Sample Cover Letter: Fill & Download for Free

Big disclaimer: I am just one lowly recruiter. There are a lot of other people in my profession and I don't speak for us all. But what I'm about to say is what I feel is an accurate sample size of what most of my peers in my field can all agree on.Hard truth on this one: absolutely not. Not only do we not usually read them, most of the time we don't even open that attachment or give cover letters a cursory glance. It's such a waste of time. Many companies have even stopped asking for them altogether.But I'll tell you who DOES read cover letters: hiring managers. Not all. In fact, a lot don't, but in the entire hiring equation, were I to assign likelihood, a hiring manager is more prone to read the cover letter than anyone else involved. And even then, I'd add another factor that narrows the field - hiring managers at small companies with lower hiring volume (like a small non-profit) are more likely to read a cover letter than a hiring manager at companies like Amazon or KPMG.In my opinion, if you want your cover letter to be read, do these things:Don't apply online but email your resume to a recruiter or hiring manager instead.Don't make it an actual "letter." Instead, make it the body of the email with your resume attached. When people attach a letter AND a resume to an email, let me just say only one attachment is getting opened, and it's always the resume. So don't even bother.Keep it short and to the point. Like seriously, five sentences is all that's necessary. If you're in sales or something maybe a few bullet points. But no multiple paragraphs. Long cover letters are simply not going to get read.Tailor it. Get the name of the company right in the cover letter. When I did campus recruiting for new grads at Expedia, 1 out of 2 times, the candidate got this wrong. They were applying to companies at such volume it wasn't uncommon to see "I'm excited about the possibility of an opportunity at Microsoft or Google or some other company that was not the company for which I worked."Inject some personality into it...please. If your cover letter sounds like that of everyone else, you have completely defeated the purpose.Similar to "objectives" on a resume, cover letters are a bit of a throwback to another era in job hunting where we didn't have fancy applicant tracking systems that connected a candidate's application with a tangible job/requisition. But for some reason we want to continue this exercise, so we may as well do it with more flair. I would also say cover letter requirements are industry specific. In tech one of the more evolved industries, I feel like they're totally unnecessary. That may not be the case in finance or management consulting, or any of the "bedrock" industries.

Here is a sample cover letter that I used for my internship cold emails for the summer break after my B.Tech. I did not do any internship that summer finally because it was a one month break only before the MBA started and I wanted to sleep and enjoy, but I used a similar email for the internship emails for my prior efforts also.Dear Professor XX,I am a fourth year undergraduate in the Department of Computer Science at IIT Kanpur, India. I have a strong academic record and my CGPA is 9.3/10. I got a score of 770/800 in GMAT, with a score of 6.0/6.0 in Analytical Writing Assessment and 8/8 in Integrated Reasoning. I want to pursue <<mention area of interest>>, and I am looking for some research exposure in this field.I did a winter project at London Business School, UK in 2014 in <<department>>. The project was based on <<details of the project>>. I have also done a summer internship at EPFL, Switzerland in <<details of the department and project>>I came across your research work and found it very inspiring, especially your paper on <<mention details of any paper you liked>>.I am really interested in doing a one-month research internship in May'15 under your able guidance where I can enhance my knowledge in <<mention related areas>>.If given a chance, I promise to perform to the best of my abilities. I am confident my services will be of great worth to your research area. I have attached my resume for your kind perusal. Thank you so much for your time.Looking forward to hearing from you very soon.Make sure to customize this cover letter based on your past experience, your research interests and the details of the professor who you’re contacting.

Honestly I don't think anyone reads cover letters.I would take the time you were going to spend on that and either:- run a cool analysis based on data in your target company's space.- find a way to build a personal connection with someone on the team you want to join -- either by getting introduced or just emailing them directly to grab coffee/lunch.