Aditya Kothadiya's Blog

Here are 10 essential things you should consider while writing an effective cover letter for your job application:

1. Do your homework:
Just because you come to know about some job opening at some company does not mean that you should use your standard format, change the email address of recipient and send the application.

Do your homework to know the “details” of the company and particularly of that job position. For company wide information, try to know the latest events, business deals, or recent product releases of that company. For that particular job position, try to understand what exactly the requirements are, which product group it is, who will be your hiring manager or concerned HR contact person?

I will cover in next points where you will need your this homework preparation.

2. Get the appropriate subject line:
By appropriate here I mean, it should not be too lengthy or too small, it should not be too cryptic (HR may not aware of all technology jargons) or too descriptive (Hiring manager knows all details) as well. Consider following examples:

1. Aditya Kothadiya’s resume for full time job requisition 03238: ASIC Design Engineer (too long)
2. Aditya’s Resume (too short)
3. Aditya’s Resume for SIII-GX – ASIC DE (too cryptic)
4. Aditya’s Resume for full time position in Transceiver FPGA group as ASIC Design Engineer (too descriptive)

I would write something like this –

1. Aditya Kothadiya’s resume for job requisition 03238

3. Know whom you are sending it:
Remember, there are thousand other applicants who are also applying for the same position in the same manner. To differentiate from the rest, you need to take some extra efforts in every possible step of job application.

When you are addressing this cover letter to someone, try to make it personal. Generally you will not find this information available publicly. So everybody refers “HR representative” or “Hiring manager” or something on similar lines. Take some efforts and try to find the name of concerned person by calling to that company and asking for right contact person’s name, or find some friends or acquaintances in that company and get the appropriate information from them.

Having real name on cover letter gives considerable mileage over other junk applications. It also shows your approach of taking some extra efforts for doing same old job.

4. Introduce yourself and your purpose:
Get your name and short background out in the very first line. You can mention your name, your work area domain and numbers of years of work experience in that first line. If you are an experienced person, then show off that number in very first line. For example:

I am Aditya Kothadiya and have 2 years of ASIC Design Experience with Altera Corporation.

Immediately on the second line, mention where did you learn about the job posting – like corporate website, career fair, internal reference, and so on. And on the third line, mention what is your purpose of email – job application of course. End of First paragraph.

5. Highlight the keywords:
One mistake many people do is they try to replicate almost 50% of their resume on cover letter. Let the Resume do its own job and let the cover letter do its marketing. This is very important point to keep the cover letter short, sweet and still very effective. Just mention few very important and very relevant keywords of technologies or skills you have.

Also do not describe the details of each job profile of your previous work experience. Try to highlight only those roles and responsibilities which are relevant to this job opening. If any significant achievement is there, then do mention it, but in very crisp manner. End of Second paragraph.

6. Presenting demo is winning the half battle:
One of my friends used this technique and I was fascinated with her approach. Candidates boast a lot about their skills and technologies they know to get the interview call. But if you can back up your claims with some proofs, then it’s almost making sure that you are getting that interview call. If you have developed some websites or so, do mention those links, or if you have developed some desktop applications, take the snapshots, put it on some website (preferably your personal domain) and mention that location. If there are immediate references available to recommend your work, then mention 1 or 2 names of these recommenders. Add this into Second Paragraph.

7. Praise them and raise your chances:
There must be some promising reasons because of which you are interested into this company. Convey what you liked about company like their current market capturing strategies, or their product releases or their technology and research leadership in the market. Express your motivation why you want to join this company. This shows that you have done enough homework as explained in Step 1. End of Third paragraph.

8. Make sure they call you back:
Close the conversation with a note saying that you are positively looking forward to hear from them. There are 2 approaches to make sure you hear from them. I recommend applying both.

1. Provide your contact details like cell phone number and best time to call you, alternative contact medium if cell phone is not working.
2. Take the initiative and mention that you will be following up within 1 week or so and make sure you back up your words with your action.

End of Fourth paragraph.

9. Make sure you write the right English:
It’s boring to write the same letter again and again for different companies and it’s even boring to proof read it again and again. But do not loose the battle on that last 0.1 mile. It’s always a good idea to read it just a couple more times to ensure that you do not have any typos, spelling or grammatical errors.

10. Get the feedback from friend or family:
I can bet that you must be exhausted by the end of step 9. It’s very likely that you will not catch if there are still some errors or some more impressive ways to represent particular thing. It’s time to give the letter to a friend or family member for a proof read. Sometimes, a fresh set of eyes can pick up on things that have been missed for ages.

I hope these suggestions will help you to position yourself right in the first shot. Wish you all the best for your job applications.