
Let's Take This Offline–The Most Annoying Email Pet Peeves
How to lose friends and annoy people? Commit these email sins. Discover the worst greetings, sign-offs and general bad behaviour that blights your inbox.
If you’re sending your cover letter as an email you’ll need to make a few tweaks to get it right. Read on to guarantee success when you click send.
An email cover letter is a short message explaining why you're submitting your CV and how your expertise makes you the right candidate. It adds a personal touch to your application. A cover letter email is shorter than a standard letter and is sent in the form of an email itself, not as an attachment.
Sounds like your good old cover letter all over again. But it isn’t.
If you’re applying for a job via email instead of using job boards, you’ve got a golden opportunity to get remembered by the hiring manager. But—
To make it happen, you need the best email cover letter out there.
And you are going to have one. Read on, and you’ll see:
Want to write your cover letter fast? Use our cover letter builder. Choose from 20+ professional cover letter templates that match your CV. See actionable examples and get expert tips along the way.
Sample Cover Letter for a CV—See more cover letter templates and create your cover letter here.
First, have a look at this universal, simple email cover letter sample. What do you think makes it so special?
Subject line: Senior Software Developer Seeks Software Engineering Team Lead Position with ABC (ID: 4569870)
Dear James,
Please find attached a copy of my CV with detailed work experience for the position of Senior Software Developer at ABC Corp., (Job ID: 4569870)
As a senior software developer at XYZ Inc., with a proven record of developing and optimizing the most strategic mobile apps and online software, increasing annual mean NPS to over 70.0 (43% rise) and reducing Customer Effort Scores by 60%, I am sure I can help ABC achieve similar results with your upcoming project of developing mobile apps for corporate finance and easy online trading accounts.
Can we schedule a meeting to discuss my insights and ideas on making ABC’s software development quicker and more effective, while boosting all major KPIs?
Sincerely,
Maria Farinelli
Senior Software Developer
linkedin.com/in/mfarinelli_zety
mfarinelli_zety@gmail.com
0777 777 7777
I’ll tell you one thing, Maria can expect the callback anytime!
It’s a perfect email cover letter template you can tweak so that it fits your situation, and use to apply for any job.
As you can see above, you should format your email cover letter just as any other semi-formal email. Use a standard, elegant font and double spacing between paragraphs. At the bottom, include your contact information, just as you’d do in the footer of any professional email you send.
Writing a regular cover letter to attach to your CV email? Learn how to make the most of it from our complete cover letter writing guide: How to Write a Cover Letter for Any Job Application
For more tips on formatting your cover letter, see: Cover Letter Formatting Guide
Contacting the company on a speculative basis to find out if there's a chance to work together? This guide will help: Speculative Cover Letter Sample
And if you’re eying an internship and crafting an email cover letter for fresh graduates, see this article: Internship Cover Letter Sample & Writing Guide
One last thing before we go on:
Either. But not both.
Truth is, this choice won’t be decisive for your job hunt, so don’t obsess over it.
My suggestion is—if you’re applying by email, you’re risking that your message will reach the hiring manager in a hurry, so don’t make them open TWO attachments. Write your cover letter in your email body and enclose only your CV.
Right—
So you’ve seen a jaw-dropping job application email cover letter. Now, let’s break down what makes this email format for cover letters so great.
It won’t matter if your achievements are breathtakingly impressive or your skills fit all requirements of the job you’re trying to land…
If no one opens your job application email cover letter.
And guess what? That depends only on the subject line.
Make the most of it. In the subject line for an email cover letter with a CV, include:
Like the candidate from our sample, Maria did:
Senior Software Developer[1]Seeks[2]Software Engineering Team Lead[3] Position with ABC[4] (ID: 4569870)[5].
Pro Tip: The only instance when all of the above is of no consequence? When the employer demands all applicants to use the same subject line, for example, “Application for Position XYZ - [Your Name].” If so—you have to play by their rules.
As long as it needs to be to include all of the above info and as short as possible.
Need an exact figure?
Number of email subject characters displayed varies across devices and operating systems:
For desktop email applications it’s within the range of 46 (Yahoo Mail) to 70 (Gmail).
Mobile email clients? From 30 characters (Android; portrait) to 64 characters (iPhone; landscape).
To stay on the safe side, begin your subject line with the name of your position. It’s sure to stay within the narrowest, 30-character range, and the hiring manager will immediately know what vacancy the message is about.
The best way to start your email cover letter is with ‘Dear’ + the hiring manager’s name.
Personalization will make the hiring manager feel like they’re reading something made specifically for them.
Don’t know the name of your hiring manager?
Do some research!
Double check the job ad.
Pro Tip: Tried all of the above to no avail? Go with ‘Dear [Team Name] Hiring Manager,’ or ‘Dear [Team Name] Hiring Team’, for instance: ‘Dear Customer Service Hiring Manager’ or ‘Dear Project Management Hiring Team’. The two greetings you have to avoid are: ‘To Whom It May Concern’, and ‘Dear Sir or Madam.’
