The cover letter

Like I said before in What you need to prioritise, I don't think cover letters are the most important when it comes to landing a design job.

However, if you're incredibly passionate about an opening and want to give it your all in every way possible, there's no harm in writing one.

Don't just repeat what's on your resume. If someone is actually reading your cover letter, they already have your resume.

The cover letter is your chance to prove that you are a good culture, values, or skills fit.

The writing process

• 1. Research the company and extensively the read job description

• 2. Understand company values & core job description needs

• 3. From that, distill the top 4/5 things that you should be proving to them

• 4. Look at your resume and find what is missing, or the gaps in your resume where your experiences may encompass those 4/5 points but don't fully explain them

• 5. Start writing bullet points on how those 4/5 things match your experiences

The cover letter structure

• 1. Good hook introduction, usually describing why you care about this company/product

• 2. Description of what insights you have into their product/company and how you envision it moving ahead in the future

• 3. Description of your experiences and how they're relevant to the job description, and therefore how you'd suit the role perfectly (without actually using those words)

• 4. Wrap up