A cover letter is a document you write to a potential employer. It is professional to include a cover letter where appropriate to introduce yourself and explain why you want to work for the place you are applying to work for. Cover letters can also be emailed to an employer to save time rather than posting (or to send as well as a posted letter).

I will outline some tips that I have for cover letter writing.

Check who you address your cover letter or application to, if you are in doubt as to the gender of the  person you are sending the application to then always use a polite way to start your letter for example Dear Sir or Madam or To whom it may concern. Where possible try to establish the name of the right person to send your application to. If you remember the named individual(s) you are writing to then this shows that you have made the effort to remember something new.

Make sure in your cover letter that you have the correct address (or email address if you are emailing) to add to your document.

Now is your perfect opportunity to introduce yourself. Do not try to duplicate what you have already got in your CV. It would be best to give a little bit of information of who you are and why you are interested in working for the company.

The best piece of advice I was ever given was to research the company you are applying for a job to beforehand. If you wrote in your cover letter you were really enthusiastic when researching and learning about Kevin’s Cars to find out the back-story of the minicab company being run by a family for over 20 years, your statement could prove invaluable and the company would likely be impressed at your taking notice of them as an individual place of work rather than just using the same cover letter for every job application you go for.

Try to include what the recruiter is looking for in your cover letter. If the recruiter says they are looking for a friendly, well-presented and hard-working cab driver that can work flexible hours, it would be an advantage to say you take pride in your appearance by being smartly-dressed and punctual with a friendly smile and can work flexible hours to adapt to the role.

Be clear on which job position and place of work you are applying for if there are different positions and different locations for the job you want or if you are happy to apply for different roles include you were looking at say the admin and the controller jobs and your reasons why.

Add your contact details onto the cover letter, including: your name, address, telephone number, email address and any other methods of being able to reach or contact you.

To end your cover letter, remember to sign off the letter using the correct signature. ‘Yours faithfully’ is used (to an unknown person on business) and ‘yours sincerely’ can be used if you know the person that you are applying for the job with.

Spell-check and grammar check your letter before you send it off or email it across. Attention to detail such as spelling the person’s name you may be writing to correctly and adding details such as the company name correctly is priceless.