a very prompt ‘Thanks, but no thanks!’ and then I hit the delete button.
In previous blogs we’ve looked at how to put together an eye-catching CV but you’ll never get to the point where someone looks at your CV if your covering email or letter is poor. So, what do you need to include?
- The letter should be on one page only if it accompanies a CV. It should be concise and clear if it is an email.
- Don’t forget to say why you are interested in the job.
- Refer to the newspaper/journal/website where you saw the position advertised.
- Mention that you have enclosed/attached your CV and are willing to attend an interview at a mutually convenient time.
- Make sure that your letter/email is dated.
- If testimonials/certificates are requested, send photocopies, not the originals.
- Make sure that all the information asked for in the advertisement is included in your letter, if it does not form part of the CV.
- And don’t forget to contact your referees, asking them to act for you. It is extremely rude to name someone as a referee without asking permission.
In the body of the letter make sure that you tailor the information to each specific job for which you apply. It would be inappropriate to include this in the general CV, so it forms an essential part of the covering letter. It is worth spending considerable time studying the advertiser’s requirements to ensure that this part of the covering letter is relevant to the position and will really influence any decision in your favour.
If you do all that I can guarantee that the person sifting through the applications will click and open your CV – and then it’s down to how good a job you’ve done on putting that together. If you feel you need some help with this, our Advanced Business English Course covers the subject in detail and next week we’re offering a £25 discount (closing date 6th July).
