Sample of Cover Letter

How to Write a Great Cover Letter

• Include your contact information in the top right hand corner.  Put your name in bold and or larger font to let employers immediately know who you are.
• Include the date you are submitting the letter.
• Address the letter to the contact person/department/company from the job posting.  If possible, call the company and ask for the name of the person responsible for hiring the position you are applying for, or ask for the name of the Human Resources Manager and address the letter to them.

First (Introductory) Paragraph:

Tells the employer: “This is what I want to do!  This is why I want to do it with you!”

Introduce yourself, mention the position you are applying for and how you heard about it.  Demonstrate you have done your homework on the company/organization; know who they are, what they do, and how good they are to determine what you can do to make them better. Indicate in a sentence or two what you know about that company. Convey your excitement for the opportunity to be a part of their organization and that you really believe you have the qualifications they are seeking.  Then explain that this is why you would like to introduce yourself.

Second (Marketing) Paragraph:

Tells the employer: “This is what I can do for you!  This is why I am the best candidate for the position!”

Inform the employer of the degree you have obtained and give details about your background and experience, specifically the experience highlighted on your resume.  Match your skills and qualifications with the ones that are required and preferred in the job description. Give specific examples of accomplishments that demonstrate your ability to meet the needs of the employer.  This proves that you will be successful at the position you are applying to.  Use keywords relevant to the job posting and the industry.  Remember to keep all information relevant to the position you are applying to. Refer the reader to the enclosed resume, which will give additional information concerning your background and experience.

Third (Closing) Paragraph:

Tells the employer: “I want an interview!  This is what I am willing to do to get it!”

Close by saying you would like to meet with the employer to further discuss your qualifications, the company/organization, or the position.  State when you are available for interview and provide the easiest way to contact you to set up a meeting.  If you would like to initiate the next step, you can mention that you will follow up in a certain amount of time to determine if the employer has any questions and to set up a personal interview.  This is not required, only say you will do this if you actually intend to follow up! If you do call, tell the secretary that the employer is expecting your call.  End by saying you look forward to hearing from them.

If you intend to print out your cover letter and hand it to someone, leave room between your closing and your printed name for your signature.

                                                                 https://studentaffairs.unt.edu/content/cover-letters

COMMON MISTAKES IN JOB APPLICATIONS

CV / Resume Templates

Templates

Words to describe yourself!

 Positive adjectives to describe yourself in an interview, a date or to write on the resume (CV) 

https://eslforums.com/words-to-describe-yourself/?utm_campaign=meetedgar&utm_medium=social&utm_source=meetedgar.com#Words_to_Describe_Yourself_Infographic

Improve your CV/Resume

http://www.careerexperts.co.uk/job-searching/how-to-improve-your-cv

Talks to watch before a job interview

Click HERE to go to the site TED TALKS

The secret of an excellent Cover Letter

The cover letter is –coupled with the CV– one of the first-contacting and first-impression papers through which an applicant has to get in touch with a recruiter. It’s important because it’s the candidate’s show case. It’s delicate because it’s the candidate-company’s first contact.  

Some of the best practices which a candidate should follow to make his application intrigued:

Structure: 
On the top right of the page:

•  your name and you personal address only, no email no phone, nothing else

On the top left:

• the date. 
• the full name of the company followed by its address 
• mention only the last name of the person to whom you are addressing.

Layout: a cover letter should contain 3 visible, well-separated, main parts

• an introduction
• a body (that could be divided to 3 sub-parts as well)
• conclusion. 
• At the end, your full name (on the left or on the right, it doesn’t matter).

The introduction:

• First thing’s first, a typical good introduction usually begins with how you knew the company and how you found the job position (the company website, through an alumni, during a career related discussion…). 

• Then you should mention why this position is interesting and exciting for you, and what makes you motivated to work for this the company as well. Here comes the part where you should mention some key-details about the company. Numbers are preferred, because they are concrete and easily-memorable. This is a typical good stream of a cover letter introduction.

