Writing A Cover Letter 

• When Do I Need To Write A Cover Letter?
• Why Do I Need To Write A Cover Letter?
• Email or Snail Mail?
• The Elements of a Good Cover Letter
• So What Are ‘Unsolicited’ Cover Letters and Why Should I Write Them?
• See a Sample Cover Letter

Cover Letters

Cover letters are a great way of focusing a recruiter’s attention on those elements of your background that are particularly relevant to the company and/or position for which you are applying. Keep in mind that the purpose of a cover letter (and a resume) is to get you in front of a recruiter for an interview—it will not land you a job offer all by itself.

When Do I Need To Write A Cover Letter? (back to top)

You do not need cover letters:

1. when requesting an on-campus interview through TartanTRAK (although you may want to upload a cover letter along with your resume under certain circumstances—more on this later on)

2. when talking to recruiters at job fairs

You would use a cover letter:

1. when responding to a job posting or classified ad

2. when communicating with a company that interests you, but does not have a specific employment opportunity that you are aware of. This type of cover letter is called an ‘unsolicited’ cover letter—we’ll talk more about it later.

Why Do I Need To Write A Cover Letter? (back to top)

Cover letters do the talking for you when you’re not around. If you’re interviewing or attending a job fair, you are there in person to narrate your ‘commercial’, or to give examples of your strengths, or to answer questions. If, however, you’re responding to a job posting through e-mail or snail mail, you’ve lost this advantage. A potential employer has only your resume to use in determining whether or not to contact you for an interview--you can only hope that he or she is able to uncover all of the great things that you could do for their company just by reading the resume.

That’s where cover letters come in very handy. The cover letter acts as a magnifier—zeroing in on different elements of your background, and providing more detail than the resume. It also tells the recruiter why you’re interested in working for their particular company.

E-Mail or Snail Mail? (back to top)

One of the first decisions that you’ll have to make is how to send your cover letter and resume. E-mails have the advantage of being quick and easy, while regular mail is regarded as a bit more formal. Moreover, a mailed resume and cover letter has more of a permanent quality than an e-mail (unless the e-mail is printed out). Recruiters seem to be somewhat divided on this point; generally, however, an e-mailed cover letter is considered an acceptable form of communication. If you use e-mail, you can either forward both your resume and cover letter as attachments, or use the message portion of the e-mail as the cover letter with the resume as an attachment.

The Elements of a Good Cover Letter (back to top)

Send It To A Person, Not A Place.  Normally, you wouldn’t pay much attention to a letter mailed to your address addressed to ‘Occupant’, or to spam e-mail. Sending a cover letter addressed ‘To Whom It May Concern’ will likely receive a similar response.

If the job posting doesn’t list a contact name, try and identify an individual in Human Resources, a College Recruiting Coordinator, or the hiring manager. Sources for this information include company web sites, TartanTRAK, the TOC and BOC web sites, or business cards left by on-campus recruiters.

Occasionally, it is not possible to obtain a contact name (particularly if you’re utilizing an online application process). In such cases, use a generic salutation such as ‘Dear Recruiter.’

Use An Attention-Grabbing Opener. The first paragraph is perhaps the most critical part of a cover letter. Why? Because the opening lines will either draw the reader in, or cause them to lose interest. A ‘generic’ opening paragraph will likely result in the latter.

To create an attention-grabbing first paragraph, begin with why you are writing. Are you:

responding to a job posting (“I am writing in regard to your posting listed on TartanTRAK for the position of Systems Analyst”)

OR

following up from a referral (“Dr. XX of Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science suggested that I contact you”).

OR

following up from meeting the employer at an campus event (“As you may recall, I spoke with you briefly during your company’s Information Session at Carnegie Mellon last week”).

OR

any number of other reasons.

In the first paragraph, you also want to include a summary statement of your selling points as a candidate (“In reviewing the job responsibilities listed in your posting, I feel that my relevant experience and problem-solving skills make me a strong candidate.”), as well as what it is about the company (products/services, reputation, etc.) that interests you.

Highlight Your Skills. The next three or four paragraphs are in-depth descriptions of your selling points (academics, experience, leadership skills, etc.). Each of these ‘Skills paragraphs’ should be constructed as a stand-alone text, that is, able to be placed at different parts of the cover letter without disturbing the flow or the continuity. See the Sample Cover Letter for some examples of these paragraphs. Notice that the second and third paragraphs could be transposed and the letter would still make sense. You construct your Skills paragraphs in this way so that you can ‘recycle’ the paragraphs in other cover letters, and so that you can put the paragraphs in the order that would be of most interest to a particular employer (in a cover letter written to a company that is in the same industry as the company where you worked as a summer intern, you’d want to have your ‘Experience’ paragraph as the second paragraph; a letter to a company with a GPA requirement might have your ‘Academic Achievements’ paragraph in the second slot.). In your Skills paragraphs, highlight the skills that you learned, as well as your accomplishments.

Whenever Possible, Close With A Promise of Action. Remember that your cover letter is designed to get you in the door for an interview. Whenever possible close your letter with an indication that you’ll be contacting the addressee in the near future, either to set up a mutually agreeable time for a meeting or to talk about your qualifications in more detail by phone. Such an ending indicates both confidence and enthusiasm. See the Sample Cover Letter for an example of this type of ending. Of course, this is not always the best way to end your cover letter. You may not want to follow up if the company is on the opposite coast, or if you were unable to obtain a contact name, or if the job posting or classified ad specifically instructed candidates not to call.

If you are looking for a job or internship in a particular city and plan on being in that city in the future, you can indicate that fact in your closing paragraph as a way of increasing the odds for an interview or a meeting. For example, if you were looking for a summer internship in your hometown of Boston, the last paragraph of your cover letter might contain text similar to the following:

‘I would appreciate an opportunity to meet with you and discuss my background and qualifications with you further, and to learn more about internship opportunities at XXX Company. During Carnegie Mellon’s Winter Break, between December ?? and January ??, I will be in the Boston area. I will contact your office upon my arrival to arrange a possible meeting time.’

So What Are ‘Unsolicited’ Cover Letters and Why Should I Write Them? (back to top)

Despite the hundreds of company visits and job postings, the companies who contact Carnegie Mellon in search of Computer Science candidates represent a small fraction of the total number of organizations with job vacancies. It’s in your interest to expand your job search and contact other organizations. So how do you know which companies out there have actual job openings? Most of the time, you don’t. That’s where unsolicited cover letters come in. An unsolicited cover letter is one not written for a specific reason—answering a classified ad or posting, follow-up from a job fair, etc.—you are contacting the company to express your interest in them, and to showcase your skills. It is no different than a regular cover letter except for the first paragraph (why you are writing). The first paragraph of an unsolicited cover letter focuses on what interests you about the company, and what you can offer. When composing unsolicited cover letters, a good source of company information to tap is the organization’s website--most companies like to publicize what they can do and what they’ve achieved on their Home page.