Thetownend.com

Thought I'd stick this in here, it seems to be all about advice etc.

Anyway how do you write a decent cover letter?

With a fountain pen or microsoft word

A cover letter for what ?

I already figured that much out already


To apply for a job in an Office, for IT Support, Admin stuff

Keep it brief and to the point, recruiters don't have the time to go reading through much.

Just explain why you want the job and why you think you'd be good at it.

Sell yourself.

It's probably best to browse the web for advice, rather than asking on a football forum. Hope that helps  :)

Yes

Because football fans know nothing about writing cover letters and getting jobs.

Agreed

Good correction!! :)

chortle

I'd suggest reading things before you post them,as a bare minimum.

Are you applying for an advertised position WR? If so, do they not provide an application form?

so to sum it up, keep it short, sell myself and check through for grammer and spelling.

cheers for the help :D

One thing I did with the last cover letter I wrote - was I sent it out to a few friends.

All of whom have done cover letters, some who have had to read through cover letters. Different organizations and different people offer you different advice. Get as many people as possible to proof read it.

The job I applied for didnt even require a cover letter but I still did one anyway - and it was pretty damn good if I do say so myself. Did the same with my CV.

I normally just put that I'm applying for job xxxx and my availability for interviews, especially if it's through an agency.

Maybe put a bit more if I'm applying direct to the company and a bit more on top if it's a smaller company. If it's a big company it will go through their personnel department and be filtered by a recruiter first, who will know fuck all about the job and so just looks for key words and relevant experience in the CV.

I'd put the extra effort in to the CV - short, to the point and well presented.

So, something along the lines of...........

Dear Sirs,

I'm good at IT.
Gis a job.

Cheers,
WR

Ha

Was tempting to leave it as it was.

grammar it's grammar...

No, it's a speculative cover letter.

Well that's different then. Just Google for "IT job cover letter" and you'll find plenty of good examples, some good ones just came up from Google Images. Find a few good ones and then copy, paste and customise.

I've got a zip file with a number of sample cover letters if you want it. A PM will do the trick!

I'm not sure sending a PM to a prospective employer is the right protocol when applying for a job.

I'm guessing not. Especially if writing "Send me the fucking zip file then, you cunting fuckwit"

Might hinder one's chances a tad.

There's bloomin' loads in there I'm fairly sure there something there I can use.

Thanks again

No problem. Have a look in your local library for a book by James Innes, specifically on Cover Letters (not read it myself, but did use his CV book to good effect recently).

...

Try and make it either short and to the point or vaguely interesting. I've had to sift through applications on occasions and trust me, if you read a whole bunch of them the one with something interesting in it stands out, a bit of personality in it so it doesn't look like you just Googled "What do I write in a covering letter". There's a line though, wacky is not where you want to be.

Make sure the cover letter is brief and includes a bullet point that confirms your experience that matches the job role responsibilities

Just thought I'd let you know, since I originally asked for advice on cover letters, i've had at least three interviews and another 4 invitations to intervierws, and one job offer. Cheers for the help.  :toocool:

Well done WR, it's good to know that putting questions on here can get results.

So did you use any of those examples I sent you?

Indeed I did, I'm also using a rejection letter that was in the zip file you sent. cheers

Excellent, glad I could be of help. Good luck!