cover letter help

This seemed the most appropriate place to ask this. I am currently applying for a job and my application will be sent via email with an attached cv. Now my question is, what do i do as far as a cover letter goes when applying like this? Do i just say something like "please find attached my CV for the position as web developer as advertised on the website involved"? or do i need to have a full blown cover letter?

Thanks

Hi, im no writing expert or anything so i'll just give my opinion.

You should have a full blown cover letter, describing why your suited to the specific job your applying for. Employers will appreciate the time you took to write about thier specific vacancy. A CV is generic, for all to see, a cover letter should be written specifically for each job application.

Make it direct and to the point, dont waffle on a lot of crap about what kind of socks you wear, specify why you'd be suited for the job, what qualitys and skills your bringing with you that will be relevent to the job and what you hope to achieve when employed with the company if you get the job.

I'd say half a page to a whole page should be about right for length, depending on what you have to say.

Good luck!
Dread
www.dreadlabs.com

Employers find it annoying if you have both content in the email and a cover letter with your resume. So if you are applying directly through an email address, don't include the cover letter with your attachment.

You should generally include a cover letter because HR people trash 99% of resumes. That means you need to customize both the letter and resume to that job. Usually you'll end up with a few generic versions that you can customize for a particular company (so you really aren't starting from scratch each time).

One thing I hate is that almost every resume I've seen is god awful ugly. So spend some time to make it look attractive, because half the sale is getting HR to actually read your application. I once had a company call me over 3 months after I had applied, simply because the HR woman thought my resume was so beautiful that she had kept it in case a position opened up.

P.S. A web development job wouldn't require a CV, unless you have over a dozen years of experience. A CV is a different format than a resume, as its used by doctorate holders who need to show their research, projects, and publications.

In America and resume and CV may be different, but over here in the UK its the same and we call it a CV, a resume is an american thing, just like "fries", "elevators", "highways", they all dont exist in the UK, as they're called something else.