The Art of the Cover Letter
Continuing our tips on job search, we turn to the cover letter.
Some students, like us, find it tedious to write a new cover letter for each job posting. Especially when it's for the same position but different job ID.
So let's dive into some tips!
Time Saving:
There are some tricks to writing generic cover letter specified for each company. We usually recommend to write custom cover letters for jobs you absolutely must have and really feel qualified for. But for the most part, if it's your first internship, you're willing to accept anything. Writing a generic intro and conclusion for Company X and then replacing all Company X names with Company Y can save you a lot of time. Make sure that for each company, you mention their name, industry, products why you want to join them.
For example:
My experience will be a great asset in Company X due my extensive knowledge of aerospace...
I am really passionate about working in consumer technology and I bring the following values to Company Y....
Once you have this locked down, you can apply with one cover letter to all Company X and Company Y jobs.
Structure:
Intro:
We recommend you skip the intro about what you're studying, what year, where you live, your name, how you found the job. This is all stuff they can easily find out from your CV. Additionally you wouldn't be applying for a mechanical engineering job if you never studied mechanical. So there are some implied assumptions there. So finally you get to free up the intro for what you should say.
Things like summarizing your experience, passionate, ambition to succeed in one sentence before you start elaborating further. Mention the position you're applying for if its outside your job portal.
Example: "My ambition to learn and my strong team work skills will be a great asset for your design team. I believe the balance of my academics courses with my extracurricular activities will help me in completing challenges on XYZ project".
Body:
The structure of the body is pretty standard all across the boards. Rather than re-invent the wheel, take a look at the following article for more information:
https://www.thebalance.com/cover-letter-format-2060205
Strong vocabulary and achievement oriented descriptions are ideal for body.
We believe that you can truly grab the readers attention in the intro. The intro and conclusions are where you can be unique
Conclusion:
Conclusions should be kept short and simple. No need to introduce new topics, skills or ideas. Simple summarize what you can bring to the table in one sentence and thank the reader for their time and state you're looking forwarding to discussing your skills further. That's it. No long thank you paragraphs. No unnecessary sucking up. Keep it brief.
Design:
Whats the point of having great content if it's packaged up in something from the 1980s. Ditch the Times New Roman Font. Screw Arial, Cambria. You are not applying to the government or a law firm. Go for something like Avenir, Calibri and etc. Clean thin lines suit the modern day aesthetic. Additionally your cover letter should not be text heavy at all. At max, you should have 4 paragraphs, ideally 3 and these numbers include the intro and conclusion. Make sure to leave lots of white space. You don't want to make it feel like you're reading a Terms & Agreement Contract.
Include the company's name and your name. Put some of your contact info as well if it can fit.
