Cover letters are, according to a recent survey, seen by almost 50% of recruiters as being equally as important as the CV itself – although most people spend the least amount of time on them.

When someone has hundreds of CVs to plough through, the cover letter sets the tone of the application, and should inspire the reader to turn over enthusiastically and read the accompanying CV.

It’s the ideal opportunity for you to succinctly summarise and re-emphasise the skills and experiences you have highlighted in your CV, whilst also giving you greater latitude to express your personality.

It can help to focus attention on your strengths and distract attention away from any weaker points.

It’s clearly worth taking your time to get it right!

My top tip here would be to try to remember that the personal statement – which is undoubtedly the most important part of an application form – and the only part that is likely to cause you any real difficulty – is not your enemy; it is your big opportunity to sell yourself and really make an impact.

Use positive, engaging language and try to inject some life into what can otherwise be a rather dry block of prose.

Approach your application form in an enthusiastic frame of mind and it is sure to reflect in your style of writing.

A large percentage of people seem to think it’s permissible to tell a few small porkies when writing their CV.  Many think it’s acceptable because “everyone else does it”.  But I would always strongly caution anyone against telling anything but the truth on their CV.  Any inaccuracies on a CV can give an employer grounds to dismiss an employee immediately for ‘gross misconduct’ – and employers do have ways of checking up on you.

Whether or not you tell the ‘whole’ truth, though, is another matter entirely.  You are under no obligation to include every detail of your life history within your CV and any information which could be perceived negatively should, generally, be omitted or excluded.  Examples include being fired from a previous job.  Clearly you should always put as positive a spin as possible on the contents of your CV but it’s a fine line – and only you can really be the judge of what is and is not acceptable.

To take an example, if you achieved a poor degree classification then leaving this classification out and focussing within the CV on the content of your degree course can draw the employer’s attention onto more positive material.