Struggling To Write an Entry-Level Cover Letter? Here’s How!

Are you fresh out of college and looking for your very first job, or you’ve grown tired of what you do and are looking to start anew in a new industry? 

Either way, welcome to the (re)start of your career! It will be both exciting and daunting. After all, entry-level roles generally require people to have approximately 76 years of experience, 17 Olympic gold medals, and at least seven engaging hobbies (space-time manipulation abilities are optional).

All jokes aside—you’ll need an entry-level cover letter. But why do you need one, and how do you even write a killer cover letter for entry-level jobs? 

In this article, you will find out why submitting a cover letter is important, how to structure it, and what to include in it. You will also learn to use formatting to your advantage and get your cover letter with no experience past the infamous ATS—the tool that companies use to filter applications and speed up the hiring process. 

Why Do You Need a Cover Letter When You Have No Experience?

A cover letter can help graduates with limited experience (and almost no Olympic medals) stand out from the competition. It complements your resume, contains information about your education and skills, and explains why your bubbly personality would be an excellent fit for a particular company. 

Research shows that 26% of hiring managers use cover letters to form opinions about candidates. You may think it’s not a substantial percentage, but why wouldn’t you offer them more than rows of numbers and data presented in your resume? You’re not an Excel sheet.

Having no experience means you get to use your cover letter to brag about what you do have—knowledge and skills relevant to the position you want. 

With a good cover letter, you can introduce yourself to a potential employer, flaunt your skills, shine like the diamond that you are, and give them a reason to invite you for an interview.

How To Write a Cover Letter With No Experience

Source: Vlada Karpovich

While writing a cover letter allows for more creativity and flexibility than a strict resume format does, keep in mind that it is still a formal letter. There is a particular outline you need to follow. If you browse through cover letter samples online, you will see that they all follow more or less the same structure.

Whether you are looking for your first job or are interested in a career change, write your cover letter so that it consists of five parts:

1. Header with the contact information
2. Opening paragraph where you express interest in the position
3. Main section describing your specific skills, qualifications, and knowledge
4. Closing paragraph with a call to action
5. Sign-off section with a signature line

Address a Cover Letter for Entry-Level Jobs Professionally

Your cover letter should begin with a heading in the upper left corner, which should contain:

• Your contact information—your name, job title, cell phone number, email address, and home address (optional)
• The date—formal documents are always dated
• Company information—Official name, address, and contact number

When you write your cover letter, don’t use the header and footer of the document. No ATS can read these sections. 

Write your contact information at the top of the page, aligned to the left. If you really want to separate this part from the rest of the letter, you can add an empty line under it. An ATS will ignore it, but your cover letter will look neater and easier for the recruiter to read. 

You will then professionally address the hiring manager. Here are some good and bad ways to do it:

Right	Wrong
Dear Mr./Ms. [last name] Dear [first name] Dear Sir/Madam Dear Hiring Manager Dear Project Manager/Hiring Team To whom it may concern	Dear Miss/Mrs Hello [first name] Hi [first name]

Feel free to use the name of the person in charge of recruiting if you know it—even addressing them by their first name is acceptable in some organizations. But if you don’t know their name, there’s no need to go out of your way to find it. 

You certainly should not get in touch with the company and inquire about the recruiter’s name. They already have a full inbox of applications and other queries, so they likely won’t be too thrilled to receive such inquiries. 

Emphasize Your Interest in the Position

The opening paragraph is your pick-up line—you need to grab the recruiter’s attention and make them want to continue to read. 

You will achieve that by tailoring the cover letter precisely for the position you’re after. If you mention the company name and the exact role, you will show you have written the cover letter specifically for that company and that job opening. 

Customizing your document is crucial because recruiters don’t like generic cover letters. If it becomes obvious that you have sent the same cover letter before and are just reusing it—without making an effort to check and update the date and other tiny but telltale details—it will give off the impression that you are not truly interested in the position, and you will be less likely to get an interview.

