Cover Letter Template: Fill & Download for Free

Put yourself in the position of the hiring manager.Assume you have a stack of 50 applications to go through and 30 mins to do it - that's 36 seconds per application.Think about what would grab your attention within the first five seconds of reading the cover letter, enough to make you want to go over your 36-seconds-per-application allocation for this particular application and read the full resume.The thing to remember is this - a hiring manager is not, even with the best will in the world, going to want to (or have the time to) read through a couple of paragraphs of text on a cover letter to work out whether it's worth reading the actual resume it accompanies. It's the old adage where you have five seconds to make an impression.So the perfect cover letter will enable the hiring manager to decide, within five seconds of scanning it, whether it's worth reading your resume or not.You might start with a brief, introductory paragraph written in friendly but professional language, but the main part of the cover letter will contain, as bullet points, some details of the achievements, results and successes in your career so far that are relevant to the job and/or company you're applying for.These details should be presented as data - real numbers that are relevant and impressive. You will hopefully know your industry, and the job you're applying for, well enough to know what these might be.Don't say, "I am an expert software engineer with a high level of initiative and strong technical knowledge." Of course you are, and so is everyone else applying for this job. I strongly believe that there is no point making generic, unsubstantiated statements about qualities or personality. Ditto for things like "I am delighted to provide my application for this position" or similar throw-away statements - again, of course you are, and so is everyone else applying.Say something like, "I am a software engineer with a GPA of [x.x] from [XYZ University], and X years of experience working on software projects which are relevant to this particular job and company because [reasons, including data]."Obviously tailor this to your particular stage in your career - maybe your GPA isn't relevant any more, but your experience managing multi-million dollar projects and large teams of people is.Remember that best case, when confronted with a long, dense cover letter, the hiring manager might just ditch it and do a five-second scan of the resume instead; more than likely, though, you'll go on the "maybe" pile, in which case you'd need to hope that the hiring manager has the time and inclination to re-visit your details later - assuming they don't find enough good resumes in the remainder of the ones they're reviewing.Or worst case, you'll go straight to the "no" pile, because the hiring manager knows he/she won't have time later. Believe me, I have sat across the desk from countless hiring managers while they've been reviewing resumes, and the first thing that pretty much all of them did was triage the whole pile like this. They do not go through them one-by-one, reading every word in every paragraph from start to finish.I gave a longer list of bullet points (almost step-by-step) in my answer to How do you get your resume and cover letter noticed?

I am a UK migrant. I transferred here with my company and left after a year and struggled to find a job for a while. What I learnt was that it wasn’t “Canadian Experience” holding me back even though I had been applying for other jobs for about 6 months before I quit my job. It was the cultural differences between UK and Canada that I had failed to recognise.I’ve since been working at a company for over a year and am responsible for the recruitment of staff. Each position gets an overwhelming amount of applicants so if you submit an application with any of these traits, it’s an easy way for a recruiter to condense their applicant pool to be more manageable. Here is what I have learnt about how to get a job in Canada.1-ALWAYS write a cover letterThe second I started adding a well thought out and personable cover letter to my application, my phone was ringing off the hook!Being in charge of recruitment, I might get 20–30 applications a day. I have other responsibilities in my job so if someone makes the effort to write a cover letter, I will make the effort to read it. If no cover letter, well that’s one way for me to narrow down the pool.2-Tailor your CVSo you’ve written a cover letter but then you attach a CV that’s 4 pages long, talks about your experience as a chef and you’re applying to be an admin assistant, it’s riddled with mistakes and you’re telling me that yes, you are detail oriented as per the advert.This issue has nothing to do with jobs in Canada really. If a CV is your brand. Your advert about you at your best and it’s scruffy, no headings, spelling mistakes or starts with one of those bloody “Objective” headings, then it says more about you than you realise.Go to Google documents, use one of the CV templates, keep it clear, short, bullet point your transferable skills.3-Perfect your EnglishIgnorance is bliss. You may not realise that your English is not up to scratch but the recruiter does. Any kind of job that involves customer service, emails, phones generally requires a strong grasp of English. English is a very nuanced language where one letter can change the meaning completely. Managers don’t want to double check your work for misconstrued meanings, clarity and grammar checks, missed conjugations. Remember they have A LOT of applicants for this job. If your English isn’t as good as other applicants, you are at risk of being put on the No pile.Of course, there are jobs where perfect English is not necessary but don’t underestimate that this can make you stand out for the wrong reason in certain jobs.4-Canadian ExperienceI was told by a recruiter that employers are sceptical of newcomers because they don’t want to invest time in them and then they move home or move to a different part of Canada. Everyone takes a while to adjust and settle and find the place where they are happy and for me, this was strongly linked to finding the right job which is the irony.Canadians largely struggle with being direct. I don’t know if this is a west coast but I find many don’t say what they mean, instead they opt for something softer that won’t offend. So when you don’t interview well, don’t speak English well, aren’t the right cultural fit for the business, they’ll say you don’t have Canadian experience because it’s easy. They let Canadians down too. They won’t say it’s for any of the above reasons; it will normally be because they’ve found a more suitable candidate. They will pretty much never give direct feedback even though it would actually be really helpful to find out why you’re getting turned down.Remember, they’ve read your CV and invited you to interview so if you’re being told you lack Canadian experience, it’s generally not true. So don’t get hung up on that and look at how else you are presenting yourself in interview.

A little philosophy: Your cover letter is like the first stage of a rocket ship. It’s not for the hiring manager. He reads the resume because it contains details he needs to make his decision. The cover letter propels you past HR and into the hiring manager’s resume pile.Here’s a sure fire cover letter template.Most job ads are a list of requirements and nice-to-haves. These may be in technical language that is hard for the non-technical folks in HR to understand, so you will tell them how you meet or exceed all the requirements listed in the ad. The main body of the letter is just a bullet list that says, “You asked for X. I have X+1 (or X times 100). Here’s the form.Re: Employment at FooCorp as a Software EngineerI saw your employment ad on craigslist/on your web site/in the Daily News. I believe I have all the qualifications you have set out, as detailed belowYou asked for a BS in Computer Science. I have a BS in Computer Engineering from the University of Oshkosh.You asked for 10+ years of experience. I have 12.You asked for 5+ years of C++. I have been working with C++ for 7 years.While your ad didn’t mention it, I have 5 years of experience in video CODECs which is probably relevant to this position.…If you have any questions about how my qualifications match your needs, or to schedule an interview, you can contact me at (234) 555–1212.Thanksyour name.Now, if there is a requirement you don’t possess, you just don’t write it down. It’s up to them to realize you left something out. When you get to the interview, if it’s actually important that you have this skill, you just say, “I’m sorry. Most employers can be flexible on this skill, but I can see I wouldn’t be a good hire at your firm.” You lose out on this interview, but you have two more scheduled for next week, so it’s OK. And you look like a class act.Be sure to list all the nice-to-haves too.Did you notice that I added a skill I had that they didn’t ask for? This makes it appear that you exceed their requirements.Don’t cut-and-paste into a single form letter. To keep your letter looking fresh, type it over from scratch each time.When I started using this format, I began to get a lot more screening calls. Clearly I was making it past the gatekeepers and getting to the decision makers.