Cover letter

A spontaneous letter often makes a good impression because it signals a genuine interest in the company. Because your letter will not be one of the many responses to an ad, it will stand a better chance than the invited letter of being read attentively.

One disadvantage of this kind of letter is the lack of a clear-cut job description. When you write a solicited cover letter, the job ad gives you some guidelines as to what the recruiter is looking for. In the case of cold contact letters, you have to do some more research yourself before you can get started.

To be able to tailor your letter to the needs of an employer, it is absolutely necessary to find background information about the company you want to apply at. Newsletters, specialised magazines and the corporate website are ideally suited for this purpose. You will have to try to distil as much information as you can from the website and other possible vacancies a company might have posted.

Below, you find an excerpt of an uninvited cover leter. For a full version, click on example 1 in the right hand column.