Writing a cover letter
As you prepare and write your resume or CV to that hiring company, among the important documents you will need to submit with your CV is a cover letter. Sharon Okurut, a human resource consultant, shares that a cover letter should be short, precise to the point but also captivating.
“Your cover letter should speak of nothing less than confidence. It is a document that will help you make and give impressions, and you know how first impressions matter. It should be properly written with no typos or errors, clearly segmented but also flowing so that every paragraph you have makes sense and tells the hiring person something important about you,” says Okurut.
After writing your information on the right-hand top corner of the page as the addresser, and the company/ orgnisation information below it on the left-hand corner, like you would do when writing a professional letter, address your letter to the given person/ department as directed in the job advert, in reference to the job opportunity you are applying for.
Okurut further mentions must- have things one should include in their cover letter.
Introduce yourself
“The first part of the letter is to introduce yourself in a little more detail, so start to with a warm line introducing yourself; name, age, nationality, sex, profession and any other personal information that you may deem fit,” she says.
Experiences
Since there is a general respect for past job experiences, it is important that you put a spot light on your wealth of experience. “From your work experience, pick out what is relevant to the current job position you are applying for. This helps give a picture to the hiring organisation of what you are capable of doing, and to assess whether these experiences will fit well with your new role. That is why you need to keep it as relevant to the job opportunity as possible,” Okurut advises. She notes that some of these experiences might be; how long you have been working, projects you have worked on, leadership positions held, awards won, fellowships attended, volunteer and internships.
Express interest in working for them
“The reason you are applying is because you are interested in working with the organization, however, you still got to show this in your cover letter. You do this by showing that you know some information about that organisation especially in line with the job opportunity. For example, you can highlight their goal or mission, or some good statistics or project they have done and express interest in joining them and how your skills will help them bring their goal (for example) to being realized. Close this with a punchline on why you are the best candidate for this job,” she says.
Conclude the letter with any other information that you may not have included in your CV or resume that you believe is relevant.
Attach your cover letter on top of your CV.
