A cover letter is an important tool you should always use to "dress up" your resume, grab a cruise ship recruiters attention and urge them to contact you for an interview rightaway.
Yet, despite its importance many people seeking jobs on cruise ships still do not bother to include a cover letter or "covering email" of any kind when applying for jobs onboard.
Over the years I’ve personally received thousands of emails with nothing more than a message saying "please see attached".
Did I ever open the attachment? Never!
Not including a cover letter with an application also sends out a negative signal. It shows that an applicant is lazy, unprofessional and probably not all that bothered about getting hired.
You see, most recruiters will firstly read the cover letter to find out who you are and what job you’re applying for and, if they are interested or curious enough, they will read your resume. Remember, a resume sent in without a cover letter is practically useless.
Here’s 3 simplified steps that will help you craft your winning cruise ship cover letter:
1. Tell the prospective cruise line employer exactly why you are writing to him/her (i.e. what job are you applying for?)
2. Prove to him/her using 3-5 of your strongest qualities (taken from your resume) why you would be an ideal candidate for that particular job.
3. Urge him/her to read your resume and then contact you for a job interview.
As you probably know by now, HR staff of most cruise lines are extremely busy, so a winning cruise ship cover letter must be short, attention grabbing and very focused to the specific JOB that you are applying for.
And when I say ‘job’ I mean JOB! To stand the best chance of success, you should only ever apply for ONE specific type of position at a time.
In other words, don’t apply to be a Cook and a Massage Therapist in the same letter!
A winning cruise ship cover letter should be ONE page long, made up of 3 – 4 paragraphs and lots of white space so that it’s pleasing on the eye. This will help the recruiter immediately see the information they need from the letter . Don’t make the mistake of cramming all of your text into one long jumbled paragraph, because it will never get read.
Remember, NOT including a cover letter or email when sending out your resume will dramatically cut your chances of ever getting hired by a cruise line. It’s a highly important element of your application and it’s worth doing properly if you’re serious about securing a jobs on cruise ships that pay you to travel the world.
I think that sending a cover letter with any application should be done, like you said it shows professionalism and that this is a person that wants to be noticed, that is giving their all for this job. It shows the type of person one is.