When writing a cover letter to send with an application or a CV you need to carefully consider what job you are applying for. Although often a CV can be sent out to many companies with only minor tweaking, a cover letter should be written on an individual basis. It should ideally only be one page long and I often ensure that I have three main paragraphs in there.

The first paragraph should talk briefly about who you are, what position you are wanting to apply for and your current situation.

The second paragraph should entail specifics about what job you are doing, what skill sets you have and outline of your qualifications that are relevant to the position.

The final paragraph needs to say why you believe you are suitable for the job and that you would be happy to attend an interview. It is also often liked if you say that if the employer has any questions regarding your CV that they can contact you and that you look forward to hearing from them.

Do not go in to huge amounts of detail about your employment history and individual tasks you undertake as this can be done in your CV.