Cover Letter Etiquette
A cover letter is a business letter. Therefore, it should be business-like (short, simple, and matter-of-fact). The goal is to communicate, not educate or entertain. For best results, follow these guidelines.
DO:
- address your letter to a person – the person with the ability to hire you. If you don’t know that person’s name, phone the employer to find out – and get the correct spelling. In the case of an anonymous employer, refer to the person by their job title, such as “Dear Personnel Manager:”
- type the letter unless a hand-written letter is specifically requested.
- limit the letter to one page unless an in-depth or detailed letter is requested.
- use the same colour and texture of paper for your cover letter, resume, and envelope.
- thank the recipient.
- sign your name legibly in black ink to match the text. Remember, your signature says something about you; a hasty unreadable scrawl says “I’m sloppy and careless.”
DO NOT:
- address your cover letter “To whom it may concern:” This says “I don’t care who you are”, an employers prefer to hire people who care. In any case, such an impersonal cliché may cause your letter to get shuffled around an office and end up being ignored, misplaced, or discarded. In some workplaces, all to-whom-it-may-concern applications are thrown out.
- write anything negative about yourself, your life situation, or a previous employer.
- use clichés or overuse the word “I”. Instead of writing “I am an excellent teacher” for example, try “My strength lies in teaching” or “Teaching is my strength”. Another effective technique is to quote compliments given by supervisors (e.g. “Kim is an excellent teacher”).
If you must send your application via e-mail, don’t attach a file unless you are certain the recipient has the proper program to open and read it (a file attachment that can’t be opened is useless). If you aren’t certain, either phone to find out or include your cover letter and resume in the body of the message and send it as plain text. Also, don’t use an uncommon font; if the recipient’s computer lacks that font, a potentially embarrassing or unprofessional substitute will be used – reflecting poorly on you.
If the only method of contact is a fax number, set the fax machine’s resolution to “high quality” to improve the appearance of transmitted pages.
All these little things add up – and set you apart from applicants who aren’t as considerate.