Why would a groundskeeper need a cover letter, you might ask? Surely a stroll around some of your recent projects should suffice. Well, much as you might live and breathe your work, your future employers may need a little more evidence of your abilities than a tidy campus and some pretty flowerbeds. You need to explain how you work your magic.
Lifting the lid on your secrets in a compelling groundskeeper cover letter is a great way to get one over the competition. You can be sure that not many will go beyond parroting the responsibilities of the job description, so going above and beyond at this stage of the application process will showcase your pride in your work. You will certainly have the opportunity to link to a portfolio of your projects, but what words would you use to describe how you keep all the maintenance plates spinning?
Alongside this groundskeeper cover letter guide, our wide range of cover letter examples and writing guides should cover any advice that you need when you sit down to write. Here is what we cover in this guide:
- How to tell your groundskeeper story and why it matters
- How to structure to cover letter – intro, middle part, and conclusion
- What hiring managers want to know and how to share your personality
- Advice for someone who is applying with no experience
Best format for a groundskeeper cover letter
A groundskeeper role is about sticking to a series of rules – how to use certain machinery and how plants respond to various chemical treatments to name just a couple. When you come to choosing a format for a groundskeeper cover letter, the guidance is equally simple. Your career story should follow the standard formula that works for virtually any occupation:
- The cover letter header
- The greeting/salutation
- The cover letter intro
- The middle paragraphs (body of the letter)
- The ending paragraph of your cover letter (conclusion and call-to-action)
Read the job description to pick out the major job requirements that you need to include. Lead with your best-fit experience. Have you worked for a similar employer? What parts of your previous activity would best equip you for the role? Have you got the technical expertise to operate the required machinery to a suitable standard?
You will put your future employer’s mind at rest if you can share a portfolio of work that mirrors the activity your will be undertaking, but more important is sharing a couple of stories about how you react when obstacles come along. Presenting a perfect career is unrealistic. What happened on your worst day at work and how did you cope with it? That will create some interesting topics for discussion during the interview.
The comprehensive cover letter guide shares some minor details about cover letter writing, but as you know it is these minor details that form the whole. Our groundskeeper cover letter guide may prove useful:
Dear Mr. Wakeley,
After seven years as a groundskeeper for the campus at Harworth College, I am hoping to move to a university maintenance team that will allow me to broaden my experience to include the maintenance of sporting facilities as well as academic grounds.
I am at my happiest mowing lawns, trimming hedges, and maintaining flowerbeds, but I would like to learn more about preparing a top-class sports field. I have a passion for baseball, and I have always marveled at the Kentucky Bluegrass on your diamond. I know that your staff training is excellent – I am a quick learner.
As the son of a mechanic, maintenance of machinery has been a passion from an early age. I managed to save my previous employer over $18,000 in replacement technology by fixing things myself. I installed a new irrigation system that saved over 40 hours of manual watering every month over the summer and participated in countless building projects alongside my groundskeeper duties.
I am used to working within a wider maintenance team and am the sort of person to stick my hand up if anyone needs help. This comes in useful particularly in the wintertime when we need all hands on deck to clear the snow from the parking lots.
As a retired football player, I use the many physical aspects of the role to keep in shape and I enjoy moonlighting as a spare coach on game days. Your football team’s training facilities will always be in fantastic shape.
I look forward to the opportunity of meeting to find out about the details of the role – as a groundskeeper, there is always more to do than most think. That is what I love about the job.
Sincerely,
Trevor Romingside
Cover letter header
Groundskeepers pride themselves in keeping things simple, so there is no need for an overly ornate or colorful cover letter header. Include the essential details of your full name, email address, and mobile number. If the employer decides to call you for an interview the details should be here as well as in your resume.
A full home address is no longer required. For data protection reasons, it is acceptable to just share your city of residence. You can share the address at the offer stage. There is also no requirement to share the inside address of the employer.
Cover letter greeting
Respect for authority is not a difficult quality for a groundskeeper to understand, so starting the cover letter with “Dear Mr/Mrs/Ms” is a natural choice. You will likely have a fairly informal relationship with your direct manager at work, but it is best to stick to convention.
You may not know the name of your manager, so addressing the cover letter to the HR manager is acceptable. Alternatively, you could call and ask.
