Letter of Application/Cover Letters for CV's

Bettyboop

Morning All,

I'm looking for some advice on the best way to draft a letter to accompany my CV.

I want to send my CV and covering letter to all the Agencies in my city and also a few big companies.

Does anyone have any ideas for what I should say? What I shouldn't say? and how long should it be?

Please help. Trying to increase my chances of getting a new job ASAP.

Thanks as always.

Bettyboop

I also want to write to the schools in my area as I would love to become a Teaching Assistant. Any ideas how best to word this sort of letter? I'm not very good at drafting letters about looking for work etc.

Any help would be much appreciated. PLEASE!

Astaroth

Agencies would be a fairly basic letter but personally I would suggest contacting them by phone first and then get the name/ email of the appropriate person to send it to (they will want it electronically to be able to distribute it to their clients/ copy and paste the bits into their stock template)

For companies (or schools) then it needs a bit more work, especially if it is application form rather than CV. Generally it is find enclosed my cv/ app form for role X advertised in Y newspaper/ job board etc or if it is speculative then just what sort of role you want. Sell yourself paragraph (key skills/ experience/ personality). Why you want to work for them (without being too cheesy). Sign off with something like I look forward to hearing from you/ speaking to you shortly.

C_Ronaldo

should you put on your cv why you left your previous job

Bettyboop

C_Ronaldo, from past experience if you don't put on your CV why you left you will be asked at an interview for a reason. I am at risk of redundancy and my situation is not looking good as I was in a state after I found out that I have now been signed off work due to stress. Indeed it will make it worse but I hope that I will get a decent reference letter from the company. I emailed my boss on Friday to say that I had been signed off. I have had no communication back so I assume it's not good.

Good luck if you are also looking though.

Astaroth

I have never put it on my CV.... it often comes up at interview as why you left/ why you want to leave but I would prefer to answer that question after speaking to them and getting some feel for what sort of people they are..... a long time ago I got sacked and without going into details there is a sob story that can go with it which some people will react favourably to and others wouldnt careless/ be put off by it so can take an educated guess at which camp they fit in after talking to them for 30mins +

C_Ronaldo

Bettyboop wrote: »

C_Ronaldo, from past experience if you don't put on your CV why you left you will be asked at an interview for a reason. I am at risk of redundancy and my situation is not looking good as I was in a state after I found out that I have now been signed off work due to stress. Indeed it will make it worse but I hope that I will get a decent reference letter from the company. I emailed my boss on Friday to say that I had been signed off. I have had no communication back so I assume it's not good.

Good luck if you are also looking though.

ive got a job which i started other week but i have an offer of another job somewhere else(bloke i had interview today with said i hadnt mentioned why id left prev job) from a letter and cv id sent before i got the other job other week

GUMPO

When you are writing to a company try and get a name rather than a Dear Sir/Madam and tailor the content to the company. A general letter looks bad to an employer, you have to look like you want to work for them and them alone.

Oldernotwiser

C_Ronaldo wrote: »

should you put on your cv why you left your previous job

No, your CV is not the place for this information.

C_Ronaldo

GUMPO wrote: »

When you are writing to a company try and get a name rather than a Dear Sir/Madam and tailor the content to the company. A general letter looks bad to an employer, you have to look like you want to work for them and them alone.

ive written various letters and i got a response, i had an offer of a job today through a letter being addressed to sir/madam

C_Ronaldo

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

No, your CV is not the place for this information.

thought so, the bloke who interviewed me said i hadnt said the reason why, but i ddint correct him