Contact details

At the top of your cover letter:

• Your name: Ensure that you use your full name as it appears on your CV 
• Phone number: Include the phone number you wish to be contacted on
• Email address: It is standard for companies to send information via email during the recruitment process. Ensure the email address that is on your cover letter is professional, ideally name.surname@email.com 
• Online profile: If you have a work-related online profile you can add a link to it on your cover letter 

The hiring manager's address and date

Underneath your details, add the hiring manager’s contact information and the date:

• The letter's date
• The hiring manager's name
• The company's name
• The company's street address
• The company's city and postcode

Underneath this information, add the name of the role you are applying for and reference number (if there is one) 

Greeting

Your cover letter should be addressed directly to the hiring manager. You can usually find their name in the job advert on the company website. If this information is not available, customise your greeting to the department you are applying to ‘Dear Finance Manager’ or ‘Dear Hiring Manager’. Alternatively use ‘Dear Sir or Madam’. 

Body of the cover letter

After your greeting, introduce yourself, and explain which job you are applying for.   

Highlight any skills and experience that you already have that match the job description. Show your enthusiasm for the role, their business, say why you want to work for them. 

If this is your first role and you don’t have any previous work history, think about any transferrable skills you may be able to talk about. Were you on a sports team to talk about teamwork? Did you participate in a debate team or club to be able to talk about communication? So many skills that you have are transferrable, even if you haven’t had a paid job previously. 

Although you want to showcase your enthusiasm and skills for the role and business in your cover letter, don’t make it too long. The hiring manager will be reading hundreds of letters, keep yours short and to the point. A good cover letter will want the reader to know more about you, and to do that they will need to invite you to an interview. 

Ending your cover letter

When it comes to ending your cover letter, thank them for reviewing your application and tell them you’re looking forward to hearing back from them.

Confirm how it is best to contact you and ensure your contact details are correct (both on your cover letter and CV). 

If you know the name of the person you’re writing to, you should end the letter with ‘Yours sincerely’.

If you’ve addressed the letter ‘Dear Sir or Madam’, you should end the letter with ‘Yours faithfully’.