Dear Sir...

I am experiencing a dilemma in my job hunting. The covering letter - what should this contain? There are a variety of schools of thought on this matter. My dad, well he thinks this needs to be extensive and specific to the job you are applying for, highlighting the most relevant parts of your CV. So, for example, if one were applying to work as a clown it would go something like:

"Dear Sir, please find attached my CV in application for said position. I have excellent juggling skills and am mad for pulling scarves out my sleeves."

After doing some reading, another school suggests that a covering letter is simply an introduction and your CV should do all the talking. That one might go a bit like:

"Dear Sir, I write in application for said position. Please find attached a copy of my CV and I look forward to hearing from you."

At the moment, I am floundering somewhere in the middle. I have just typed a covering letter that essentially says:

 "Please please please give me a job, I promise I am not an idiot."

I know that this is not exactly appropriate when applying for any job, nevermind one as a lawyer but it does somewhat show up my problem. How can I write a covering letter without sounding desperate and entirely full of my own self importance. Being Scottish, I struggle rather a lot of all this writing about how excellent I am. In any event, are covering letters that important. Do employers actually care that "your colleagues consider you be trust worthy and efficient"  or whether you "have a keen understanding of the workings of the Scottish legal system" or, as I am currently starting to suspect, do they really not care.

Unless I am persuaded otherwise, "please please please give me a job, I promise I am not an idiot" seems pretty good for now!