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Sample cover letter for Internship position at Facebook
Business analyst
The recap: This is merely a résumé in prose form. It’s redundant, harder to read than the résumé,
and provides no additional insight.
The form letter: This says, essentially, “Dear Sir or Madam: I saw your ad in the paper and thought you might like me.” And it’s clearly a form letter—hopefully they got my name and company right.
The “I’m crazy”: This one’s rare, and it expands on the résumé of experience with some personal insights. Examples range from the merely batty (“I find batik as an art form has taught me to become both a better person and a stronger project manager.”) to the truly terrifying (“I cast a pentagram hex and the central line pointed toward your job listing. I know you will find this as comforting as I do.”).
There are really only a few times to use a cover letter:
1. When you know the name of the person hiring
2. When you know something about the job requirements
3. When you’ve been personally referred (which might include reasons 1 and 2)
Under those conditions, you can help your cause by doing some of the résumé analysis for your
potential new boss. To illustrate, here’s the best cover letter I ever received:
