Cover Letter

A cover letter has one purpose, to introduce you to the organization/company/institution which you are applying. There are three basic things which you should structure your cover letter around:
•    What you are applying for
•    Why you have chosen this position/company
•    Why should the company chose you

As with the CVs it is important to keep this letter relatively brief. I suggest you keep the Cover Letter under one page. It is very important to list your strengths, but do not oversell yourself. Arrogance is not a good quality; the ability to demonstrate your talents while avoiding sounding arrogant is. Also, please avoid spending more of your time in a thesaurus then you spend thinking about what you are going to write. Too often people try to prove their intelligence through using very flowery language. This may work in German, but English is not German. It can make the writer seem pretentious, or the content unreadable or unintelligible.

Here is a suggestion as to how to begin a Cover letter:

“Dear Sir or Madam,
I would like to apply for the position of …”

    
One way of ending a Cover Letter is as follows:

“I look forward to your reply,
Sincerely,
Your name”


I hope this helps you in writing your cover letter, and I wish you luck and success.