Cover Letter Examples - Do They Help?

The cover letter is a document employed by position-seekers in the job application process, whose purpose is to introduce the position-seeker to the employer, and also to draw the employer’s attention to the other documents that the position-seeker is likely to attach as part of the job application; namely the curriculum vitae or resume, and other academic and professional credentials the position seeker is likely to attach.

Cover letter examples – some of which are nowadays available on various websites nowadays really do help.

To understand how the letter examples help, you need to first appreciate the fact that the letter as a job application document is not ‘just a formality’ as many of us mistakenly believe; but a very integral part of the job application process, which more often than not determines who proceeds to the interview stage of the recruitment process, and who is shunted to a siding.

The letter examples, then, can help the position-seeker making use of them in at least three different ways.

For one, the cover letter examples can give the impetus one needs to get started in the whole ‘cover-letter writing business.’ This the cover letter examples do by showing the position-seeker where to start with the whole thing. Now this might not seem like much, until you come to hear of people whose application efforts ended up being rendered too late because of continual procrastination of the cover-letter writing process, when they couldn’t understand where to get started at it all. With the cover letter examples, on the other hand, you get the impetus to get started.

Secondly, the cover letter examples offer the position-seeker the opportunity to know what to include and what not to include in their application. Again, this might not seem like much, until one gets to see the type of letters people who decide to ‘go it alone’ tend to come up with, omitting as they do, some very important details, while also including what might be termed ‘superfluous’ details.

Thirdly, cover letter examples offer the position-seeker the opportunity to know what format to write their letter in. Cases abound of position-seekers who choose to ‘go it alone’ and who end up writing their cover letters as if they were writing personal letters to friends, forgetting for a moment that the letter is essentially a piece of formal correspondence – that has to be written following a specific format.

Finally, cover letter examples offer the position-seeker the opportunity to know what tone to use in writing their application letters. Of course, the ability to deduce the tone from a piece of writing takes a certain degree of literary knowledge. Now the inexperienced position-seeker who opts to walk the process along, runs the risk of using what might be termed as inappropriate tone in writing their cover letter, which could see their otherwise good job applications ‘shunted to a siding’ as employers typically have little time to waste with people ‘who can’t get basic things right.’

Cover Letter Examples - Do They Help?