Architect Cover Letter Sample

Architect cover letters may involve covering your claims to a complex job in one page. It's important to make sure that you can deal with the important issues related to the job, make a good presentation of your qualifications and achievements.

Considerations for drafting your letter

Because of the requirement for good quality content, it's advisable to do a basic draft, if necessary making a list of the important elements you want to include in your letter. This helps visualization of content and composition, and makes sure you include everything.

There are several primary considerations for your letter:

• Job criteria: Your applications must address job criteria clearly and objectively.
  
  
• Specializations: Depending on the job, you may need to devote a paragraph to your qualifications for the specific role of the job.
  
  
• Employer business considerations: Some architectural employers have particular business activities and areas of expertise. These areas are critically important to your job application, and you must make a strong case for your skills in these areas. You also need to address any relevant business experience you've had which shows particular skills in the employer's line of work.
  
  
• Unique selling points: Your own individual specialties and abilities must show a direct relevance to the job. You can use your resume to cover some of these points, but your cover letter can add detail and emphasis to these points. 
  
  
• Motivation: In many cases, particularly entry level jobs, your motivation and career track is very relevant to your job application. If you intend to become a development architect, for example, that's highly relevant to a development architecture specialist employer. 

Letter style

Use a business letter model for your letter style. The cover letter is a part of a formal process, and the business writing style is the most effective form of presentation. It's advisable to set up a personal macro for letters of this type, to save time when writing and to ensure correct formatting.

The business letter format is:

Addressee: Full title of recipient and correct address.

Your address and contact details: Make sure phone and email details are entered correctly.

Greeting: Dear Sir/Madam or name of recipient.

Heading including the job application reference and full title of position: "Junior Architect, Your reference ABC/123"

Introduction paragraph: Formal opening, like "I refer to your advertisement for the above position. Please find enclosed my resume."

Letter drafting, content and editing

Use your drafting list of subjects as the raw material. You should allow a paragraph for each major element of the draft letter. The editing process may involve deleting less important elements from your letter so you can cover essential job requirements.

The most important content requirements are spelled out by the job:

Research the job in detail: What are the most critical job requirements? These must be addressed in your cover letter.

Keywords: These are usually job criteria, related directly to core job functions. What keywords are in the job ad? Your cover letter should use the same terminology, addressing these criteria. (In cases where job applications are screened by computerized systems, the keywords operate as primary checks on applications.)