Write a good cover letter. How to write a cover letter for documents correctly
Recruiting portals allow job seekers to write a few words in addition to their resume. By sending it directly to the HR department’s email, the candidate is also faced with the need to write something to a potential employer. It is not always clear what this letter should be: a brief summary of your resume, a declaration of love for the company, or an informal story about yourself. The Village asked an HR consultant to give some tips on writing such messages and give some examples of successes and failures.
Veronica Nikitina
Leading consultant of a headhunting company
"Agency Contact"
Why write a letter to your employer?
It is definitely worth writing a cover letter to respond to a vacancy. Recruiters receive hundreds of similar resumes, with slightly varying degrees of education and employment, but on average candidates with similar experience and skills apply. The presence of a cover letter and its quality becomes another plus in your favor - and why not increase their number?
Additional information that, if you successfully write a cover letter, you will be able to provide about yourself:
The ability to express yourself beautifully and construct sentences (a resume with its bullet points and bullet points does not allow us to evaluate this skill).
Your motivation - why you are interested in this particular position in this company (this is especially important if you, having worked in marketing all your life, are applying for sales).
What experience of yours can be most useful to the company (there may be a lot of projects on your resume - it may not be so easy to isolate from them those that especially characterize you as a strong analyst, development manager, negotiator or specialist in foreign trade).
What do you know about the company: A cover letter is the only way to show potential employers that you are not sending your resume to everyone, but are particularly interested in this position.
In addition, in your cover letter you can refer to specific employees of the company through whom you learned about it - this will help create the impression that you are not just “a person on the street.”
But you may be wondering: why do you need to write a letter if you already have an excellent resume? Because every company is looking for loyal and motivated employees who don’t just spend time in the office from nine to six, but are interested in business development and want to work here.
What to write in a letter
The volume of such a letter should be approximately half of an A4 sheet. The ability to fit within these limits also allows the employer to evaluate your ability to clearly and concisely express your thoughts without unnecessary fluff.
Let's look at examples of successful and unsuccessful letters that will help you understand what is worth writing.
Example 1
Good afternoon.
I would like to join your company as a Business Analyst.
In my opinion, consulting is the best field to start my career because it offers a unique professional experience for several reasons. The opportunity to work on projects in different industries and countries suits my career interests and will also develop my skills. Of course, this will require me to be willing to work overtime, but this is acceptable and interesting for me, since I would like to have a non-standard office job.
I chose your company because of its dynamic growth and team of young and ambitious employees. Your company hires talented graduates from diverse backgrounds, so I will have the opportunity to learn from the best.
I think that my skills and experience will also be useful to your company. The desire to understand how various processes work, according to logic and facts, has always been a motivation for me. My experience in the company... taught me a structured approach based on the evaluation of facts and hypotheses and innovative thinking to find the ideal solution. I developed my leadership skills through the organization of five international events within the framework of... the company. I was able to develop my presentation skills through participation in...
I thank you for considering my resume and look forward to speaking with you during an interview.
Yours sincerely,….
A cover letter is a form of business etiquette. In addition to a simple register of transferred documents, it contains recommendations for handling them. In addition, according to the registration data, you can determine the execution time and the fact of sending. For an example of how to write a cover letter for documents, see the article.
How to write a cover letter for documents
There is no single unified form of writing. Requirements for the preparation of organizational and administrative documentation are described in GOST R 6.30-2003. The requirements of this standard are recommended.
How to write a cover letter for documents? Let's start with the basic rules:
- on company letterhead;
- indicating the date and registration number.
Let's take a closer look at a sample cover letter about sending documents, what main sections the text can be divided into and what information should be reflected in them.
