Sample Cover Letters - 5 Winning Aspects of a Sample Cover Letter

In the world where competition is very tight, an applicant needs to be creative enough to be proud of his/her useful qualities. A good employment history and an impressive educational background is definitely not enough for you to reach your dream job; you should be armed with an organized curriculum vitae and a well-written cover letter.

Most applicants ignore the magic of application letters. They do not see how important a cover letter is. It serves as the candidate’s medium to the job recruiter. The application letter is the one that does the talking prior to a hopeful’s initial interview. Because a cover letter is attached in front of your resume, it is the one that is first read by the recruiters so it should be very appealing.

Here are a few characteristics that sample cover letters should have:

Neatness – A printed application letter should be very neat. Make sure that it has neither ink blots nor any unnecessary markings. Guarantee that it is also not crumpled before submitting it to your recruiter unless you want the interviewer to use it as a toilet paper substitute.

Formality – Use a black font for your application letters. Also use a formal font style like Times New Roman, Century Gothic and Arial so it will look proper. If you are planning to print out your sample cover letters, you should use pastel-colored papers or even the simple white bond paper so that your letters will not be an eye sore.

Correct format – Make sure that your heading is in the upper left corner at the paper. Start with the date when the letter was written followed by a blank line. The third line should contain the name and title of the person to whom you are addressing the letter, with his/her position on the next line. Do not forget to include the name of the company and the department where the person belongs. Always remember to indent the first sentences of your paragraphs.

Vital information – Sample cover letters should only contain facts that are considered important in the position they are applying for. For instance, if you are applying as a teacher in a prestigious school, you should inform your recruiter about your employment background, your teaching license, your taken tests and your highest educational attainment.

The recruiter will not care about your silver and gold medals in the swimming competitions you joined unless you are applying as the coach of the school’s swimming team. If you have several work histories, you need not write your whole educational background since you can prove your efficiency with all the jobs you did.

Humility – Last but not the least, you should show the recruiters how humble you are despite of your achievements. Sometimes, an applicant appears boastful because of he/she relates his/her accomplished task in a way that he/she is the only one who made it possible. Don’t make your letter sound like your boasting about what you have accomplished so far. Try to bear in mind that an over-confident hopeful is absolutely irritating.