How To Write A Cover Letter Engineering

It’s no easy task to know how to write a cover letter for engineering.

Writing a cover letter for engineering needs to include your skills, accomplishments, and most importantly, your macroeconomic relevance.

The framework that we use in our cover letters breaks it down in four sections:

February 29, 2024 by Kazu Fujimoto

Why you need to write a cover letter in engineering positions

In a select few cases, the recruiter or hiring manager will actually want a cover letter.

There are cases when having a cover letter puts you above the person that didn’t in their job application.

When you have a cover letter that

• Highlights your skills and accomplishments
• Clearly and concisely lists what you’re looking for
• Ties your macroeconomic relevance to the position

Your recruiter will have a much better understanding of you as a candidate and understand your specific business impact.

You are looking for a job

Also, keep in mind the reason that you’re looking for a job. Take this seriously.

You could want a job for more pay or you need this job so that you can put food on the table and feed your family.

And when you’re looking for a job, you want to maximize the chances of you getting that job.

In no case, will having a cover letter hurt your chances of getting a job.

Worst case scenario is that the recruiter or hiring manger doesn’t even read the cover letter.

Advancing in your career is nothing you should be taking lightly. Neither does having to put yourself in a position that you’re responsible for the well being of yourself and others.

1st Paragraph – Introduction

The introductory paragraph of your engineering cover letter must:

• Thank the hiring manager for the opportunity to apply
• Tie in your skills and accomplishments to the engineering position
• Detail how your skills will benefit the company
• Tie in your position’s relevance to macroeconomics

One of the biggest mistakes engineers make in their cover letters is that they mention how much they want the position or how the position will aid in their growth and development.

Although this isn’t bad, it is much better to frame the letter in a manner such that the company will benefit from you.

The company does not care about what you can get. Ultimately, the company is looking to make money and turn profits. As a result, a company needs to increase their revenue, streamline processes, and cut costs. You need to be able to fit somewhere in that equation.

2nd Paragraph – Overall High Level Accomplishments

The second paragraph of your engineering cover letter will detail your high level accomplishments and their ties to the applications/industries in macroeconomics.

Macroeconomic Examples and Keywords

• Aerospace
• Automotive
• Commercial
• Residential
• Oil & Gas
• Financial
• Agricultural
• Transportation
• Military
• Defense
• Food & Beverage
• Pulp & Paper

The engineering position that you are applying for likely has ties to these applications and industries. Make sure you connect the dots between the industries and your position as this presents you more as a business case.

If you frame yourself as a business asset in the cover letter (and your resume), you will be much more of an attractive asset that employers will seek out. Hiring managers are required to set goals and these goals that they set pertain to company financials and their ties to macroeconomics.

Now do you understand the importance of macroeconomics in your career search framework?

3rd Paragraph – Current role and accomplishments

Your third paragraph will detail your current role and what you’ve been able to accomplish.

Do not include boring items such as:

• Created excel spreadsheets for this
• Typed up documentation for XXX
• Kept track of inventory of parts

Instead capture the big picture overview of what your tasks supported.

For example, if you do alot of client interface, don’t say that you do calls or emailing clients, but say that you do client interfacing roles to support manufacturing revenue of $/year.

Make sure you also tie in how you want to grow and develop as an engineer, which reinforces your reasoning for looking for this position. Again, this also frames you as a business asset, which is the framework that we are applying in this cover letter.

4th Paragraph – Closing

Reiterate how your skillset and knowledge will benefit the company and relevance to the industry/application that the company supports (business case and macroeconomics framework)

Specify core competencies such as your leadership skills and innovativeness and finish the letter off by stating that you want to support the company’s mission and sustain their dominant position in the market as a leader.

Example Cover Letter:

Now that we’ve detailed how to write a cover letter for engineering, let’s check this example out.

Dear Hiring Manager,

Thank you for the opportunity to apply for the position. I firmly believe that my experience as an engineer that has supported the design work of complex Civil Engineering applications such as buildings, walls, and floors along with heavy experience with direct customer interaction make me a suitable candidate for this role. Ultimately, I wish to contribute to the company’s efforts to grow, drive innovation, and deliver game changing results such as increasing productivity and revenue that will take the company’s manufacturing operations to the next level.

Throughout my career, I’ve successfully led the completion of large-scale projects such as building and structure design for Commercial applications. As a mechanical engineer I have a very diverse skillset ranging from CAD software such as Catia and SolidWorks, Sheet Metal Design, Structural Design, and Client Interface. I also have experience in a high production machine shop environment regarding sheet metal assemblies and parts for automotive and aerospace applications. I’ve successfully demonstrated leadership to finish projects and even change how things are done.

I currently handle work regarding client interfacing with automotive vehicle repair and I always look for opportunities for growth and development. This includes providing customers with offers on their vehicle repairs and damage assessments, and determining what the optimal path for the customer is.

I believe my proven background in engineering provides me the skillset and knowledge to successfully contribute to the Company’s efforts in the manufacturing of high- performance machined components. Through my leadership skills, innovativeness, and holding myself accountable to a very high standard, I would love to contribute to the Company’s mission and sustain the Company as a dominant leader in the industry.

Thank you for your consideration.

Best Regards,

Your Name

Closing Thoughts

This is the exact engineering cover letter framework that I use to get hundreds of my clients high paying jobs.

I also apply the principles of framing yourself as a business asset and tying yourself regarding macroeconomic relevance in other services such as resume writing, interviews, and go over it more in depth in career consulting.

If you thought this was too overwhelming, I’ll write you a cover letter for high paying jobs that you can use in job applications.

As long as you utilize the frameworks correctly, you will start seeing a flood interviews and emails from employers.