Using Your Cover Letter to Network for Jobs

Hi friend,

In a previous blog, I mentioned using your cover letter to network for jobs. If you write your cover letter independent of a job description, it should be specific enough about your strengths and the type of job you are looking for to pitch someone on hiring you. Luckily, you’ll only need to make a few small adjustments!

Firstly, another reminder of how important the salutation is; your cover letter must be addressed to an individual. If you are contacting people to propose they hire you for an unposted job, do your research and ensure you are contacting the correct person (usually someone at an executive level, possibly a recruiter).

Secondly, the opening paragraph of your cover letter needs to be adjusted to provide context. In your base cover letter, you get straight to the point about who you are; they posted a job so they are expecting applicants. If you’re contacting someone about a job that they may or may not have, you need to explain why. The first sentence should be the following:

I know you are currently [not hiring | not hiring for any TYPE positions], but I wanted to introduce myself in case you would consider an opportunistic hire, or anticipate openings in the near future. 

Acknowledging that they are not hiring for the position you want proves you did some research and are not simply spamming out emails. An opportunistic hire is when a company finds the right person at the right time and makes an unplanned hire. Hiring managers and recruiters often know about upcoming positions before they are posted as well, and having a great candidate show up a few weeks early can save a lot of time and effort. This makes outreach especially effective leading up to the start of a new quarter. Follow that opening with the rest of your first paragraph, and tack an additional sentence onto the end:

I came across [COMPANY | TEAM NAME] through [GOOD REASON].

You need to provide a specific reason why you are interested in this organization that ties into your future-looking sentence. For example, if you are looking for opportunities to develop your management skills, it could be because you found an article covering the great training and support the company has to develop managers internally. If you are contacting someone you have an existing relationship with, simply adjust this to: “I thought of you because…” and change “introduce myself” to “contact you”.

You can include the rest of your cover letter as is, or provide a more abbreviated version. Just be sure to include the last paragraph, though your future looking statement will probably be more vague and relate to the company mission or overall growth.

Finally, add one more line to the end:

Please find my resume attached. I understand that responsibilities and titles are likely to be unique to your current needs, and I’m open to discussing a variety of possibilities with you. 

That’s it! I’ll talk more about researching potential companies to contact in the future, but as you can see, it only takes a few small adjustments to repurpose your existing cover letter!

See you Thursday,

Karissa

P.S. Your subject line should be: “Interest in [TYPE] positions with [COMPANY]: [YOUR FULL NAME]”