For more details on how to address your email cover letter, see this handy guide: How to Address a Cover Letter to the Right Person
Sending your cover letter in an email instead of using job boards is an excellent strategy for escaping the CV black hole.
But there’s one downside.
While hiring managers book specific time slots for reviewing CVs and cover letters they got through their online recruitment systems, your email, as I said before, might reach them in a rush. For instance, heading out to a meeting or dealing with an urgent problem.
In an email cover letter, don’t make the hiring manager read between the lines of some fancy storytelling.
Be as straightforward as possible.
Attached you will find my CV with detailed work experience for the position of [ABC].
And that’ll do.
You’re not applying for a job. You’re applying for this job.
For the hiring manager, it doesn’t matter how great your career has been so far. What matters is how you can help the company with their upcoming tasks and challenges.
Show that in your email cover letter body:
Read the job description carefully, identify what your responsibilities will be.
Then, research the company online, try to find out what projects they’re running or plan to launch in the future.
Outline your professional achievements that can translate into success in your prospective role.
Highlight what you have to offer.
Remember Maria, the candidate from our sample?
The company she’s applying to, ABC Corp., is looking for a Software Engineering Team Lead to supervise the development of new android apps.
That’s what her tailored, brief email cover letter reads:
As a senior software developer at XYZ Inc., with a proven record of developing and optimizing the most strategic mobile apps and online software, increasing annual mean NPS to over 70.0 (43% rise) and reducing Customer Effort Scores by 60%[your achievements most relevant to the job you’re trying to land], I am sure I can help ABC achieve similar results[an offer to leverage your experience to the benefit of your future employer] with your upcoming project of developing mobile apps for corporate finance and easy online trading accounts[knowledge of your employer’s plans and your responsibilities].
Pro Tip: I can’t stress this enough—an email cover letter has to be shorter than one you would include as an attachment. How short exactly? Your go-to word count should be 150, tops.
In need of some extra tips for your cover letter? Check out: What to Include in a Cover Letter: 15+ Examples
When making a CV in our builder, drag & drop bullet points, skills, and auto-fill the boring stuff. Spell check? Check. Start building your CV here.
When you’re done, Zety’s CV builder will score your CV and tell you exactly how to make it better.
So the hiring manager knows you’re a great candidate. Job done?
Not quite. Take an extra step. Reiterate your value in the call to action:
Ask the hiring manager to reach out to you and meet in person.
Once again, focus on what you have to offer.
Again, let’s have a look at the call to action from our sample:
Can we schedule a meeting [asking them to reach out to you] to discuss my insights and ideas on making ABC’s software development quicker and more effective, while boosting all major KPIs [restating your offer]?
Pro Tip: The two worst things you can do in your email cover letter closing are coming off as needy (I’m sure I’d make a great employee, just give me a shot!) or generic (Thank you for your time and consideration).
For more ideas on strong and compelling ways to finish your cover letter, go here: How to End a Cover Letter the Right Way
Once you’ve written your email cover letter for a CV, you just need to put a formal greeting at the very end.
Write “sincerely” and follow it with your full name.
If you’re not a fan of the well-worn, “sincerely,” feel free to use any of the following synonyms:
Sample email cover letter sign-offs:
Pro Tip: Under your sign-off, put the necessary contact information, such as your LinkedIn profile, email address, and telephone number. To save yourself the effort of adding them every time you send an email covering letter, you can include them automatically in the footer of your email. You can also include a digital copy of your handwritten signature. It will add a nice, professional touch.
So you’ve just written your perfect, short email cover letter. Now you’re basically guaranteed to land that interview, right?
Wrong.
Let me just quote what one recruiter wrote in her LinkedIn article:
Dear Applicant,
Your email arrived with a cover letter in the main body. I was really impressed and could not wait to review your CV. There was only one problem. You’d forgotten to attach it.
I replied to your email asking you to reattach your CV and you did not respond until the following day. In any case, it was already too late.
I don’t think you really wanted that job.
Ann Ayinde
Human Resources Business Partner at British Council
Don’t think I need to explain further, do I?
And it is fine to say ‘Please find attached my CV’ (though there are better alternatives).
It makes all the more sense to write that because Gmail will see the word attached/attachment, check if you have in fact attached anything, and prompt you if you haven't!
One last thing to keep in mind:
Choose a professional CV file name:
‘[Your first and last names]-CV-[the company name]’, for example: John-Smith-CV-Intel NOT My-CV-124.
To write a perfect cover letter email for a job application, follow these steps:
And, for the final piece of advice:
Keep it short.
Plus, a great cover letter that matches your CV will give you an advantage over other candidates. You can write it in our cover letter builder here. Here's what it may look like:
See more cover letter templates and start writing.
Got any additional questions about writing and sending a cover letter email? Want to share your experience with applying by a direct email message? Give me a shout in the comments. I can’t wait to hear out your thoughts. Let’s chat!
How to lose friends and annoy people? Commit these email sins. Discover the worst greetings, sign-offs and general bad behaviour that blights your inbox.
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