Create Your Cover Letter

A cover letter is a document that highlights important and relevant information about your background, skills, and qualifications so employers in the hiring process can understand you better. An effective cover letter will communicate why you are qualified for the position in a clear and succinct manner. 

Follow the steps below to create a professional cover letter.

Proper formatting is an extremely important part of your cover letter—  employers will become discouraged if reading a cover letterthat is cluttered and disorganized.

You may follow this template or a similar template to make your cover letterconcise and organized.

Tips to make your cover letterlook professional:

• Use an easy-to-read font like Arial or Times New Roman

• Use 10-12 point size for your font

• Make sure your margins are between 1-1.5 inches

• Use bullet points when listing several different pieces for information, like job descriptions.

Your cover letter should begin as a header with your name and contact information, including your mailing information, phone number, and email address. Your name should be highly visible at the top of the page with a bolded or larger font, no larger than 14 point size. 

Write your education history, including your school, graduation year, and unweighted grade point average if it is 3.0 or higher. If you take a lot of weighted (honors or AP) courses, you should list your weighted GPA as well. You may also wish to list out AP Exam and SAT/ACT test scores.

Write your work, volunteer, and internship history in reverse-chronological order; that is, your most recent job should be listed first. For each job or experience, provide a short description, which includes the company name, the time period you worked there, your job title, and a few key achievements you performed. You may also want to include relevant growth opportunities you experienced.

• Use Action Verbs. Make a stronger impact by using action verbs to describe your achievements.

• Be brief. Employers usually don't have much time to review your cover letter, so try to keep your descriptions as short and relevant as possible. Avoid using filler words such as "and" and "the." Try to keep your essay no more than one page, as most employers will not scroll past that.

You may wish to include a section detailing your skills and proficiencies, so employers can have a better gauge about your fit for the job. This may include languages that you are fluent in (including computer programming languages) and software that you are proficient in. If you are short on space, try to include only skills that are relevant to the specific opportunity that you are applying to. 

In this section, you should list any extracurricular activities and awards you received that you wish to convey to your employer. You can also include a short description for each activity that includes your leadership positions. Make sure to list the time period that you performed these activities for or when you received the award. 

Carefully review your cover letter for spelling and grammar errors. Reading your cover letter aloud or backward can help you find any errors. You should also ask trusted friends, teachers, or family members if they can review your cover letter.

To reiterate, if your cover letter is more than one page, look for ways to shorten each section by removing filler words or extraneous information. 

Creating your first cover letter can be stressful, especially as a high school student, since you have to balance a work and school life. 

At Illumity, while we want you to be successful, we also recognize the importance of mental health and taking care of yourself. Don't forget to take breaks and avoid overworking yourself. Take a deep breath when times get too stressful. 

Good luck, and we believe in you! :) 

— The Illumity Team