A cover letter is a formal business letter where a candidate expresses their interest in a position and expands on their qualifications. A cover letter lets a candidate tell a story about themself. While a key part of the application process, we have found in our own survey that over 73.2% of respondents claim a “level of proficiency with writing a cover letter” at average to difficult.
It is important to put effort into your cover letter so you do not get filtered out before even getting the chance to interview. According to a study by the Society for Human Resources Management, 76% of employers may eliminate a candidate based solely on the quality of their cover letter. The cover letter is the first impression an employer receives, so it is important for applicants to make it a strong one.
Cover letter format 🗒️
In our survey we found that 25/41 (61%) of students would be “very” to “100” likely to use a website resource to format their cover letters. In the slide deck below, you will find a step by step walkthrough of the components of a cover letter. Included are helpful dos and don’ts. All these tips are from a combination of Lubomir and Beatty.
A cover letter is a great opportunity to stand out as a candidate. It is a way to show off one’s personality, creativity, and writing skills. A study by Alyson Eggleston and Robert Rabb found that there is a positive trend between employer selection and candidates with strong communication skills. Our goal is to provide resources so that students can create a well-structured and written cover letter to help their application stand out.
Components of a Cover Letter
Example Cover Letter
We provide an example cover letter here.
We provide an annotated example of the cover letter above to showcase the function of each part of the letter:
How to Tailor a Cover Letter for a Specific Job
From our survey, we found that 75.6% of the students prepare cover letters when they apply to jobs. One challenging aspect about cover letters is that students need to create a unique cover letter for every job they apply to. Here is an example of how to go about customizing your cover letter for a specific job.