Effective Cover Letter Writing Tips and Advice

Abstract

Cover letters are as important as your CV/resume when applying for jobs, internships, scholarships or fellowships. The same energy you put in your CV/resume is what you should put in developing a great cover letter. Unfortunately, most people do not spend enough time on them because they think that recruiters do not read cover letters. Let me tell you today that recruiters do read cover letters and they use them to differentiate one candidate from the next. When recruiters go through hundreds of applications to shortlist from, cover letters set the tone of an application, and should motivate them to turn over enthusiastically and read the enclosed CV/resume. In other words, it should give them a strong reason why your application is worth paying attention to. For this reason, your cover letter needs to stand out from the rest and maximise your chances of getting through to the interview stage.