Cover Letter Sample 1: 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.

There are 4 critical steps in the process. We’ll go over each and if you follow my lead, you’ll land your first contract already next week.Understand that freelancing may easily convert into a serious international endeavor. You only need to further adjust your actions and responses to stop thinking job and start thinking business.STEP 1 - BRANDING processAs a freelance web developer, you’re entering one of the most competitive niches today. Don’t get intimidated because most of the freelancers don’t really want to invest their time in learning how it’s done. That’s your edge if you’re serious about it.The first thing you wanna do is to appear professional!To do that, you’ll buy a cheap hosting to cut on your expenses and BUILD A BRAND’s WEBSITE. That website will become your central marketing hub so take your time and build it to represent your brand.You’re a developer/designer which means that you provide with both backend and frontend — a complete — solution. The website must clearly demonstrate those services, so don’t rush with it; otherwise, you are risking a negative first impression.Central design (homepage, about, services and every other hub) must be designed for branding purposes (pick your colors, logo, and fonts and use it/stick with it).One of the hubs will be a link to your portfolio. It’s here where you’ll upload and explain (link) the creme of the crops or the projects you’ve done in the past that attract immediate attention. It would be great if those links would lead to websites with traffic!!However, if you don’t have some, build some NOW! Fail to do that and nobody will take you seriously.Don’t be afraid to run a blog or to build a simple downloadable magazine-like portfolio showcase easily available (one-click download without email hook) for your clients!!!STEP 2 - Creating a freelancer’s profileThis is not something that you should be doing pro forma. From the profile photo, elevator pitch, long description of the services and portfolio samples - every detail must sell!What you’ll do when you sign up on Upwork, for example, is to go over the profiles of at least 10 top competitors and see how they did it. Profile them. Study them. There has to be something in there they did right; otherwise, no one would choose their services, if you know what I mean.Be careful about your profile photo. Consult with people BEFORE you upload it because, as the rule of thumb, first impressions really do depend on a visual representation! It’s not rare that a client picks the provider based on a profile photo, remember that. Every little count!Be short, be concise and to-the-point, meaning that you won’t write essays in your short desc (elevator pitch). Instead, you’ll use as fewer words as possible to explain what you offer to the market.And that starts with the tagline that appears next to your name.You’re advised to use maximum 3–5 words (the principal marketing rule). For example: “Backend and Frontend Web Solutions,” or “Complete Web Solutions.” Take your time and play with it until YOU WANT TO HIRE YOU!!! Imagine yourself in your prospect’s shoes!The point of the tagline is to give a clear clue about what you are offering to the prospects in 3 words.In a long description, list your services. Use bullet points if there’s a lot of it, to make it easier for the clients.If your English sucks - get someone to proofread and edit it. Awkward sentences and grammar errors will act as a deflector. Again, take your time and write a compelling pitch. This is one of your assets in this business so you’re advised to take it seriously.While we are on the subject, it’s important that you comprehend the following:Freelancing is not yet another “job.” It’s full-scale entrepreneurship where you’re competing on the global market. Fail to recognize it as such and you’ll be making far less than expected!Learn the industry inside-out, learn strategies and tactics, and see how the entire process looks through the eyes of your potential clients!Populate the portfolio section of your profile with 4–5 best examples of your work. Use short descriptions of the process/work and link each with your web where details are provided.PAYMENTS!This can give you headaches if you’re not a US resident since the most work is done for US-based clients. You want a safe, fast and cost-effective payment process that looks professional in the same time, because there will be times when you’ll deal with the clients directly, bypassing the freelancing platform’s fees and saving money.The best option for the non-US freelancers is provided by one of the largest banks in the world, The Bank of America. They have developed a neat way to handle payments for freelancers and other online entrepreneurs called Payoneer.You can use ACH transfers for payments in USD made by US companies. SEPA transfers in EUR made by EU companies and even payments made by UK companies in GBP. This system allows low- to no-fee transactions and it takes 3 days for the money to show on your account.Another benefit of having the US bank account — and that’s what you’ll get with Payoneer solution — is a simple way to link it to your profile on Upwork, Freelancer, goLance and every other freelancing platform since they are partners with Payoneer.The reason why I’m going wide with this is the fact that many non-US freelancers are struggling to get their money through usual wiring processes. It takes time for the transfer to complete and there are usually high fees connected with the process. Having ACH will save you hundreds of dollars in fees alone.STEP 3 - OPTIMAL PORTFOLIO sampleWhy OPTIMAL?If I’m a client and I want SaaS, you don’t showcase an e-commerce solution because it’s irrelevant.For every project you’ll ever bid on, you have to provide the link (in your cover letter that we will go through a bit later) to the portfolio sample that is closely related to the nature of the project you’re bidding on.The success of your cover letter depends on your ability to prove your expertise in that specific case, remember that!That implies the following:Bid ONLY on the projects that you can develop with ease; at least in the beginning.PROFILE both project’s requirements and the client to understand the core problem and see the solution because you’ll have to give a hint of that uniquely effective solution in your cover letter.Pick your most OPTIMAL portfolio sample and get it ready. If you don’t have one that means that you’re not experienced and chances are slim that you’ll land the contract. To tip the scale in your favor, adjust the existing sample or build the bogus one. Just make sure that it corresponds to the project you’re bidding on.STEP 4 - The COVER LETTERAs the rule of thumb, 5% of freelancers are taking 95% of all the money! One of the assets that give them an edge is the cover letter/bid/proposal. They learned the craft of writing an effective “seller,” that’s all.In the same time, around 90% of all cover letters are pure generic, copy/paste crap that no one reads. I know that because I’m hiring freelancers for both mine and clients’ projects.This is your edge. Do it right and you’ll rapidly increase your success rate.There are a few simple rules of writing a compelling cover letter that attracts immediate attention.You see, everything hangs on your ability to effectively sell yourself and you have only 2 assets on your disposal for that:Portfolio sampleCover letterThat’s all that stands between you and a successful professional freelancing career. It’s up to you to decide how efficient you wanna be.Another thing you must accept is the reality of rejection!Each will feel like a slap in your face and you’ll be tempted to “force the sale.” Know this: impatient seller is a dead seller. You simply cannot please everyone. No one can. Rejections are part of the process and there’s nothing you can do about.However, there’s one thing you should do about it…Every failed proposal must be investigated. You do that by comparing you fails with your successes. In addition, every time you get rejected or not picked, take a moment and check the freelancer who got awarded, if in any way possible. Research the profile and portfolio. See where you made a mistake and make sure not to repeat it. Learn from your fails as the only way to upgrade and progress. Because that’s how we do it. Through the process of trials and errors. We learn to walk after learning that grabbing the leaf of the plant mother placed in the living room can’t keep us on our feet. Do the same and you’ll be fine.Hope my answer provided you with some guidance. Be persistent and invest some of your time in personal development. Above all, invest time in learning the industry.All the best to you and good luck!

We have a Cover Letter Center that should be able to address most of your questions. In terms of how to write a good cover letter, I refer you to this series:Part 1: Grab ‘em from the Start: Killer Starts to a Cover LetterPart 2: Work that Body (of the Cover Letter, that is!)Part 3: Close with Flair – End Your Cover Letter Leaving Them Wanting MoreHere are some cover letter samples, if you want to look at something more concrete.