How to Write a Winning Cover Letter

You just graduated with a technology degree and you’re ready to start sending out resumes. Your resume is looking good—lots of summer tech jobs, solid GPA, and interesting projects you worked on that relate to the jobs you’re most interested in.

Trouble is, you’re not a very good wordsmith, so you worry about the all-important cover letter. You’ve heard from career counselors and campus recruiters that a good cover letter can put you on the short list of candidates. "The cover letter is the only thing you have that separates the person from being a candidate and being a human being," says Don Charlton, founder and CEO of The Resumator, an online hiring software firm. "Resumes are about skills, cover letters are an opportunity for a person to indicate their desire to work for a company. A good cover letter followed by a good resume, that's like brains and beauty.”

Where to start? A good place would be to be aware of the three cover letter types: the application letter, the letter of inquiry, and the networking letter. While they all share roughly the same format, each serves a specific purpose. Here’s how they break out:

Application Letter

The goal of this letter is to get your résumé or CV reviewed and to lock in an interview. If you’re responding directly to a specific job posting in a newspaper, online, or through a personal contact, you would highlight your qualifications and show how your skills dovetail with the advertised position.

Letter of Inquiry

In this letter, you’re searching for possible openings at a particular company and not responding to an ad. You're shooting blind here, since you don’t have a job posting to work with. All the more reason to do some real digging on the company, its products, departments and people. The goal is to match your skills to what you anticipate they might need.

Networking Letter

Here, youre goal is to simply get an informational interview instead of a job. Use this letter to connect with a particular employee—a referral by someone you know, like a professor or engineer you met at a job fair. Informational interviews are ideal for getting the inside scoop on a particular company and industry. What you learn can help you focus on a specific career direction, and to get a "heads up" on possible future job openings. This is the one letter that can be sent without your resume attached.

As to the content of your cover letter, you can find endless examples of well-written cover letters online. MIT has cover letter guidelines that you’ll find useful. The important thing to remember is to do your research and to match your letter and qualifications to the job you’re seeking or the post that’s advertised.

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