Cover Letter Parts

A job is a job at the end of the day, no matter which position of responsibility you hold in the company. Thus, along with your resume, your cover letter should equally be professional enough to compete against several other candidates ahead and behind your application.

A cover letter is usually attached with your resume as a document to support your resume and explain your desire to fill the particular position of a particular company. In simple words, a cover letter is a document which explains the skills you have mentioned in your resume and explains how suitable you are for the job in concern.

Though several people are comfortable making a resume, many of them find difficulty in writing a cover letter. Just like any normal letter will be, a cover letter too has several parts.

To solve your queries about how to build a cover letter in order to land a job, consider the points listed below before making one for yourself!

Contact Information

  • Your contact information

    • Although a cover letter is what you send to your employer along with your resume which already contains your contact details, that does not mean you can skip the contact details from your cover letter. It will be foolish if you expect your employer to go looking out for your contact details from your resume every time he is seeing your cover letter.

    Your job is to simplify the task of a potential employer by providing him/her with all the details they need of you.

    In your cover letter, clearly mention your basic contact details such as your name along with your valid phone number and an email address just as you did in your resume. Make sure that all the contact details which you provide are up to date and without any typing errors.

    Also, since now-a-days, several companies prefer to run a background check on their future employees before hiring them, make sure to have an LinkedIn account and give a link for the same in your cover letter.

    Refer to cover letter samples available online to have a better understanding of how to arrange and write your contact details in a cover letter.

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  • Employer's contact information

    • Though mentioning employer's contact information is not mandatory, but, it is advisable that you do so that your cover letter has high chances of landing on the right table and at the right hands, instead of being misplaced.

    If you are sending your resume and your cover letter through email, chances of getting misplaced are less and thus you can skip mentioning your employer's contact details on your cover letter.

    However, if you are sending out your cover letter by post or delivering it to the office yourself, our advice will be to mention the contact details of the employer.

  • Choose a style

    • The more simple you make, the more effective it becomes. Choose a style that suits your style and the style of the job profile.

    Design a nice, clean block to specifically demarcate your contact details from the rest of the cover letter no matter if you are sending your cover letter through email or delivering a hard copy yourself.

    If you are confused which style to choose, you can go online and research about various cover letter templates.

    cover-letter-parts

  • Keep a touch of professionalism

    • A job is a job at the end of the day, no matter which position of responsibility you hold in the company. Thus, along with your resume, your cover letter should equally be professional enough to compete against several other candidates ahead and behind your application.

    Many-a-times, people make a mistake of mentioning an unprofessional email id in both their resume and cover letter. If you are a true professional looking for serious jobs, you should always have a separate email id for work purposes.

    A professional email id should ideally contain both your first name and your surname. No fancy adjectives, no cute pet names! Providing unprofessional email id in your resume and cover letter conveys your casual approach towards the job.

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Cover letter salutations

No matter it is a cover letter or a normal letter, it must have a person you are addressing the letter too. Although it is not always possible to know who your employer is until you actually get employed, still, an advice from our end would be to do some research regarding who your employer is, in order to avoid using the age old traditional salutations such as "To whom it may concern" or "Dear sir or madam".

cover-letter-parts

Using the conventional salutations only goes on to show that you chose the more convenient way than to step out of the crowd. Call the front desk of the office you are eyeing or check in detail the company website to find out who your employer is. If you still cannot figure out, refer to some cover letter templates to understand how to use salutations ideally in your cover letter.

Cover letter body

  • First Paragraph 

    • A cover letter is meant to address the purpose of you applying for the particular job in that particular company. So, to start with, the first step of writing a cover letter is to grab the attention of your employer with a magnificent first paragraph.

    You need to explain why you are writing this cover letter which would further explain the reason for your desire to join the company in concern.

    Provide crisp yet effective information about the job you are seeking and explain how your strengths and skills will be most suitable for the job. Thus, the first paragraph is the most important part of your cover letter format.

  • Second paragraph

    • The second paragraph in your cover letter must talk about how your skills and strengths helped you gain your previous successes and achievements. Quantifying this section of your cover letter format can be a game changer for you. Make sure you add your achievements in a bulletin format to highlight the same in the eyes of the employer.

  • Third paragraph

    • Dedicate the third paragraph to acknowledge the company you are applying for. Let the company know that you did your homework right by talking about the company's growth throughout the past years. A company will only know that you are eagerly waiting to join the company when you make them believe that you know or tried to know everything about the company through extensive research.

  • Fourth paragraph

    • The fourth paragraph of your cover letter body must summarise all that you said in the above three paragraphs. Make a short yet effective summary to encourage your employer to give you the job, or atleast call you for a face to face job meeting.

Closing Statement

In every letter, no matter it is an informal letter or a cover letter, a closing statement to conclude your letter is a must that needs to be included in your cover letter format. Use closing statements such as "Yours truly","Sincerely" or "Thanking you" to conclude your cover letter.

Since the company in concern is a professional one and not a family group, strictly avoid using closing statements such as "Cheers". Trust us, such gestures attract negative attention from your employers.

Signature

What kind of signature you will use in your cover letter format depends on what kind of cover letter you are sending to your employer. If it's a hard copy of your cover letter, type your full name below the salutation and sign in your own handwriting. However, if you are sending your cover letter through email, simply write your full name and contact information under the salutation.



Written By :
Namratta Sarkar
Career Expert at CV Owl

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