How to write a covering letter

It constantly surprises us, as a specialist recruitment business, how many candidates for jobs still ignore the basic requirement to compose a covering letter/e-mail for their job application.

Even when the advertisement specifically asks for a covering letter, often this is totally ignored by the applicant. This leaves the Recruitment Company, or employer, with two options:

The first is to open up the resume and then guess which role the applicant has applied for, whether they have the right to work in New Zealand, what their salary requirements are, what their personal circumstances are, how they should be contacted etc etc.

The second option is not to even look at the CV and to dismiss an application immediately that has no covering letter or indication as to why the candidate is applying for a job. We know of many employers that will adopt this as an initial “weeding out” of applications.

So here are six quick tips as to what makes a good covering letter:

Tip #1

If there is a contact name, or a job title on the advertisement then USE IT in your response. A “Dear Sir/Madam” letter in response to an advertisement that clearly gives you a name is at best lazy, and at worst, rude.

Tip #2

Refer to the job in your covering letter. Not “Position as advertised” or “Your Role”. Mention it by name such as “BAS Manager Central Auckland”. This shows again that you have read the advertisement and that you are not generically replying to every job ad that you see.

Tip #3

Read the advertisement. Normally, if it has been written well the employer (or recruiter) will have outlined the essential “must haves” and “nice to haves” for the role. Make sure that your covering letter addresses how you fit these. You may feel this repeats some of the information that you will have already listed in your resume, but if you don’t flag it here your resume may never be looked at. The point of the covering letter is to MAKE IT EASY for the recruiter to see how relevant your experience is to the role.

Think of your covering letter as your own “advert“. In the same way that a well written job advert will interest you in finding out more about the role, a well-written covering letter will ensure that the recruiter looks at your CV and brings you in for an interview.

Tip #4 (if applying from overseas)

State clearly whether you have a right to work in New Zealand, or at what stage you are in the immigration process. Let the recruiter know how much you know about New Zealand, whether you have friends or relatives here and whether you have ever visited the country. With the amount of information available on the Internet through both Government (www.immigration.govt.nz) and other websites, there really is no excuse to be uninformed about living and working in New Zealand.

Tip #5

Mention the salary/hourly rate you are looking for, especially if the advert hasn’t given an indication of this. You don’t want to find out way down the track that what you want, and what they want to pay, are poles apart.

Tip #6

Let the recruiter know how to contact you and the best times to do so.

Summary

Writing a good CV is an essential part of the job seeking process. Sending a CV to an employer or a recruitment company without a meaningful covering letter/e-mail will severely damage your prospects of your CV even being looked at.

A recruiter may have hundreds of CVs to look at during the course of a week. Guess which ones they look at first? - Yes the ones with covering letters that address the requirements of the role.

In many cases that is where the recruiter will stop. So to ensure the recipient presses “Open “ and not “Delete” make sure you take the time to write.