The Body: the main part of the cover letter.

• The first part is useful for a brief introduction of the applicant (newly graduated, final year, current position…) and what he/she is planning to do in the near future (acquire more experience, get better in a specific field…).  
• 
  The second part should contain a brief overview of your technical background (what type of school you are from, main points of strength, and the aim and caracteristics of the eventual most important internships fulfilled. No details, this paragraph should be an appetizer to push the recruiter and trigger its curiosity to go to the CV to see what you are talking about. 
• 
  The last part should be dedicated to your extra-curricular activities, it’s the best place where to mention what positions you have held and what soft-skills you learnt.

The conclusion:

• You should mention something related to getting an opportunity to introduce yourself better through an interview and discus more how you will be useful for the company. 

• Invite the recruiter to know more about you through taking a look at your CV. 
• Finally, don’t forget to mention that you are available through any contact data mentioned in the CV and thank the recruiter for his/her time and consideration.

Some fatal typical mistakes that applicants usually make, like: mentioning your own name, evaluating yourself (I am good at… I have excellent knowledge about…) that is the job of the recruiter not yours. Or also mentioning too much details about your education or your internships and activities. That would be boring an that will make your CV obvious, predictable and not worth to see. Remember: a cover letter should push the recruiter to check the CV, not the other way around.

Adapted from The secret of an excellent Cover Letter
Posted by Achraf on February 10, 2013

The Anonymous CV Concept

An anonymous curriculum vitae (CV) includes a summary of our professional and academic backgrounds as well as research experience, publications, awards, honors, affiliations and other details. However, our names and other personal identifying information are not included in order to avoid choice-based discrimination by recruiters.

Who has never heard of discrimination during a job search? Given the vast typology of situations it covers, (seniors, gay, pregnant women, disabled, “unionized” people surnames or physical original inhabitants in badly-reputed neighbourhoods …) and its foundation which is often subjective (perception, beliefs, unspoken), discrimination can potentially affect all of us.

This idea emerged when some worries-raising figures appeared: in 2009, 16% of Europeans said they had been victims of discrimination, while 25% mentioned have witnessed such an act over the past year. Then in this case, what about non EU-citizens? In fact the concept started even before, in 2006, in France with the adoption of the law of “equality of chances“. This law caused a lot of talks and debates between pros and againsts. UK Companies like Tesco, Barclays and Coca-Cola have agreed to apply this policy, others stayed non-responsive.

This topic seemed to solve discrimination problems in hiring. At the beginning, people thought that the recruiters will not have any discriminative choices anymore. However, this policy has caused a bigger threat, which had reduced even more the chances for immigrants for example to get hired. According to a study conducted by the Centre for Research in Economics and Statistics (CREST) ​​between November 2009 and November 2010 over a thousand companies, the anonymous CV fight effectively against gender discrimination but not against those of ethnic issues. The opposite just happened: the immigrant candidates have only one chance in 22 of getting an interview, against a 10 chance if their resume were not anonymous.

This seemingly surprising result is due to the tendency of recruiters to “relativize” the shortcomings of the resume immigrant when they are registered. Spelling mistakes are more tolerated, the non-respect of the conventional national CV form and layout are not badly seen. Indulgence disappears then otherwise. “Recruiters forgive more ‘holes’ in the CV or spelling mistakes when they know the social origins,” says CREST.

The question at then end stays the same: how can it be guaranteed that companies will not make discriminative choices when recruiting? How can immigrants, despite their outsanding technical and academic profiles, find challenging positions without getting faced to descrimination? After all, this idea of the anonymous CV is not that efficient, as the recruiter will get to know the candidate once he/she is invited to a job interview.
                                                            Source:https://achrafaouadi.net/2013/03/03/anonymous-cv-reasons/

Your CV (Europass)

Curriculum Vitae

A document to present your skills and qualifications effectively and clearly
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