So you’ve put together your CV and have just come across an incredible job. Putting together a hastily written cover letter shows the prospective employer that this is just the sort of thing that you would do if you were to work for them. There’s no way they’ll shortlist you for the job (unless you’re the only applicant of course). If you’ve spent a lot of time creating your CV, you should put the same sort of care into your cover letter.

Prospective employers make their initial judgements about you by the way you put together the covering letter so it is vital that you pay particular attention to how it is written. It is no good writing one letter and then just photocopying it for each job application. You’ll be surprised how quickly these get thrown in the bin.