|
Letter section |
Short description |
|
|
Introduction |
About sending a response to a claim |
|
|
Heading |
Theme that defines its purpose |
Covering letter of submitted documents |
|
Appeal |
A specific appeal to the manager, preferably addressed, indicating the name and patronymic |
Dear Ivan Ivanovich! |
|
Purpose of the message |
Brief formulation |
In response to your claim, I am enclosing confirmation that the stated requirements were met within the time limits specified in the Supply Agreement. |
|
Main part |
Statement of the essence with summing up and expression of hope, gratitude, etc. |
According to the information received from you, there were facts of violation of clauses 2.3 and 3.6 of the Agreement. In turn, I inform you that the components were transferred on time, which is confirmed by the Invoice, and the work was completed on time, which is confirmed by the date of acceptance of the work on the Work Order. I consider the requirements set forth in claim No. 2, sent to us on July 14, 2017, to have been fulfilled in full. I ask you to consider and send information about your decision to us within the period established by law. I express my gratitude to you for using the services of our company, and I hope for further cooperation. |
|
Conclusion |
List of applications. Polite signature |
Applications:
Head, Sidorova Maria Ivanovna. Full name and contact details of the performer. |
Example of a cover letter for documents
Enterprise employees not only have to send such requests to counterparties, but also receive them from them. It makes sense for business clerks to develop a form for an incoming cover letter for documents. It will be required if the counterparty provides the package without explanation. This often happens when collaborating with individuals, but for legal entities this case is no exception. To optimize document flow, the counterparty will be able to fill out the proposed form, which will indicate all the necessary information.
Sample cover letter for transfer of documents. Form designed to be filled out by the counterparty:
What not to indicate
The text of the appeal is kept in a business style. Despite the fact that the message is not an independent form, you should not allow familiarity when composing it. The covering letter for documents should not evaluate what is happening, be emotional and contain phrases that in one way or another may offend the recipient. An example of phrases that cannot be used and options for replacing them:
Who signs the letter
The appeal can be signed by the head of the department, manager, chief accountant, or head of the organization. In this case, communication ethics should be observed. If the text contains an appeal to the head of the company, then it must be signed by an equal manager. It should also be remembered that the manager delegates the execution of instructions to the performers. Therefore, when signing, the director should indicate the contractor’s contacts so that the recipient does not have to waste time searching for the person responsible. Printing in this case is not mandatory.
Upon receipt, the recipient will assign the document an incoming number and date, which the clerk will enter manually or using a stamp. Using this information, it will be possible to easily track the stages of its passage and clarify at which level of consideration the application is at one time or another.
IN Western countries, where the free labor market is much older than the Russian one, sending a resume to an employer without a cover letter is not accepted: it is considered impolite. In Russia, job search traditions are still developing, so attitudes towards cover letters vary.
Do you need to spend time and effort on a cover letter? And if so, how exactly is it compiled? To be able to create a competitive advantage for yourself, read the tips.
To write or not to write? That is the question…
To write or not to write a cover letter when sending a resume to a vacancy you are interested in? Almost all job seekers ask this question every day. More than half of them (54%), according to the Research Center website, decide for themselves that cover letters are a waste of time, because all the important information is contained in the resume. About a third of Russians (31%), on the contrary, are confident that a correctly drafted plan significantly increases the chances of success. Whose point of view is correct?
This correspondence dispute is one of those in which both sides are right in their own way. According to the site, the majority of employers (91%) consider all resumes, regardless of the presence of a cover letter, 8% work only with those resumes that have at least a formal cover letter, and only 1% do not consider resumes without cover letters at all.
Why do Russian recruiters, unlike their Western colleagues, do not attach importance to cover letters? The reason is the insufficiently high level of these documents. According to hiring managers, most applicants do not know how to write cover letters correctly, so often an illogical message with many errors is simply not taken into account. “The cover letter is not that important because very few job seekers know how to write one,” explain the recruiters we interviewed.
But against this background it’s easy to buy extra points! If your cover letter is written logically, competently and contains information important to the employer, rest assured that this will be a significant plus! You just need to learn how to write this document, and the path to your dream job may become shorter.
Cover letter structure
Let's start with the main thing. Why do we write a cover letter? The purpose of this document is to draw attention to your resume, make the recruiter read it carefully and become interested in your candidacy.
At the same time, the wording must fit within the framework of generally accepted ideas about business correspondence. Creativity and humor are only acceptable if you do not doubt the appropriateness and quality of your ideas and jokes. However, there is one caveat. If you are applying for a position in a creative team, then deviations from business style are quite appropriate. With a non-standard (but interesting and competent) cover letter, you may well be of interest to the employer.
What should you say in your cover letter? Experts highlight several points that should be adhered to.
