Answers
1)I am unemployed and need a job, I’ve always wanted to work in

2)MONEY!

3)some good examples please!!

Just done 6 pages of prove yourself against the selection criteria and my brain has gone to mush

6 pages?

Because I didn’t win the lottery last night and I need to pay the bills.

6 pages?

Yes thats what I thought

still what else to do when your not working or going riding

Keep it snappy, try to fit in a few phrases such as:
Career progression, working for a prestige company/organisation, achieve personal & professional goals (give examples), use and develop existing skills (again with examples).
Try to make it not sound too much like a prime slab of HR-speak BS by adding as many personal touches as you can, a light touch of humour may or may not be appropriate and could be the winning move or killer blow.
If you’re feeling brave maybe post a draft up here, better to be shot down here than in the interview room 😉

Surely it’s just “The role you have available fits my experience and skills perfectly” then a few paragraphs of exposition about exactly how that works?

I rarely read them anyway to be honest. Your CV is more important.

Highlighting Your ability to ring fence unicorns will most definitely work

Ring Fence them? have to get them off the flag pole first, got a couple in the ideas goldfish bowl too

Your CV is more important

I disagree – it might get you through an initial sift but if you can’t back it up with the more detailed input they’ve asked for then you’re stuffed.

As hilldodger said make a connection between your professional aspirations (ahem) and the company, and how that benefits both parties. an opportunity to show how much you know about them and how keen you are 😉 Excuse the HR-BS.

you are pitching for the position. Think of it as a pre sales scope document.

Talk about “me”, highlight skills briefly that match the job spec but leave it to the CV for the detail.

Letters are an into only, they rarely back up anything, it’s an intoduction not a CV.

No need for BS, be honest and up front and forthright.

It’s your opportunity to let them know why, for them, you will do the job best out of all the other applicants.

Keep it short and sweet and don’t include anything else.

as the original post says I’ve done a 6 page sale pitch against the job hence coming a bit stuck on the Covering letter

Decide which bits of those 6 pages you think a recruitment agent is going to bother reading before they decide whether or not to look at your CV, then make that the covering letter. I doubt any of them would get to the end.

What thepurist said – make the covering letter the edited highlights of your 6 page pitch. If you think of anything new at this point it probably should have been in the pitch anyway.
The covering letter isn’t going to get you the job, but it could lose it for you, so keep it uncontroversial and concise.

Is it a 6 page form? Or have you typed out 6 pages?

If the latter I’d be cutting it down big time before worried about anything else.

It’s a university job (not as an academic though) was advised that around 5-8 pages addressing key aspects of job with relevant experience is expected. (assuming they can’t read cv’s and gauge from that really)

This is more the Why not the Can part of it all

(No recruitment consultants BTW)

Look at the company/organisation you are applying to work for, look at why that company exists, why they do what they do, why they make what the make, way they sell what they sell, why they communicate what they communicate.

If you don’t understand why they do what they do, why do you want to work for them in the first place?

Then think about why that matters to you so much that you want to work there.

Then explain why you feel that your reasons for wanting to work there match their reasons for why they do what they do, and how they do it.

I disagree – it might get you through an initial sift but if you can’t back it up with the more detailed input they’ve asked for then you’re stuffed.

Well, as I said, I don’t pay them much attention. I’ve been hiring people for a long time but, of course, it’s just my opinion.