cover letter for non academic job

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Cover Letter Writing Guide

The purpose of a cover letter.

Anatomy of a Cover Letter

Sometimes called a “letter of intent” or “letter of interest”, a cover letter is an introduction to the rest of your job application materials (e.g., resume/CV, research statement, teaching philosophy, writing samples, etc.). The purpose of a cover letter is to quickly summarize why you are applying to an organization or for a particular position, and what skills and knowledge you bring that make you the most suitable candidate for that position. The cover letter is often the first impression that a prospective employer will have of you, especially if they do not know you, or have not heard about you from their network of contacts. First impressions count, and so getting your cover letter right is a critical step in your job application process. Like all your job application materials, it may take time and focus to write your cover letters well. You will likely have several drafts before you come up with a final version that clearly articulates your skills and your understanding of the employer and the job requirements.

While your resume briefly states your skills, knowledge, experience, and (most importantly) what you have achieved using your abilities, the cover letter gives you an opportunity to create a narrative that shows the path you have taken in your career or education, emphasizing the skills you’ve used along the way, and explaining why the position you are applying to is the next desirable step on this path. To find out more about the structure of the cover letter, you can see some examples here. Also, it is important to know that there are some differences between cover letters written for faculty positions and those written for non-faculty positions. You can review some of the key differences of cover letters for faculty positions here .

When you start the process of looking for job opportunities, you will probably read through lots of job advertisements. You will notice that most job ads ask for a cover letter of some sort. The exception to this might be when you apply for some jobs through an employer’s online job application system, where they may ask you to upload your letter as a document, cut and paste the contents of your letter into specific fields, or they may not ask for a letter at all. For most jobs, and whenever you are submitting a formal application, cover letters are usually expected – and can be very helpful – even if a letter is not requested in the job ad itself.

Cover Letter Etiquette

You might be tempted to send the same version of your cover letter to multiple employers, especially if you are applying for similar types of positions. Don’t. It can be fairly obvious to an employer when they receive a stock letter, and this will make a bad first impression. Tailor your letter to the employer and to the specific job. This may require you to do some background research on the employer’s website, or talk to someone you know (or don’t yet know) who already works there. Use this information to explain why you want to work at that particular place, doing that particular job. It takes time, but it is worth it. You’ll probably have more luck with three tailored cover letters than with 30 stock letters sent out to 30 different employers. Your cover letter will be read by someone as part of a formal job application, so make certain that it is free of spelling mistakes, grammar issues, and typos. Make sure your cover letter fits onto 1 page (for non-academic position applications), has consistent margins and formatting, and a readable font that is between 10-12pts.

When Not to Use Cover Letters: There are some occasions during the job search process where cover letters shouldn’t be used. During career fairs, you would typically only hand out your resume to employers (and a 1-page resume is ideal). Employers want to be able to quickly scan your resume for the key points, and you should be able to verbally communicate some of the ideas that a letter might contain (for example, why this company interests you). Recruiters won’t have the time to read a letter.

Timeline: Getting Started with your Cover Letter

Step 1: The first step to writing a good cover letter is to first have a good resume. For information on putting these documents together, click here . Your cover letter expands upon some of the information you include within these documents, and describes the role you have played in achieving your academic or non-academic goals (i.e., showing how your experiences have made you the best candidate for the position).

Step 2: The next step is to find an open position that interests you, or at least the type of job to which you want to apply. There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all cover letter, as each should be tailored to each job you apply to, but there will certainly be parts of the letter that will stay much the same, and be appropriate for multiple jobs. This might mean changing some of the key words in the letter, so that you are describing your experience in the employer’s language (using some of their keywords), not your own.

Step 3: Go through the job ad and carefully note all of the requirements and skills the employer is looking for. Based on your background research of the employer and the people you have spoken to who know about this employer, try to identify the two or three most important skills that the employer is looking for. You should then try to create a cover letter that illustrates that you have these skills and have used them effectively. Your cover letter will be stronger if it addresses these requirements and the job duties. Ensure that you talk about your experiences in the language used by the employer, echoing their words in descriptions you use to illustrate your skills. Write out a list of the keywords that you highlighted from the job ad, and then next to each of these words, write a brief statement that illustrates the fact that you have this skill/ability/knowledge using a specific example. You may not have an experience for all of the requirements, but the more you think about what you have achieved, the more likely it is that you will find something relevant to talk about. When you have all of this information, then you can begin to structure it within the format of a formal cover letter.

