7 Things To Check Before Sending Your Cover Letter

So you have written a beautiful Cover Letter and you cannot wait to send it to potential employers. Before you do there are a few things that you need to double check to ensure you got them right.

In this article see some of the things you need to double check before sending out your job application.

1. The Hiring Manager’s Name

Yes, before you send that beautifully written cover letter you need to double check that you have used the right name. You do not want to address your letter to the wrong person.

It is important to use the person’s name as opposed to writing Dear Sir/Madam or to whom it may concern. This will make the hiring manager know that you spent the time to research on the organisation.

It is equally important that you do not misspell the name of the person you are addressing the Cover Letter to. You also need to ensure that you use the right title. You do not want to call someone MS when she is a Mrs. If you are not sure about the correct title it is better to avoid using it all together.

2. The Organisation’s Name

The one thing you have to ensure you get right is the company name. Before you send out your application it is important that you check that the company name you have used is correct.

You need to ensure that the spelling is correct and that you have used the full name of the company. For example, if it has a Ltd at the end.

Otherwise, how can someone hire you when you cannot even spell their name correctly?

3. Your Contact Information

Surprisingly, most people get this wrong. If your contact details are not correct it will be very difficult for the hiring manager to get back to you when it comes to inviting you for an interview. This means they will move on to the next person.

You need to ensure that you have used the correct telephone number and email and that you have access to both. Your number needs to be working and your email should not be one you forgot the password to.

4. Dates

You might be wondering how one gets the date wrong but you would be surprised how many people send out applications with the wrong dates. This mostly happens when you have used the same Cover Letter for every job you apply for which is not a good thing.

Something that might seem small like having 3/6/2016 instead of 6/3/2016 can prevent you from getting the job. This shows the recruiter that you are careless and no one wants to hire a careless person.

5. Length

Most organisations have a limit as to how many words your letter can have and as such you should ensure that your Cover Letter is not too long.

You do not want to bore the hiring manager. Ideally, a cover letter is supposed to be short. Try and have only information that is relevant to the job in the cover letter you send.

6. Formatting

If your cover letter is illegible and looks terrible you should be very sure that the hiring manager will throw your application out.

This is because no one wants to struggle reading something that has been poorly formatted. Therefore, it is important that you keep you Cover Letter clean and simple to read.

7. Spelling and Grammar

This is a very important part of checking your Cover Letter. You should never send out an application with poor grammar and spelling mistakes. This will automatically disqualify you for the position.

Having spelling and grammar mistakes will show the hiring manager that you have a poor command of the language and that you are careless because you failed to rectify those mistakes.

Always proofread your Cover Letter before sending or better yet give it to someone else to double check.

Doing this might not guarantee you the position but it will ensure your application is at least considered which is what every job seeker wants. So the next time you send a cover letter to be sure to double check the following.