Cover Letters

A cover letter is used as an introduction with a CV to help tell the employer about the individual and persuade them to hired them.

I looked at some examples from http://www.dayjob.com

This Cover letter from Karen Cunningham (example name) talks a lot on how she is enthusiastic about getting the job and talks on how she has the right skills for the job, she has spoken about her last job and how it has given her experience relative to the job she is applying for.
She has also bullet pointed her strengths in a clear separate format which is the most eye catching feature among the rest of the text.












Another example here under the name of Michael Robinson, he tells the reader that he is confident in not only getting the job but that he can become a top performer of the place he is applying for persuading the employer that this person can prove to be very useful and that he is employable.














I've also found some bad examples of cover letters that will show what I must avoid writing when applying for work.
http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/cv/goodbadcovlet.htm

Dear Sir or Madman
I am about to complete my English and American Literature degree at the University of Kent, with a prospective result of a 2:1. As a literature student, I have a strong love of books of all types and see work in a bookshop as a career area which would be a good starting point for a career in publishing which is my eventual career aim.
I have good experience of retail, having worked as a shelf stacker for Sainsburies. I have studied modules in Shakespeare, War Poets, Dickens and Creative Writing all of which I feel give me valuable knowledge. My interests include reading, playing computer games and stamp collecting and I am currently reading Robbie Williams' thought-provoking autobiography.

One of the main and worse mistakes showed in this Cover letter is a spelling mistake, especially when applying for a job involving books.

He tells the employer that book selling is only his idea as a starting point to go into publishing, while this may be true for many others in this context it should not be admitted on a cover letter as the employer will think this person is not dedicated to the job.

Repetition is also shown in this Cover letter, which is wasted words as it only tells the employer what they may already know.