software engineering cover letter reddit

Resume/Cover Letter Critique - New Grad Software Engineer/Database Admin

The generics I use in most cover letters:

To whom it may concern: This letter is to express my interest in your posting on Dice.com for an experienced Software Developer. With a Bachelor’s degree in computer engineering and hands-on experience using .Net languages to create and implement software applications as well as SQL and OSIsoft software to maintain databases, I am confident I will be an asset to your organization.

I enjoy being challenged and working on projects that require me to work outside my comfort and knowledge set, as continuing to learn new languages and development techniques are important to me and the success of your organization.

I’ve attached a copy of my resume that details my projects and experience in software development.

I can be reached anytime via my cell phone, 555-555-5555 or via email at <email>. Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to speaking with you about this opportunity.

Regards, John Doe

I also tend to include what I'm interested in about the company/position. I'm terrible at selling myself/skillset and any help is much appreciated!

I recruit engineers and see tons of resumes like this. Your objective is entirely generic and tells me nothing about you other than that you want a job. The reader already knew that, because you sent your resume. Say something more interesting than "I want a job".

I'd rather hear more about your projects than see you waste so many lines to describe your skills and abilities. If you reformat the skills, you can probably put that info into two to four lines of space. It's about 12 lines now.

For some reason, you also bulleted the responsibilities for your jobs. We don't need a bullet for "Excel and VBA". You don't need any bullets in your experience section - just list what you did in sentences in paragraph form.

The space you save can be used to tell us something (anything) about those projects. You just told us the title, which means nothing. You built an IoT alarm clock and tell me nothing about it, yet you use a bullet to say "Excel and VBA" and "server networking".

Need to prioritize space. You can do better.

Cover letter gets a B. It's not different enough than the ones everyone else is sending. Stand out.

Thank you! It's good to hear some honest criticism.

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