The cover letter is the mechanism you use to dress up your resume, prove your worth to the company, and urge a prospective cruise line employer to contact you for an interview.

Yet despite its importance, a surprising number of people seeking employment on cruise ships still don't bother to enclose a cover letter when sending out their resume.

To many readers, it may seem as though I'm stating the obvious!

But I have lost count of the number of resumes that have been emailed to me with nothing more than a "please see attached" message in the body of the email.

Did I ever open the attachment? No!

What's more, not including a cover letter sends out the message that an applicant is lazy, unprofessional and probably not that interested in the job.

These are not good qualities for those looking for employment onboard a cruise ship! Most hiring managers will firstly read the cover letter and then, if they are impressed or intrigued enough, will continue on with the resume. So whether it's mailed through the post or e-mailed, you should NEVER send your resume without enclosing a cover letter.

Here's a simplified structure you should follow in order to craft a winning cruise ship cover letter or cover e-mail:

1. First you tell the prospective cruise line employer exactly why you are writing to her.

2. You prove to her using 3-5 of the strongest benefits (taken from your resume) why you would be an ideal candidate for the position.

3. You move her to take a specific action i.e. read the enclosed resume and offer you a job interview.

Cruise line employers are notoriously busy so the winning cruise ship cover letter does not 'waffle' on. It is extremely focused around the job that you want to do onboard and gets to the point right away.

Notice I said 'job' and not 'jobS'?

You should only ever apply for ONE specific type of cruise job at a time!

A winning cruise line cover letter should be ONE page long, nicely presented and pleasing to the eye. You achieve this by using short, focused phrases, bullet points and lots of white space to cut through the clutter and help the employer glean important information from the letter immediately.

It should be about three to four paragraphs in length. Don't make the mistake of cramming all of your text into one long jumbled paragraph. Each paragraph should be about three to four lines long.

Remember, NOT including a cover letter or email when sending out your resume will KILL your chances of ever getting hired by a cruise line almost immediately. It is a highly important element in the application process and it must be done properly.

You can download our step-by-step guidebook to crafting a winning cover letter specifically targeted to the cruise line industry, with a real-life example that you can copy and use, by visiting:

http://www.workoncruiseships.com/public/368.cfm