How To Write A Cover Letter

What is a cover letter?

A cover letter is your way of introducing yourself to the hiring manager. This is your first sales pitch and your first impression. Along with your interview, a great cover letter is what will help you secure that interview! So, let’s get started.

Here are the parts of a cover letter:

  • Header / Contact Information 

  • Salutations / Hello

  • Body Paragraphs

    • The first paragraph serves as an attention grabber

    • What you have to offer the employer.

    • Your knowledge of the company.

  • Closing

  • Signature


The header includes both you and your future employer’s contact information. The information you want to include here are:

  • First and Last Name

  • Street Address

  • City, State Zip

  • Phone

  • Email

As far as your contact information, some things to remember:

  • Always use your government name.

  • Use the address on your ID or License. This is more than likely where your mail is sent. You’ll want to use this in case letters are sent through the mail.

  • It shouldn’t have to be said, but use a professional email. Not your current office email, but a personal email. This also should not be an email that you use to sign up for an email list for discounts otherwise any correspondence may be lost in a sea of Forever 21 promo codes.

Some things to remember for your employer’s contact: 

  • If you do not have a direct name, then write out the full company name.

  • If the company you are applying for has multiple offices, then use the address of the specific office you would like to work in.

  • If you don’t have a specific contact, I suggest leaving out the phone number and email portions 

I also include a date above my employer’s contact information. This is a great way for both you and your future employer to track how long it has been since the initial contact. 

Next is the Salutations. Believe it or not, the way in which you say hello says a lot about the effort you have put into applying for this job. If you have a contact at the company, then you will simply address the letter “Dear (insert name here)”. If you do not have a contact at the company, then the simplest thing is to address it to the hiring manager as so, “Dear Hiring Manager”. BUT WAIT! Remember what I said about effort? There is one other way to address the hiring manager by name. How do you do this if you don’t know them, you put the effort into finding out who they are. A great way of doing this is by going to the company website and looking through their employees until you find them. Another great way is to go on LinkedIn and searching through the company’s employees until you find someone with the title of “Hiring Manager”. With your salutations done, it is time to get into the weed of things.

The first paragraph serves as an attention grabber. In this paragraph, you’ll first explain where you heard about the position. After that, you want to state which job you are applying for and mention the skills and experiences that prove you are suitable for the job.

The second paragraph explains what you have to offer your future employer. To do this, you’ll need to show examples of your work and the results achieved. This is where you humblebrag. You should also highlight skills from your resume. 

In the third paragraph, you want to show that you put in the work by showing that you did your research on the company you are hoping to work at and how you hope to fit within their vision.

The last paragraph is your call to action. Here, you reiterate what you are bringing to the table and create a call to action by asking for a meeting, call, or interview.

With the hardest parts done, we then move into the closing. You should always end a professional letter with “Best”, “Sincerely”, or “Yours truly”. Yep, it’s that simple. 

As far as your signature, I have a few ways I like to do this depending on whether the letter is being sent digitally or physically. For physical letters, you’ll want to type your name below your closing leaving enough space for you to go back and sign the letter. For letters being sent digitally, you’ll want to type your name with your contact information below or in my case, I have a digital signature that I like to place within the letter. 

And that's it! That is how you write a cover letter! If you want to see examples of what this looks like wrapped up in a nice bow, I will link below to some well-written letters. If you have any questions, feel free to hit me up

https://www.thebalancecareers.com/cover-letter-sample-for-a-resume-2060250

Sources:

Briana Fountain