Many companies ask for you to submit a cover letter when you apply to their job. Why? They use it as another tool to filter candidates to: • Get an understanding of your story and interest in them beyond your resume • Assess your writing skills • See if you are willing to put in the extra time to write a cover letter, which shows how interested you are in their position There are three questions on their mind that you should answer in a cover letter: • Why are you interested in the role and industry? • Why are you interested in the organization or company? • Can you do the job?

Get started with the Eastside template.(javascript:void(0)) Although there are slight variations for formatting or templates out there, the content should all be similar. ​ Formatting Tips • Margins: between .5 and 1 inch. • Font: 11 or 12pt and a professional font, such as Times New Roman, Arial, Cambria, or Calibri. In this template, we use a formal business letter structure with your contact information, the date and their contact information at the top. It looks like this: Your First and Last Name Your Street Address Your City, State, Zip Your Phone Number Your Email Address Today’s Date Their Name (if you have it) Their Role (if you have it) Company Name Company Street Address of P.O. Box Company City, State, Zip Dear Ms. or Mr. Their Last name (if you have it) or Dear Hiring Manager (if you do not): Note: You can either stack your address or if you want to save space you can write your address in one line across the top like this: Jane Villanueva 580 Doral St. Miami, FL 33130 (555) 555-3303 ♦ JaneV@myschool.edu Tips • Your email address: Include the email address that you check most regularly to ensure you don’t miss an email that they send to you. • Name of company contact: Read the job description and job posting to find a name of the contact at the organization. Can’t find a contact name? • If it says in the job description that the role would report to a certain title and you can find the name of that person on the company website, address your cover letter to that person • If you cannot find an actual person’s name at the organization, you can address your letter to, “Dear Hiring Manager,” • Company address: Research to find the organization’s headquarters’ mailing address.

State what position you are applying for and how you heard about it. • Use the exact name of the role as it’s written in the job description • If it is a large organization, include the Requisition number Example: “I am very interested in applying to the Undergraduate Field Sales Operations Intern position (#9187394).” Bonus Points:if you are a strong writer you can be creative and hook them into reading your letter. My passion for rescuing animals began at age seven when I rescued an abandoned kitten and cared for it all by myself. That passion grew into a career interest as I volunteered in a local animal shelter. That’s why I’m thrilled to apply to the summer internship position at the SPCA. Additional Tip: Do NOT include the wrong company name or wrong job title. This easily can happen if you cut and paste from other cover letters.

Why the Role The role or function is what you will be doing on a day to day basis, including the tasks and projects that you will perform. To develop your sentences on why you are interested in the role: 1. Read the job description. 2. Reflect on what sounds interesting and exciting about the role to you. • Which tasks or skills in the job description do you like to use? • Have you done any of the tasks in past experiences? • Did you ever talk to someone that you led you to be interested in this type of role? 3. Write 1-3 sentences giving specific reasons why you are interested in the role. Why the Organization To develop the sentences describing why you are interested in their organization: 1. Research the organization. 2. Reflect on what is unique about the organization and exciting and interesting to you about the organization. • What is unique about their organization: their mission, products/services, culture? • What do you like about the impact they make? • Do you connect with their target audience? • Have you ever used their product or services? • Do you know anyone who works there who speaks highly about them? 3. Write 1-3 reasons on why the organization.

In the second paragraph, you are going to summarize why you have the skills they are looking for in the open role. To develop these sentences: 1. Look at the job description to see what the skills and experiences they are looking for are 2. Choose 3-4 skills and/or experiences from the list that you definitely have. You should not list off 8 skills that you have that they are looking for. 3. Put those skills into 3-4 bullets or a paragraph and give a summary statement demonstrating why you have that skill. Bullet points: • Makes it easy to read • Allows you to cut and paste for multiple job postings However, you can also write it in a paragraph.(https://docs.google.com/document/d/14G8Tnlgx2UDIxWQJixMl-9rnLPjub7SJZOVBTfsBeow/edit?usp=sharing) Example: I bring a unique set of skills developed through my summer internships, coursework and personal experiences. • Communication Skills: As an Admissions Intern at Year Up last summer my comfort with communicating with others grew tremendously. My responsibilities involved interviewing 1-4 applicants one on one and speaking to 20-30 applicants each day on the phone • Computer Skills: In my first internship I regularly updated Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint slides. Last summer, I became proficient in Salesforce while I entered data each day, ran reports, and identified duplicate entries during my internship. • Social Media Experience: Last semester I took a marketing class which introduced me to best practices in social media. In addition, I am active on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and Pinterest on a daily basis.

1. You will have a final 1-2 sentences to conclude the paragraph. • Do not write in the company name so that you will not have to change it in future cover letters or worry about leaving it in when you copy and paste for future cover letters. 2. Restate that you are interested and that you hope to be in contact with them. 3. Salutation: You can use any of the following: • Sincerely, • Thank you, • Warm regards, 4. Your name • You should write your full name • You do not need to worry about handwriting a signature​ Example: Sincerely, Michael Cordero, Jr.

1. Make sure it fits on one page 2. Proofread! If there is a typo on your cover letter, you will automatically be thrown out of consideration 3. Then have a friend proofread it. 4. Make sure you have the correct company name throughout the letter. This is a common mistake when students are cut and pasting in different letters. 5. Save your document as Your First Name Your Last Name Cover Letter Their Organization Name Year (Ex: Darci Factor Cover Letter Tesla 2018) 6. Share your Cover Letter with your Career Coach (javascript:void(0))in a Google Doc for feedback. 7. When you send the letter to the company, download and attach it as a PDF in case they do not have access to Google Docs or the same version of Word as you.