Sample Cover Letter

3200 Lincoln Avenue
San José, CA 95125

March 12, 2000

Mr. Robert McClintock
Personnel Office
Avalon Department Store
1275 Sunset Boulevard
San Diego, CA 92110

Dear Mr. McClintock:

I enjoyed meeting you last Wednesday at San José State University's Career Expo and am extremely interested in becoming a member of your Buyer Team. In particular, I enjoyed hearing about Avalon's training program and am pleased that your buyers also serve as department store managers.

My academic program at San José State University prepared me well for a career in retailing. I will be graduating in May with a bachelor's degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing. As you will note on the enclosed resume, I supplemented my formal course work with an internship at Drew's Department Store and with summer and holiday jobs in retailing. This experience coupled with my academic background makes me an excellent candidate for your Buyer Team.

Again, thank you for your time. I would very much like to meet with you to further discuss my interest in Avalon. My phone number is (408) 555-9392 and my email address is kbxter@email.sjsu.edu. I will call you in two weeks to check on the status of my application.

Sincerely,

Kenneth Baxter
Enclosure
   
NEW on-line videos all about Cover Letters

The SJSU Career Center is pleased to introduce you to an excellent series of on-line videos on the topic of Cover Letters. Created by the York University Career Center Team in Ontario, Canada, they have generously given the SJSU Career Center permission to share these award-winning videos with our campus community. The information about writing cover letters in the series is very current, relevant, and extensive. The Staff of the Career Center hopes this series will be beneficial to you as you write strong, targeted cover letters and refine them.

The Cover Letter videos are broken down into two main categories:

• Understanding Cover Letters - Click Launch to view video

Gain a better understanding of the purpose of your cover letter and some employer expectations.

• Cover Letter Writing Strategies - Click Launch to view video

Learn useful strategies for cover letter writing that will make your letter shine.

Each of the videos provides great information and examples of how to create a cover letter that will get read. Keep in mind that these videos were developed for a Canadian-based population and will contain examples of Canadian-based employers, yet the information is 100% transferable to the SJSU population. Go to the York CareerCyberGuide cover letter page.

Under each of the Cover Letter sections in York’s CareerCyberGuide you will find some good handouts with a cover letter template and sample cover letters. On the SJSU Career Center site you will also find additional information about cover letters as well as examples of SJSU student cover letters.