Very important correct address to the addressee. As a rule, vacancies posted on the site contain information about a contact person - the HR manager who directly supervises the vacancy. It is best to address the cover letter to him. "Good day, Elena!"; “Dear Igor Anatolyevich!” - the usual formulations are quite suitable. If a specific employee is not specified, you can use standard “politeness formulas”: “Dear ladies and gentlemen!” Experts warn against informal addresses that are not typical for a business style of letter, for example, “Good day, employees of LLC “***”!” and so on.
It is also customary to indicate in the cover letter source of job information: “On your company’s social network page it is reported that you are looking for a sales manager”; “From your employee, IT specialist Sergei Sergeev, I learned that you have an open vacancy for a 1C programmer.” However, if you send your resume through a recruiting portal, this is not necessary - the recruiter will already know where you got the information.
Now let's get to the point. In a few sentences (short and clear) you need to state, who are you and why do you want to work for this company?. At the same time, there is no need to restate your resume - it is only important to emphasize the most important thing - what distinguishes you from other candidates. As a rule, this is work experience and professional achievements. For example: “My experience in the PR field is 4 years. At my current job, I was able to double the number of media publications about the company within the previous budget. Working for you attracts me because of the scale of the tasks and the opportunity to work in a creative team.” Interested in your qualities, the recruiter will open and carefully study your CV.
Experts warn: you should not write about your career ambitions in your cover letter. This can scare off the recruiter, because at the moment he needs to fill a specific position, and not replenish the talent pool of top managers with your candidacy. So the phrase: “Working in your company attracts me with the opportunity for career growth” is better to cross out.
There is no need to focus on dubious places in your resume, if there are any. For example, it is better to explain why you have not worked for six months at an interview, in person. A cover letter is not a confession or a detailed autobiography, but only a short business self-presentation.
Avoid platitudes. “I am easy to train, sociable and stress-resistant” - this is stated in many resumes and cover letters, so many recruiters do not pay attention to such template phrases.
At the end of the letter, do not forget to add that if you are interested in your candidacy, you are ready to come for an interview and answer all the remaining questions for you. In addition, it is necessary subscribe and indicate your contacts. Of course, this data is in the resume, but these are the rules of business etiquette.
“Working for your company attracts me...”
So, what should a good cover letter look like? For example, a candidate for the position of sales manager could write it as follows:
“Good afternoon, Ekaterina!
From the “Career” section on your company’s website, I learned about an open vacancy for a sales manager.
You may be interested in my experience in this area: for five years I have been selling software at the company “***”. Among my personal achievements are large contracts for the supply of software products with a number of state corporations, increasing the company’s sales level by 40% annually.
Working for your company attracts me with the opportunity to apply my experience and knowledge on a larger scale. If my resume (see attached) interests you, I will be happy to answer your questions during the interview.
Best regards, Ivan Ivanov,
tel. +7 (910) ***-**-**.”
Finishing touches
Before sending your written letter and resume to the recipient, soberly assess its volume. You should be guided by a simple rule: brevity is the sister of talent. 2-3 small paragraphs - this will be enough to interest the recruiter, but not tire him.
Finally, don't forget check your creation for literacy. Spelling and punctuation errors can ruin all your hard work, especially if the position you are applying for requires a high level of overall development. So use dictionaries, reference books and the capabilities of computer text editors.
And about formalities. If you are sending your resume by email, your cover letter should be in the “body” of your email. If by fax - on a separate page, which must be sent first, before the resume. Recruiting portals usually have a special window for a cover letter.
Good luck and inspiration!
Not all applicants know what a cover letter for a resume is. But some organizations (especially those whose structure is Western-style) take this document very seriously. There are cases when, out of two resumes from approximately equal applicants, the employer gives preference to the one who does not neglect the cover letter.
The main task of the cover letter– provide the employer with additional information that for some reason is inappropriate, as well as an explanation of some not obvious points.
Sometimes heads of organizations, looking through numerous resumes, first of all read the accompanying note, considering it a kind of “announcement” to the main document.
Despite the fact that all the information the employer needs is already contained in the main document, the cover letter may duplicate such information. This allows you to establish a personal touch with the person hiring you.
Before writing a cover letter for your resume, it is recommended to remember all the unpleasant aspects that may negatively affect the employer’s opinion of you.