Cover letter template

Here is a general template for a cover letter:

Your Name Street Address City, State, Zip Email and phone number

Today’s Date

Mr./Ms./Dr. Name Title Organization

Dear ______:

The opening paragraph should explain why you are writing, giving your specific employment interest. Mention how you found out about the position. If it was advertised, refer to the website or resource in which you saw it. If a contact told you about it, say so. It is also helpful to include an overall summary of the key skills, knowledge areas, or experiences that you are bring to this role right here in the first paragraph. If you start off with these very specific conclusions that confidently state that you have what the employer is looking for, then the reader will also have a lot of confidence that your letter and resume are worth reading. The next paragraphs will then expand on and illustrate what you are summarizing in this first paragraph.

The middle paragraph(s) should summarize the aspects of your background which will interest the employer. The more information you have about the organization and its needs, the better. Discuss your qualifications in terms of the contributions you can make. While you should not repeat your resume verbatim, don’t hesitate to refer to the most important information discussed in it. Ideally, both your cover letter and your CV/resume would be able to stand alone. It is not necessary to describe yourself in superlatives. Rather than saying, “I can make a uniquely valuable contribution to your organization,” give the employer enough relevant, targeted information to allow the reader to reach that conclusion independently. Be specific and credible. Tell stories that have a touch of drama, for example: “When I was working as the president of X student group, one of the challenges that we faced was XYZ.” Once you have created a touch of drama, describe how you used your skills to overcome it, for example: “So what I had to do was build relationships with administrators on campus by communicating the critical role our group played in doing ABC.” Once you have told the story, reflect on it in terms of how this is particularly relevant for the reader, for example: “I really enjoyed being placed in a position where I had to reach out to contact and bring them all together by creating a shared vision for everyone to buy into. I think this combination of strong marketing skills and relationship building will be valuable to the role of Advertising Associate.”

The closing paragraph should explain why the position and the particular organization is attractive to you, and should hopefully pave the way for the interview. Provide an authentic reason why you are excited about bringing your skills to the role, and what you will also gain from being in the role. Speaking with former or current employees at the organization as part of your networking will help in this regards. You can also offer to send any additional information, restate your contact details, and state that you look forward to hearing from them.

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The Professor Is In

Guidance for all things PhD: Graduate School, Job Market and Careers

The Post-Ac’s Guide to the Cover Letter

By Karen Kelsky | May 31, 2016

by TPII Post-ac Coach Darcy Hannibal

A cover letter for a non-academic job is nothing like what you’d write for an academic job. It has to be less about you and more about what you can do for the employer. And short, very short. I previously wrote that resumes get a mean of 6 second review in the first cut. There are no similar studies for cover letters (although you’ll find lots of commentary on whether anyone even reads them), but I can tell you from experience it is much less during that first round of elimination. If you make it past the initial culling, your goal with the cover letter is to show them how you can help them and that you understand how to communicate professionally.

Many PhDs considering the post-ac route worry that they are over-qualified and that this will result in automatic elimination. That is rarely the reason for elimination (in fact some employers have explicit policies against it), but PhDs do have a reputation for being insufferably self-involved. If an employer has any misgivings about hiring someone with a PhD, they will see an unnecessarily long cover letter and resume as proof you don’t get that this isn’t a dissertation and that you probably will make meetings longer and more painful than they already are, drag projects out longer than needed to get the most complicated outcomes, etc. This is your opportunity to show them you don’t fit that stereotype.

The most important part of the cover letter is to do your homework. Find out as much as you can about the employer and the hiring supervisor, using their website, news articles, your professional network, etc. The job ad alone probably won’t tell you what you really need to know—what does the employer most want from this hire? The niche the employer really wants filled by a hire is probably narrower than what is in the job ad, but just in case they can’t find the perfect candidate, the net is cast wider. Often there is one or a few key skills or qualifications among the many listed that are most valued. Once you know what the specific need is, it should be the center of the cover letter. Tell them, briefly and generally, how you can help, demonstrating your abilities with a few key examples of your accomplishments.

Basic formatting

Same as in “ The Post-Ac’s Guide to the Resume ,” with the following additions:

Letterhead and watermarks. It is usually not appropriate to use the letterhead of the company with which you are currently employed, unless you’re a grad student or post-doc applying to, for example, an industry or government research job. If you use letterhead, make sure to turn the final version of the CL into a .pdf to make sure there are no formatting issues. If there is any chance your application materials will be fed through a computer program (applicant tracking system) to evaluate applicants, don’t use letterhead.

1 page with breaks between short paragraphs. There are a few exceptions to the 1 page limit (industry post-doc or other research and publication jobs), but shorter is better. Absolutely no “wall of text” anywhere. Keep sentences and paragraphs brief. Detailed descriptions of your dissertation and research will not help you. You want them to be able to pick out essential information in that brief scan. If you bog down your letter with unessential, repetitive, or overly-detailed information, no one will read it.

