All over the world a cover letter is a mandatory part of CV. CV, as every document, has rather a fixed format. A lot of useful information is often left beyond the scope of a CV and can be reasonably incorporated into a separate letter. Thereby a cover letter is a visiting card of a candidate. Most of candidates are often confused with composing this letter, though it is not complicated. A cover letter is rather a simple and friendly letter from someone who is looking for a good job to someone who is looking for a good employee.

The main purpose of a cover letter is to draw attention of an employer to your CV. It explains why a candidate sends a CV as well as summarizes the candidate’s best qualities meeting the requirements of an open position that the candidate applies for. A cover letter to a CV to be forwarded by email shall be written in the email body, not attached as a separate page.

Set of simple rules to be followed, when composing a cover letter:

Personnel of Human Resource department, who review lots of CVs and cover letters, never read them completely, but briefly scan and in a matter of seconds make a decision if it is worth reading more thoroughly. The applicant’s objective is to present information in such a way (execution and content) that the recruiter can instantly focus on the main point the applicant wants to inform. Hence it is suitable to emphasize some key words with selection of a different font or use repetitions.

A cover letter shall be restricted to maximum 2-3 paragraphs of clear and comprehensive text, with no more than 5-7 sentences per a paragraph. Cover letters having more than 3 paragraphs will simply not be read at worst. At best, they will be scanned up and down. In any case, the goal to draw attention of the employer will not be achieved.

It is important to follow etiquette rules accepted in business environment. First of all, the name of a person who a candidate is referring to on the matter of the employment shall be indicated at the beginning of the letter. If the candidate does not know the name by any reason, “Dear HR Manager” etc. shall be used as a reference. Starting with “Dear Sir or Madam” is quite unacceptable.

The opening paragraph shall contain a position, a candidate applies for, as well as the source wherefrom the applicant obtained the information upon this vacancy.

A cover letter shall never duplicate CV, but contain certain additional data and summary about a candidate, which could attract the employer. Ideally, those additional data shall show what benefits this candidate can bring to the company For instance, if the company operates in foreign markets, knowledge of different languages should be highlighted. The best variant for submitting such data is to make a candidate qualification summary via the list of main skills, achievements and essential qualities. They should prove compliance of a candidate with requirements indicated in the position description, as well as demonstrate abilities to fulfill tasks typical for a particular position. Moreover, a cover letter would be a single opportunity for a job seeker to focus on the specific skills of the candidate or all other details that are left beyond the standard CV scope. For instance, only a cover letter can explain how previous experience and education are connected with the said position, especially in those cases when such interconnection is not so apparent.

The last paragraph shall be used to thank the addressee for attention and underline your readiness for a face-to-face meeting. You may show initiatives and offer your intention to contact the employer on a given date in order to clarify the decision on your CV. It will be obligatory to specify the time when you are planning to do that At the end of a cover letter contact details, i.e. telephone number or email address shall be indicated.

A cover letter shall assume only official style. This letter shall contain no colloquial, slang and substandard expressions, emotion icons etc or things like that. At the same time, do not overload your cover letter with complicated structures and terms. Do not forget to check your letter for technical, spelling and punctuation errors.

Thus, your cover letter shall encourage an employer to call a candidate without reading the entire CV. For your personal motivation you may just remember a famous cover letter of Leonardo da Vinci to Louis Sfortsa, Milan Herzog. Genius inventor applied for the position of military engineer; however, in his cover letter, among other things, he considered it necessary to mention his marble, bronze and clay sculpture skills. The letter was a success and da Vinci moved to Milan in the near future.

Amur-Point’s personnel have a broad experience in analyzing cover letters and CVs and they are always ready to improve candidates’ document quality in order to convey to the Customer the comprehensive, well articulated information about skill level and experience of an applicant for the job vacancy.

You may sent your CV and cover letter to email: job@amur-point.ru.
Open positions available in Amur-Point Company you may find here.