Show Why You Are a Perfect Fit for the Company

Source: Tima Miroshnichenko

In the next paragraph of the cover letter, you will go into more detail regarding how your particular skills and knowledge relate to the role you want and why they make you a perfect fit for the company. 

Don’t be scared to include experience that is not work-related but still significant to the role. For instance, you can mention:

• Volunteer work
• Part-time jobs
• Projects
• Relevant classes
• Leadership experience
• Organizations you belong to

You can also include any internships that you did. Paid or unpaid, your internship was a real job, and you should treat it as such (by writing the full name of the role—marketing intern, sales intern, accounting intern, etc.). Include any tools you used while doing the internship and bold key achievements. If you had any tangible results during the internship, emphasize them and bold those parts of the cover letter. 

Providing all those details will create a more lasting impression on the recruiter than merely stating you did the internship. 

You may have also had some job-shadowing experience. Mention it in your letter to demonstrate a genuine interest in the position. 

You should also focus on your soft skills, such as:

• Communication skills
• Presentation skills
• Time management skills
• Organizational skills
• Attention to detail 

Distinguish Yourself From Others

How to write a cover letter with no experience and make it stand out? 

Distinguishing yourself from other applicants and making the recruiter notice you even if you don’t have much work experience is easier than you think. For instance, you can mention a part-time job you had in college or high school. It demonstrates accountability, which is a desirable quality. 

As much as possible, ensure that what you mention in your letter is pertinent to the role. For example, if you worked on a group project at college, were elected to be a team leader, and ultimately gave a presentation about the project in front of a larger audience, point it out. It demonstrates you have presentation and leadership experience. Especially if a job ad mentions these requirements, be sure to include this. 

Add a Call to Action to Your Cover Letter

Source: Andrea Piacquadio

You started your letter strong and caught the recruiter’s attention. You’ve made it this far, and now is the time to close the deal. 

Summarize what attracted you to the company, showing once again that you have composed this letter specifically for this role. It will also demonstrate that your and the company’s values align. 

Don’t forget to include a call to action, saying you would love to meet and discuss the position. Finish off by thanking the recruiter for their time and consideration.

End With a Complimentary Closing

Like the heading area, where you addressed the company and the hiring manager professionally, you have to keep the complimentary closing formal too. Here are some examples of good and bad ways to do it:

Right	Wrong
Sincerely Most sincerely Best regards Kind regards With best regards Thank you for your consideration Respectfully	Affectionately Take care Best wishes Yours faithfully Warmest regards Fondly Have a nice day

The options in the second column are too informal for a cover letter. 

After choosing the salutation that works for you, add your name, sigh with relief, and DON’T click Send just yet. Now is the time to read, reread, and triple-check everything you wrote to ensure there are no mistakes. 

How To Write an Entry-Level Cover Letter When You Have Some Experience

There is often a bias against candidates who apply for entry-level positions but have a certain level of experience behind them. Recruiters often reject candidates if they are overqualified for the role. If you intend to make a career change, it may be tricky to compose a cover letter that will get you an interview. 

How do you apply for an entry-level position if you already have some experience? Here is what to pay attention to:

• Don’t focus on years of experience—highlight your skills and knowledge suitable for the role
• Emphasize that you want to make an impact—point out how you can contribute to the company
• Mention what you didn’t like about your previous higher position and be honest—explain why you are applying for a role if you are overqualified. Make sure not to bash your previous employer
• Say what made you interested in this position—express your enthusiasm for the role and the company
• Be careful not to imply the role you are applying for is somehow inferior to those you’ve had before—mind your tone to make sure you don’t come across as arrogant

Mistakes To Avoid When Writing a Cover Letter for a Job You Have Little Experience In

Source: Tima Miroshnichenko

People make several common mistakes when writing a cover letter with little experience. Before you click on that Send button, make sure you double-check that you have:

1. Written the correct date—forgetting to change the date will show that you lack attention to detail
2. Customized the letter for the specific role—modifying your general template every time you send it to a new company helps you leave a great first impression
3. Included skills and knowledge relevant to the role—writing only about the projects, courses, and qualities that pertain to the role makes your application more interesting to the recruiter
4. Proofread the letter—having grammar mistakes and typos in your letter will make you look unprofessional and taint the impression you make on the recruiter

Since you are writing a cover letter with no experience, you may be tempted to make excuses for it. Remember, this is an entry-level position; recruiters don’t expect you to have previous experience. Instead, focus on the skills and knowledge you have and connect them to the position. 

