How to Format Your Cover Letter

By Monster Contributor

By the Monster Career Coach

So much focus is given to Resumes when applying for a job. But the other part of an application that should be included when submitting your response to a posted job is a Cover Letter.

Given the mixture of electronic and standard ways to apply for a job these days, it is important to know how to format your cover letter depending on the way you’ll be submitting it to an employer.

Possible Formats of Cover Letters

There are two main ways to submit a cover letter.

  • As a saved Monster.ca cover letter, if this option is presented to you by the employer
  • As a reply to employer’s e-mail address, if this is the only option presented by an employer

Applying To A Monster Job Via A Saved Monster.ca Cover Letter

The majority of jobs posted on Monster.ca give you the option of applying by way of a resume that you have already stored in the “Manage My Resumes” area of our site. This requires you to register for free on our site and upload (or create) at least one of your resumes and cover letters on Monster.ca.

The key benefit of uploading your cover letter – in addition to at least one of your resumes – is that you do not have to recreate from scratch your cover letter each time you apply for a job. We do recommend, however, that you do your best to customize your cover letter for each job that you apply to, when possible.

Applying To A Monster Job By Way of E-mail Address Supplied By Employer

There may be times when an employer only gives you an e-mail address to reply to in their job posting on Monster.ca. This is becoming less popular given Monster’s automatic resume and cover letter submission option.

However if the employer requires you to apply manually via their e-mail address, you are advised to respond by including two distinct versions of your appropriate cover letter for each of these particular instances:

Include Your Cover Letter In The Body Of Your E-mail:

Copying and pasting your customized cover letter at the beginning of your e-mail to the specific employer allows them to see what you have written right from the outset. This saves the employer from having to open a separate file containing your cover letter. It also frees them to include the text of your cover letter in any keyword searches they may choose to conduct if they are using an electronic Applicant Tracking System.

Include Your Cover Letter As A Fully Formatted Attachment To The Body Of Your E-mail:

You may also want to copy and paste your customized, fully formatted, .doc compatible version of your cover letter to this same e-mail. It will retain the special formatting of the cover letter that you’ve created, so if an employer wants to print this out it’ll still look great.

Give Employers What They Need and Improve Your Odds Of Getting Hired

Job hunting necessitates that you do what employers want when you apply to their posted jobs. Cover letters, as part of the application process, can help you to stand out in your application. So make sure you make it easier for an employer to review your entire submission (resume and cover letter) in the format, or formats, that they’ve specified.

Doing so shows that you are sensitive to their needs. It’s a good way of displaying your willingness to be flexible, and accommodating, as a potential employee.