How to write your cover letter

• Personalize your letter: look up the company’s hiring manager or search for the person in charge of the department to which you’re applying.

• Follow-up! Give some precise (date and hour; beware of time difference) time slots when you’re available for a quick telephone/Skype interview.

• Proofread!

• Don’t repeat your resume! Detail your most relevant work experiences.

• Do not only talk about yourself. A cover letter is not about you; it’s about how you can help the company.

• Don’t just write that you’re competent. Prove it with concrete examples.

• Personalize your letter: look up the company’s hiring manager or search for the person in charge of the department to which you’re applying.

• To find those names and emails, you may use the company’s website, LinkedIn, Google or tools as HUNTER and NORBERT.

• Don’t start your letter with "To Whom It May Concern," / “Dear Hiring Manager” or “Dear Recruiter.”

• Remind what position you’re applying for and why you’d like to join this company in particular. Highlight your main skills and accomplishments relevant to the position.

• Don’t start with “My name is…”. The recruiter knows your name already: it’s in your resume, your contact info and the name of the document.

• Don’t beat about the bush: be direct and efficient.

• Find the company's pain point: why do they need that position in particular? What’s the big picture? Once you’ve figured that out, explain how you can help them grow.

• Choose your 3 more relevant, both hard and soft, skills and show with tangible examples and data how you apply them in your professional life.

• What drew you to this job? Why are you excited about the company?

• What are they looking for? What experiences/accomplishments demonstrate that you have those things?

• What approach did you take to tackle one of the responsibilities you mentioned on your resume?

• What details would you include if you were telling someone a (short!) story about how you accomplished a specific action - mentioned in your resume?

• What about your personality, passion, or work ethic makes you especially good at getting the job done?

• If hired, how would you contribute to the company?

• Don’t just repeat your resume! Detail your most relevant work experiences.

• Do not exclusively talk about yourself. A cover letter is not about you; it’s about how you can help the company.

• Don’t just write that you’re competent. Prove it with concrete examples.

• Follow-up! Give some precise (date and hour; beware of time difference) time slots when you’re available for a quick telephone/Skype interview → for instance: “I am available to speak via phone or Skype on Wednesdays and Fridays after 1 p.m. and welcome the opportunity to discuss my application.”

• To proofread your text, you may use a plug-in such as GRAMMARLY,

• Beware of the results you may find on LINGUEE: some come from websites written by non-native English speakers. They can make mistakes too!

• If you have a doubt on a specific expression, try Google: you’ll see how common it is and if people use those words to mean what you want to say.

• You may read similar job offers to aggregate more vocabulary.

• Make sure you always use American English and not British English!

• Make also sure you write dates in the appropriate format: mm/dd/yy.

• If you chose a specific graphic identity for your resume, use the same for your cover letter.

• Save your letter as a PDF format and give it a proper name: YourName-YourLastName-Cover-Letter.

• To find a job, you won’t merely need a resume and a (personalized) cover letter. You’ll need two other documents:

- An email template to introduce yourself and your application

- A follow-up email template to make sure people have read your application and ask again for an interview.

Prepare those emails in advance. That way, you won’t forget them (especially the follow-up email, which is of considerable importance) and you won’t have to write them in a rush.

No more than 1 page,

If you chose a specific graphic identity for your resume, reuse it for your cover letter.

Your full name

Your phone number (with the French area code, +33)

Your email address

Full name of the recruiter/contact

Job title

Company

Mailing Address

Date

Dear <<NAME>>,

Paragraph 1 = opening line

Paragraph 2 = skill 1 + example

Paragraph 3 = skill 2 + example

(Paragraph 4 = skill 3 → facultative)

Paragraphe 5 = closing line  

I will contact you to confirm that you received my application and to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you, in advance, for your consideration.

• Best regards,

• Best wishes,

• Best,

• My best,

• Regards,

• Respectfully,

• Respectfully yours,

• Sincerely,

• Sincerely yours,

Signature