Avoid focusing on yourself and why the role will be a critical point in your career. A much better approach is to demonstrate how the company can benefit from hiring you and why they should want you for the job. 

How To Optimize Your Entry Level Cover Letter With No Experience

You have done a great job researching the company and hit all the right spots with your skills and knowledge. You organized your cover letter perfectly and included all the right information in it. Now you have to do everything in your power to ensure your letter is actually noticed. 

You first have to make sure your letter doesn’t get blocked by an ATS—a software many companies use to filter out bad applications. 

You then have to make it easily readable for the recruiter—so they can quickly find what interests them.

This means you have to optimize your cover letter both for the software and the human. 

Optimize Your Entry Level Cover Letter for an ATS

Applicant tracking systems work by targeting the key words and phrases mentioned in the job description—skills, experience, qualifications, etc.—and identifying them in cover letters.

How to write a cover letter if you lack those particular skills? There is a clever way to add suitable keywords:

• Think of any experience you had that required you to use the skills mentioned in the job ad—explain what the connection is and how you could develop those skills further while on the job
• Mention some skills that are similar to the ones from the job ad—elaborate on why they are relevant and how you would apply them on the job
• Say that you are eager to learn—even though you don’t have every skill on the list, you can use them as keywords in the cover letter by saying that working in the desired role would help you acquire the skills from the ad that you don’t yet possess 

These are all ways to incorporate specific keywords in your cover letter so an ATS can recognize them. 

Format Your Entry-Level Cover Letter for a Human Recruiter

Including particular keywords in your cover letter will get it past an ATS and in front of a human recruiter. You have to optimize your cover letter for them as well. 

Recruiters receive dozens of applications every day, and they don’t have the time to read through each and every one of them carefully. So, you must help them notice what’s important instantly. You will do that by making your letter easily skimmable. Here is how:

• Break up the text into shorter paragraphs
• Use line spacing between the paragraphs
• Bold key elements within the cover letter
• Use bullet points to list your skills and achievements
• Write shorter sentences
• Avoid images, tables, and charts
• Keep the letter one page long
• Don’t use caps lock and italic formatting

How To Make Your Job Hunt Go Smooth

Source: Mikhail Nilov

You have your resume and cover letter polished. Now what? 

For starters, try not to get discouraged by the fact that you have to be in the top 2% of applicants to get an interview. 

Although the unemployment rate dropped to 6%, according to the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics, a job opportunity is still unlikely to present itself without any intervention on your part. You have to roll up your sleeves and start applying for jobs.

But scrolling through endless job listings and switching from one job board to another is both confusing and time-consuming. 

Fortunately, there is a better and more organized way to approach job search—Lensa.

Lensa is an AI-powered job board aggregator that can help you find the perfect job with minimum effort. We take your qualifications, salary preferences, as well as your personality and cultural background into account when we present you with a customized selection of job ads that might interest you.

Once you register with Lensa, you will get access to:

• Multiple job boards and millions of job posts all in the same place
• The Workstyle Game, which will help you learn more about your personality, soft skills, and professional strengths
• Personalized job suggestions
• Email and SMS alerts of new job openings that fit your criteria

Get Your Career on the Right Track—Register for Lensa

It will take you no more than a few minutes to sign up with Lensa. Follow these steps:

1. Visit Lensa
2. Enter a job title and your location
3. Provide us with your email address
4. Click Submit

It’s that simple! Now you can browse through job ads or play the Workstyle Game. 

You can also bolster your account by including your desired salary, education level, and previous experience, allowing us to send better and more valuable search results your way. If you provide your full name and phone number, you will start receiving notifications about open positions tailored to your preferences, which you can update at any time by accessing your account settings. 

Featured image: Andrea Piacquadio