Cover letter introduction
As the groundskeeper role is so diverse, it will be tough to choose which career story to include in the introduction. It is best to go with one of the rarer skills that you possess and make sure that you show that you understand what will be expected of you in the new role. Let your passion for your role come across – share why you get up for work every day.
Read the intro from our groundskeeper cover letter example:
Dear Mr. Wakeley,
After seven years as a groundskeeper for the campus at Harworth College, I am hoping to move to a university maintenance team that will allow me to broaden my experience to include the maintenance of sporting facilities as well as academic grounds.
Cover letter middle part (body)
The middle part of a groundskeeper cover letter will likely not contain any surprises, but it should speak of an iron-clad work ethic and obsessive attention to detail. Your ability to organize your work and keep on top of your many tasks should be clearly articulated and you should share examples of when you coped under time pressure.
Share how you react when things don’t quite go to plan and consider talking about some of the more niche aspects of your job to help you to stand out. You need to come across as someone who will do the extra work that is not expected, simply because your sense of dedication demands it.
While it is hard to quantify the impact of your work, sharing details of recommendations or awards that you have received can show that you are proud of what you do and appreciated by those that you work with. Your work will likely touch a large number of people, especially if you are tasked with preparing playing surfaces and pitches for sporting use.
The middle part of this groundskeeper cover letter may offer some ideas:
I am at my happiest mowing lawns, trimming hedges, and maintaining flowerbeds, but I would like to learn more about preparing a top-class sports field. I have a passion for baseball, and I have always marveled at the Kentucky Bluegrass on your diamond. I know that your staff training is excellent – I am a quick learner.
As the son of a mechanic, maintenance of machinery has been a passion from an early age. I managed to save my previous employer over $18,000 in replacement technology by fixing things myself. I installed a new irrigation system that saved over 40 hours of manual watering every month over the summer and participated in countless building projects alongside my groundskeeper duties.
I am used to working within a wider maintenance team and am the sort of person to stick my hand up if anyone needs help. This comes in useful particularly in the wintertime when we need all hands on deck to clear the snow from the parking lots.
As a retired football player, I use the many physical aspects of the role to keep in shape and I enjoy moonlighting as a spare coach on game days. Your football team’s training facilities will always be in fantastic shape.
How to close a groundskeeper cover letter (conclusion and sign-off)
The conclusion of a groundskeeper cover letter should focus on your desire for the role. Expand on a key reason why you think that you would enjoy the position and talk about how you would make some changes for the better. Positivity will get you that interview.
While there will likely be a lot of applicants for each position, don’t hesitate to push for an interview. If you say that you are looking forward to the chance to meet and find out more it won’t sound arrogant, but it will make it clear that you believe in your ability to do the job. Check out the example groundskeeper cover letter conclusion here:
I look forward to the opportunity of meeting to find out about the details of the role – as a groundskeeper, there is always more to do than most think. That is what I love about the job.
Sincerely,
Trevor Romingside
Groundskeeper cover letter with no experience
While you may not have worked as a groundskeeper previously, you likely have enough general maintenance, landscaping, and gardening experience to do a fantastic job. If you like the look of the role, don’t let your lack of experience put you off applying.
- How can your previous experience be translated for the role?
- Demonstrate an obsession with quality assurance.
- Show how you can complete projects with the help of others.
- Prove that you understand the difficulties of the job.
Employers will take a chance on you if you can show that you have the potential to do a great job. When you are a groundskeeper you are always coming up against new situations – you have to learn as you go along.
Basic mistakes in a groundskeeper application letter (and how to avoid them)
When a groundskeeper has a long list of tasks on their to-do list, they know that a lack of attention to detail can mean a withered flower border or a dangerous installation. They should try to avoid the following mistakes in their cover letter:
- Grammatical errors. While writing skills are not at the top of an employer’s wish list, the inability to run a cover letter through Grammarly displays a certain lack of care.
- Lack of personality. It is tempting to share a long list of your responsibilities in a cover letter. Don’t forget to open up about what sort of a person you are.
- No stories. You will face plenty of obstacles in your job. Tell a couple of stories to share how you overcome adversity. You need to plant some seeds for the interview.
Key takeaways
- Share only the most relevant aspects of your previous experience.
- Lift the lid on your personality and what it is like to work with you.
- Show that you can be a trustworthy and organized problem solver.
- Adopt a positive tone and be curious to find out more about the role.
These other maintenance cover letter examples may assist you:
