Software Engineer Cover Letter

1. Add software skills to your cover letter

Because software engineers need to work with various pieces of software, list the specific software you’re proficient with in your cover letter. Depending on your speciality, you could mention some of these common software skills in your writing:

• Web tools (HTML, CSS, Google Analytics)
• Web development (Ruby on Rails, Python, PHP, JavaScript, Swift)
• Artificial intelligence (Natural language processing, Spark, Blockchain)
• Statistical software (Apache, MongoDB, JSON)

You should also list the above skills on your resume of course, but use your cover letter to highlight the most impressive software-related achievements you’ve scored for your current or previous company using the technical skills you’ve listed. This allows hiring managers to see what you can do for their company. For example, you might write:

Created 17 ecommerce websites integrated with PayPal, Authorize.net, and other payment gateway APIs.

Find out which computer skills each company is seeking by paying close attention to their job ad, and then emphasizing the skills listed there. That means you will need a unique cover letter for each position, because each company is looking for slightly different skill sets.

2. Research the company and showcase what you found out

When you’re writing your cover letter, meld your research about the company into your letter’s content. Proving you know something about a company’s past successes and future goals shows hiring managers you’re serious about your application and know what kind of challenges you’ll face if you’re hired.

For example, if you found out that the company signed a deal with a major bank to develop its web banking app for iOS or Android, you can then mention your experience building secure encryption methods into apps. Such an anecdote shows you have the experience to help the company succeed with their new business venture.

3. Emphasize your soft skills too

It’s common for applicants in highly technical fields like software to neglect talking about their soft skills. That’s because they have so many hard skills that fitting in soft skills seems like a waste of valuable space on their cover letter.

However, even software-industry employers value soft skills because an employee with good people skills gets along well with their colleagues, avoids arguments and personality clashes, and contributes to a positive work environment, boosting productivity and profitability.

Here are some soft skills you can talk about in your software engineer cover letter:

• Interpersonal skills
• Communication skills
• Diplomacy
• Leadership skills
• Negotiation
• Attention to detail
• Fast learner

Are you particularly skilled in any of those areas? Put these soft skills into context by demonstrating how you applied them to improve workplace processes or attain goals. For example, you might write this bullet point:

• Onboarded 3 new hires, with all 3 completing onboarding 17% faster than expected due to my recognized teaching and communication skills.