Writing Your CV Cover Letters Is Like Preparing a Presentation

Making an impact with your CV cover Letter is easier to master than you might think! Especially if you think of it as preparing for a presentation!

CV Cover Letters

This is what you need to think about:

• What you need to do to achieve the objective of an interview;

• Preparation – Preparation as always is everything;

• How to be sure of communicating the information they need, rather than what you want;

• Understanding your readers and their requirements;

• Using illustrative facts to add spice and flavour to your CV cover letter.

Every cover letter should have a beginning, a middle and an end. Put it another way – there needs to be an opening or introduction, the main body of your proposition, and a summary.

Effective presentations are all about making an impact, so the introductory part of your CV cover Letters is where you make your impact and demand the reader’s attention. If you are in a fearful state of mind because you urgently need a new job, you should take time out to remind yourself of past successes. The more positive your frame of mind when you write, the more impact it will have.

Write your CV cover letters in an easy but not too informal style. Don’t revert to slang, jargon or even worse texting language. Choose active words and always frame your statements positively. Avoid ‘intensifiers’ like “very” and “superb”. Remove ‘kind of’ and ‘sort of’ as this identifies imprecise thinking.

Your Opening Paragraph:
State that you are both interested in the job and confident that you have the skills and experience that they are looking for. Tell them where they will find the evidence of that (your enclosed CV).

Middle Paragraph:
Pick the top 5 essential requirements from the advertisement of briefing paper and answer them carefully using bullet points.

Final Paragraph:
Confirm that you have complied with their instructions – “As requested my salary is £x…” and close positively – “I look forward to meeting you at interview…”

If you approach writing your CV cover letter as carefully as you would approach a presentation, you won’t go far wrong.

If you need some help getting it right and you don’t have any time to waste, get some immediate cover letter help right here.

Find out How To Pair Your Powerful Resume with a Great Cover Letter