Usually they try to hide such “dark spots”, but in some cases these points will still become known to the employer. For example, in your cover letter you can mention that despite your honors diploma, you have not worked in your specialty for several years.
The cover letter is drawn up in any form, but its structure should be something like this:
- Contact the manager or HR manager (depending on the size of the organization);
- Introduction (your name and the position you are applying for);
- Goal of request;
- Information valuable to the employer, which will contain a description of the reasons for choosing you for the specified position;
- Gratitude;
- Contact details.
How to write a cover letter for a resume
Before considering the simplest cover letter sample, it is necessary to examine in more detail each of the points of its structure. The message in the cover letter can be addressed to the responsible employee of the HR department, the HR manager, or even the manager. It depends on what data you have, and if you know the manager’s name, it’s better to contact him.
On the other hand, very often in large companies with a staff of several thousand people, the general director does not even know by sight the vast majority of people working in the organization, and he is not involved in staff recruitment issues at all. In this case, it is better to write a letter addressed to the HR manager.
The view does not need to list all the information that is in the . There is no need to describe everything in detail, but some key and important points from your point of view are worth clarifying. For example - your education, and, if possible, achievements, if in the past you managed to achieve success and career growth in the same position that you want to get.
For example, a cover letter for an accountant's resume may contain information that you worked as a senior accountant, and at the same time quit of your own free will in search of a more promising job (obviously, there is no need to talk about dismissal for various offenses or professional incompetence in the cover letter).
Next, you need to indicate the source from which you learned about the employer’s offer. Mention that you are well versed in the aspects of the organization's activities and know the requirements that apply to candidates. List your valuable qualities that will be useful to the organization.
List all your potential advantages over other candidates. In some cases, it will be appropriate to briefly describe a situation or problem that was solved thanks to you. Ideally, you held a leadership position during this period, and the problem was solved thanks to your initiative.
At the end of the letter there should be a thank you for the fact that the employer took the time to read your letter. After thanking us, be sure to include all your possible contact information. However, this does not mean that you need to list all your email addresses, additional phone numbers and various instant messengers. A main phone number and one email address are enough.
You have already indicated this information in your resume. But, firstly, this is an additional opportunity to hint that you are waiting for a call or letter, and secondly, a correctly composed cover letter for a job application should be written in such a way that the reader becomes interested in your candidacy without even reading the resume itself . There is a small chance that the recruiter will contact you at this stage.
Cover letter for resume example
The simplest example of a cover letter for a resume is a short letter with a minimum amount of unnecessary information:
“Hello, Alexander Vladimirovich.
The vacancy of a manager, which was published on behalf of your company on the advertisement site, interested me. I consider myself a worthy candidate, since at my last job I performed the same duties as described in your advertisement.
I am familiar with all the processes and features of the work that I will have to perform, and more detailed information about my skills, education and professional qualities is contained in the resume, which is attached in a separate file.
I look forward to your decision and thank you for reading this letter.
Sincerely, Petrov A.M.
Telephone
Email".
This cover letter is an example of a laconic, targeted appeal to the manager. Here is a more detailed example – a cover letter for an accountant’s resume:
To the Director of Orient LLC
Semenov D.A.
Hello, Dmitry Alekseevich.
I sent you my resume, which is attached to this letter.
My name is Olga Anatolyevna Sitseva, and I was interested in the vacancy of a chief accountant, which I learned about from the newspaper on October 12, 2015. Having familiarized myself in detail with the requirements for candidates, I can say with confidence: I can cope with the assigned tasks without any prior preparation. It will take me no more than a week to adapt to the new team, take over the cases and study the peculiarities of your accounting department.
At my previous place of work at IP Chekunov, I held a similar position. I decided to change my job at my own request, since the company’s activities lie in an area in which my professional and personal development is not possible.
Despite the fact that the salary indicated in your advertisement is much higher than at the previous place of work, this is not the main motivational point for me. One of the reasons why I decided to submit my resume is the opportunity to work more effectively at Orient LLC, since the field of activity of your company is thoroughly familiar to me (this is due to my second education).
More detailed information about me is contained in my resume.
Thank you for your attention, if necessary, you can contact me using the contact information below.
Telephone
E-mail".
