Winning Cover Letter for Technical Career
Why winning cover letter is so important?
After you submit applications to companies, your application (cover letter and resume) will be handed over
recruiters. Recruiters review applications and give selected resume to hiring managers. Because recruiters
get tons of applications everyday, they don't spend much time to review each application. So, it is extremely
important to write impressive cover letter to catch recruiter's attention.
Key Things you have to keep in mind
 | | Address name specifically. Instead of Sir/Madam, address a specific contact name if possible
|
 | | Make it concise. The ideal cover letter can be composed of around half page (3~4 paragraphs). A |
| | concise letter can show your strong communication skills.
|
 | | Customize cover letter according to positions. You have to read job description carefully and |
| | customize it accordingly.
|
 | | Address your qualification. Address why you are the right candidate for the specific position you are |
| | applying to
|
 | | Bridge the gap. In case you think your background or previous experience is not good match with |
| | position, the cover letter need to explain how you can bring benefits to the company, and why you are qualified for the position.
|
 | | Keep the content professional.
|
 | | Refer to sample cover letter. You can find sample cover letters on the Web. Read sample cover |
| | letters, and find out what other people do.
|
 | | Proofread, proofread, and proofread. Your cover letter should be free of any typo or grammar |
| | mistakes. Ask proofread to your friends or someone who is good at writing.
|
Sample template for cover letter
Take a look at sample cover letter. You can find sample job cover letter from the Web. You can even find
sample cover letter for programming positions. Read them and see what others are doing.
Dear Sir or Madam, => if you know the name of the person, specifically address their name
I am writing to apply for Data Mining developer position, as advertised in ABC website. I am a Ph.D. candidate of
Computer Science at University of XXX, working on a dissertation entitled ABC under the direction of Professor
XXX. I passed my oral defense on last April, and I expect to complete all work for the Ph.D. by this August.
During my Ph.D. study, I worked on the field of ABC. => Describe 2~3 sentence summary of your key experience
here. I believe that all these research experiences make me a strong candidate for this position.
I have attached my resume for your review. Please let me know if I can provide you with any additional
information to support my application. You can reach me by email at XXX or phone at XXX. Thank you so much
for your time and attention. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Sincerely,
Your name
Your affiliation:
Contact information such as email, phone number, homepage