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A well written cover letter can mean the difference between landing the engineering job you want or having to invest some more of your time and effort into sending out your resume to engineering recruiters and prospective employers. When it comes to marketing your engineering skills and expertise on the job market, the cover letter is your best foot forward and you should approach it as a small project in its own right.
Before you start writing your cover letter, take a good look at the job advertisement. It is the best source of information about the engineer profile the company is looking for and it tells you precisely which skills and engineering fields you need to mention in your cover letter in order to convince the recruiter that you fit the job profile, that you understand what it is that the company is looking for, and that inviting you for a job interview will not be a waste of the recruiter's time.
Unlike your engineering resume, however, the cover letter should not offer too many details about your professional experience in the engineering sector. The purpose of the cover letter is not to get you the job, but the job interview. In other words, save the details for the CV and the interview and just focus on piquing the recruiter's interest with a few well selected keywords that fit the profile in the job advertisement. Recruiters are busy people. Anything too long, detailed and not too relevant to the engineer profile at hand, and they may not even bother with your resume, let alone much else.
A cover letter usually consists of three paragraphs: one to briefly introduce yourself, state the purpose of your letter, and say where you saw the job advertisement, followed by a longer paragraph in which you provide a summary of your skills, engineering qualifications and relevant work experience, and the last paragraph, in which you generally express eagerness to join the recruiter's company and ask for an opportunity to discuss the job opportunity at an interview.
The sample below might give you a better idea of what a cover letter should look like.
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Alan Black 321 Road London XY321 (99) 123 7654 alan.black@engineeringcv.net
June 10, 2009
Peter Jones Engineering Recruiter XY Engineering Firm 123 Street London AB321
Dear Mr. Jones,
I was extremely interested to read the job advertisement for the Chief Power Electronics Engineer on the job board at your company’s website.
I am an experienced Power Electronics Engineer specializing in design and motor control and also have demonstrated significant results in the fields of performance testing, process improvement, software support and product marketing.
I firmly believe that my expertise in almost every corner of the Power Electronics industry would add significant value to a company as supportive of innovative engineering solutions and marketing strategies as yours has been, and I would really appreciate an opportunity to discuss this position with you at an interview.
I am sending my resume for your review and look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
[signature]
Alan Black
