A Graduate Cover Letter Example That Will Get You Noticed

Yes, neither [email protected] nor John D…

Both the email address and the display name are simple, short and professional.

If you have a common name and that email address is taken, go with some sort of variation of your first and last name;

• Last name . first name = [email protected]
• First name . last name = [email protected]
• First name – last name = [email protected]
• First initial  last name = [email protected]
• First initial . last name = [email protected]

2. Email subject line

A jam-packed inbox is a given for most recruiters.

The end result?

Most of the emails don’t make the cut and go unnoticed.

But not ours!

Our subject line not only makes it crystal clear what the email is about and hints that we have some relevant prior working experience but also…

… is short enough – less than 50 characters – to not get ‘cut off’ on mobile devices which is of utmost importance since more than 6 out of 10 emails are now opened and read on mobile.

3. Cover letter greeting

For the love of god do NOT go with:

“Dear Sir/Madam”

Under no circumstances…

Nor with the almost equally bad:

“To whom it may concern”

Rather, as we did above, the recruiter/hiring-manager is addressed by their first name* (which attracts the reader’s attention and shows that you made the effort to research the company before you hit apply) in a professional manner.

* You can find the hiring manager by checking the company’s website or LinkedIn page and make an educated guess as to who would be the right person to get in touch with.

4. Cover letter intro

This is hands down the most important part of your cover letter.

Yes, you did read that correctly!

How come?

Because, when done right, not only does it set the tone for the rest of your cover letter/email and prompts busy recruiters not to bin it and read further but also…

… it immediately sets you apart from the majority of other candidates that use boring, generic and uninspiring intros along the lines of: 

“I’m applying for [X position].”

“I am writing to express my interest to the [X position].”

“Kindly accept this application for [X position].”

Which is why our intro starts with a strong punchline and then quickly transitioned into the specific areas we can add value if we were to join their team.

5. Cover letter body

In this section you have to do just 2 things:

1. Illustrate that you’ve done your research and understand what the role entails
2. Tie your previous experience, skills, qualifications and extra-curricular activities with the role’s key requirements (and when possible list concrete examples to show that you’ve ‘been there, done that’)

And hate to toot our own horn, but our template nails every single one of them!

Agree?

Nice…

6. Cover letter giveaway

And here comes the thing that will separate you from 99% of the other candidates.

As the heading suggests that ‘thing’ is a strategic giveaway…

Which is nothing more than something you put together* solely for the purpose of proving you’re worth your salt!

Yes, rather than just talking about how wonderful (!) you are, you’re actually doing something to demonstrate competence and showcase your key skills in practice.

Like what we did in the example above….

So, what are the steps you have to go through to achieve this?

Simples:

Step #1: Find and review 30 or so job descriptions that match your target role

Step #2: Identify one key skill that each one of them requires candidates to have

Step #3: Decide which would be the ideal project to show that you possess that skill

Step #4: Put in the work and make that giveaway a reality

* Just to be clear this giveaway is something you’ll create once and then re-use in every single cover letter you submit, but you’ll have to apply some tiny changes to personalise it each time in order to come across as something you created just for them.

Pretty straightforward?

Good!

Let’s now move on to the last element of our cover letter template…

7. Cover letter closing

And yes my friends, as you know, the last section of any cover letter will always be the infamous closing…

So, what does that entail?

Nothing crazy – you just need to do 3 things:

– Include a link* to your CV. FYI, the reason why I say link and not an attachment is because emails with attachments have a higher chance of getting re-routed to the recipient’s spam folder (b/c they often trigger the email provider’s spam filters).

* Logistically speaking to do that you just need to upload your CV to a file storage service like Google Drive or Dropbox and then simply create a shareable link.

– Sum up in 1 line what you bring to the table

– Thank them and tactfully ask for an interview

Which is pretty much what we did in the example above.

And that my friends is how you create a cover letter that lands you a job interview in style!