There are plenty of reasons you may feel the need to apologise in your job application.

Redundancy is a common one at present. Others are that you were actually fired from your previous position, or that you have shuffled rapidly between jobs, or that you lack experience and are seeking your first graduate placement. The list goes on. 

The fact is there is rarely anyone who is perfect for any job. Companies, as a strategic recruitment measure, put out a wish list when they advertise a job. They present conditions that they would like to see in the ideal candidate. Few expect to have all criteria met exactly as they’d envisaged. Certain criterion may be set in stone; many, though, will be flexible according to the number and type of applicants they receive.

What an interviewer will expect to read in your cover letter is why you are right for this job, not why you were wrong for your previous one. It is your job to assure your potential employer that they will be making a wise choice in employing you, not to seek forgiveness from them for your supposed employment failings.

Viewed in this way, there is room in your cover letter to nod to issues such as redundancy, without going overboard on the details. Employers will value a candidate who can candidly appraise any potential holes in their suitability, without letting it consume them or take away from their achievements. Redundancy itself is a fairly straightforward hurdle to jump in a cover letter as more often than not it will have been due to circumstances completely beyond your control – and employers will recognise this.

Trickier subjects to tackle are frequent job changes or in the case of graduate positions, a lack of experience. In each case it may also be suitable to openly address the subject, in order to then counter it with a positive. In the case of job jumping you may be able to say that you have worked for a series of small companies, which you quickly outgrew – and that you have referees who will happily point to this fact. Whatever tact you choose to take, never make the mistake of using words such as “sorry”, “unfortunately”, “lack”, or anything that points to a belief that you may not be quite up to scratch for the current post.