The best cover letters are customized to each job and employer. There two general approaches that are most compelling.

Problem focused. What can you do to meet a specific need or problem facing the employer? In the business world, the overused phrase for an unsolved problem or unmet need is “pain point.” If you can identify what “pain” they need soothed and make this central to your cover letter, it is very compelling and can be accomplished in half a page. Liz Ryan of the “ The Human Workplace ” doesn’t even call these cover letters—she calls them “ pain letters ” and if you can make this work, I recommend her method.

Connect Your Resume to the Job Ad. With this approach, think of the resume as the evidence and your cover letter as the interpretation or discussion of that evidence. Write sentences that explicitly and succinctly connect your skills and accomplishments to the employer’s needs and qualifications in the job ad. For example, say something like “Most recently, as a Post-Doctoral Researcher managing the laboratory of a newly hired professor, I set up the entire lab, including recruiting and supervising a team of lab assistants. In addition to overseeing regular laboratory procedures, I can recruit, train, and supervise laboratory staff at Happy Pills Pharma.” Or, “My success obtaining $##K through X granting institution gives me the experience to fund Eco-Cool Nonprofit’s projects.” You don’t need to cover every qualification listed in the job ad, and in fact to keep it to a page you probably can’t, but prioritize the most advanced, talent-dependent, hard-to-train, or rare qualifications.

The Elements

Emails. If you are instructed to submit an application via email, the email is your cover letter and the resume is the only attachment. For email only submissions, It is highly unlikely an applicant tracking system is being used. This tends to flip the order in which your documents are scanned (by a human eye)—the email is typically scanned first and the resume second. If you attach a separate cover letter, it may not even get opened, so make your point in the email.

The salutation. Find out who is the supervisor for this hire so you can address the letter to that person and contact them to learn more about the job.

The opening paragraph. Tell them very simply and succinctly: Who you are professionally, what you can do for them, why you are interested in the job and/or employer. If there is some recent event or success the employer had that you can incorporate into why you are interested in the job, this can be very compelling. Limit to 3-4 sentences at most.

The second paragraph . If you have identified either through your conversations with the hiring supervisor or a careful read of the job description what the most critical duty or qualification is for this hire, then make this the subject of the second paragraph. How will you meet this need?

Paragraphs 3, possibly 4. Point them to the evidence in your resume that you have the experience to get the major duties of the job done. If you can cover it in just one paragraph, then don’t add a fourth. If there are two broad areas (e.g., data analysis and reporting or grant writing and project implementation), then making each area the subject of the each paragraph is reasonable, but keep them short.

Closing paragraph. Keep this very short, 2-3 sentences. If you have nothing more to cover that wasn’t in the previous paragraphs, then simply say how it would be a pleasure to join their team and you look forward to learning more about the position and their organization. Close with “Sincerely,” (or similar) and then type your name. Do not print, sign, and scan—the employer needs to be able to do a keyword search on your letter and that is impossible with a signed and scanned letter. They don’t need your hand written signature.

A final word about choosing your words: Facts, not feelings or opinions.

Avoid saying things like: “I feel that I am highly qualified…,” “I am very enthusiastic about…” “I am a perfect fit for this job.” Everyone says this, yet most applicants have few, if any, qualifications for the job or a remarkable level of enthusiasm. Using these phrases make it sound as if all you have to offer is opinion and emotion, with no facts to back it up because you don’t even think you are qualified or interested enough for the job.

If you find yourself saying such nonsense, check that: 1) you have some skills and qualifications for the job somewhere in your life experience, and 2) that you have documented these in your resume. If so, you are probably letting impostor syndrome seep into your cover letter where it blocks you from saying anything meaningful.

The skills and expertise you gained while earning your PhD are invaluable, you just have to find a place to work that values what you have to offer.

Reader Interactions

December 4, 2017 at 1:55 am

Hi, If one cannot find the name of the hiring supervisor in time and all goes through an application system is it an issue? and in this case who should the letter be addressed to? Thanks

December 18, 2017 at 9:49 am

As a trailing spouse (doctoral candidate) looking to transition into administration, do I mention that my husband teaches at the university I’m applying to? My own institution is across the country so the question as to why I”m living in this small university town may come up as they read my application. Furthermore, how much should I do to communicate my desire to make this switch? Or should I let my (I think sufficient) qualifications stand on their own? I”m worried they will think I am just biding time while on the academic job market.