This letter is written in more detail, in general there is no unnecessary information, but the candidate could have used shorter expressions. Cover letters that are too long turn off employers who think they are just duplicate information from your resume.
Here's a better example:
"To the managerHR department Natalya Ivanovna Mironova.
Hello.
My name is Evgeniy Semenovich Roizman.
The purpose of my letter is to explain that I am submitting a resume for the position of chief engineer in your company.
I have extensive experience working in one place (more than 20 years) as an engineer (later - chief engineer) at the Baltic Shipyard.
I have gratitude and state awards, but I was forced to resign due to a change of residence.
If you are interested in my candidacy, you can find out more detailed information from the attached resume.
Goodbye.
Roizman E.S.
Telephone"
Indeed, such a cover letter for a job application is written very competently. With a minimum volume, it contains the maximum amount of information potentially interesting to the manager. A good example would be this:
"Good afternoon. My name is Alexander Valentinovich Pekov, and the purpose of this letter is to draw your attention to the resume that I sent you today. I am interested in working as a system administrator in your company - this vacancy was published in the newspaper on December 14, 2015.
I have a higher education in the fieldIT technologies, for the last five years he has worked as a system administrator at the Alpha company.
My tasks included connecting and removing hardware, installing new software, troubleshooting, monitoring and protecting the company’s local network, maintaining documentation and some other additional functions.
The reason for the dismissal was the closure of the Alpha company.
If you are interested in my candidacy, you can contact me using the details below. If necessary, I am ready to come for an interview at any time.
Sincerely, Pekov A.V.
Telephone
E-mail".
Nuances, features and pitfalls
As you can see, all of the above examples are cover letters written by different people in different styles. And, despite the lack of a strictly regulated form of cover letters, it is worth understanding what these people did wrong. Here is a list of rules that should be followed when drawing up such a document.
- A cover letter is not an autobiography, but brief theses that serve as arguments in your favor, but since some people simply cannot write briefly and to the point, then the second point follows.
- Please read your completed cover letter carefully. Long sentences can always be avoided. Just set boundaries for yourself in advance. For example, write no more than five hundred words. Anything that does not fit into this framework should be shortened or rephrased.
- Text proofreading It is also necessary in order to avoid spelling errors, which are very often stupid and annoying. Surprisingly, many adults cannot master such rules as writing “-tsya”-“-tsya” at the end of verbs, and also make other similar mistakes. A cover letter is a document. Reading it and encountering an error already in the first paragraph, the employer may stop reading there, especially if it is important for your vacancy to have good command of speech and the Russian language.
- Banal characteristics of oneself- Not needed. The employer can also find out that you are “stress-resistant, sociable, ready to work overtime,” etc., from your main resume in the “additional information” column.
- Notice how all these people wrote the pronoun “You”: two with a capital letter and two with a small letter. There is a difference between these options. “You” is appropriate in this case, since the address is addressed to a specific person who is senior in the hierarchy. But “you” is an address to an abstract reader or to two or more persons at the same time.
- It is impossible to say exactly what size such a letter should be: sometimes all the information in it can really be important. But try to adhere to the Western standard, where such a document is usually about a third of an A4 sheet.
Remember that a well-written cover letter is also an indicator, because the employer first of all sees this document and can already form his first impression from it, and only then begins to study it himself.
The purpose of a cover letter is to tell about your goals, intentions and motivations so that there is a desire to meet with you. By the way, a resume has the same task. Only the cover letter is read first, and then they get acquainted with the resume.
What is a cover letter?
A cover letter to the employer is attached to the resume. It should attract the employer's attention and encourage him to carefully read your resume.
Composition of the letter
To properly write a cover letter for your resume, you need to cover 4 topics:
- What do you want to do (or what vacancy are you applying for)
- Brief description of your experience (2 - 3 sentences)
- Brief description of your strengths and abilities
- Why do you want to work for this company?
All these 4 topics should occupy maximum half an A4 page. Trying to write a treatise cover letter is critical.
You can think of your resume as a product and your cover letter as its packaging. Now remember how you choose products in a store. Decent packaging attracts attention and makes you come up and take a closer look at the product. The same applies to our case - packaging is extremely important for a resume!
Don’t leave the employer any chance - write clearly, briefly and beautifully.
