JOSÉ GARCÍA
206-888-6653. garciaj@spu.edu | Seattle, WA. linkedin.com/josepgarcia
14 September 20XX
Marilyn Smith
All Cities Editor
Cities Media
555 Blumark Ave, Unit 101
NewYork, NY 10001
Dear Marilyn Smith:
ℹI’m excited to apply for the Associate Editor, Washington position for Cities Media posted on Indeed.com. My passion is sharing engaging Seattle-area news with millennials in a clear, relatable way. I think I’m an excellent fit for this role because of my 2 years of team management experience as a digital editor, and my extensive background using research and analytics to grow publication readership.
Paragraph 1:
- Express enthusiasm for job
- State interest/passion that aligns with organization's values
- Introduce 2 top skills you'll discuss in letter
ℹTo start, my depth of team management experience would enable me to be effective in this role. As one example, as editor-in-chief of The Falcon university newspaper for the last year, I’ve been responsible for leading the staff of 18 to produce quality content weekly for our diverse student body of 4,000. With our staff’s wealth of different backgrounds and perspectives, I knew that we could offer SPU students much more value if we planned content together than if I did it alone. Therefore, at the beginning of last year, I met with each writer individually to learn more about their writing interests, and engaged them in weekly team brainstorming meetings where we assigned articles together. In June, the staff told me they felt valued by the team and empowered to grow and express themselves fully at The Falcon. In addition, our readership that year increased 15%.
Paragraphs 2–3: In each of your 2 middle paragraphs, tell a story to showcase a skill mentioned in paragraph 1. Use the Problem, Action, Result structure. Don't just repeat your resume; give more details to bring the reader "in the rooom" of the experience with you.
Furthermore, my background using data and analytics to expand publication readership would help me excel as your Associate Editor for Washington. For example, as a digital intern at Seattle Weekly, I got the opportunity to edit the site independently for a week this summer while the digital editor was away. I was responsible for editing and uploading articles by 6 writers each day, as well as managing Twitter and Instagram accounts. When I noticed that several articles posted in the morning were not receiving as many views as I’d expected, I changed the headlines midday to align more closely with SEO standards, and saw increased traffic in the afternoon. I also modified my social media posting times to promote more engagement, which increased 30% by the end of the week.
ℹThank you very much for your time and consideration. Please let me know if you have any questions, and I will email you next week to see if we can schedule an interview.
Paragraph 4: Thank the employer. Let them know you will follow up to request to schedule an interview.
Sincerely,
José García