Quality Assurance Engineer cover letter example

While words might not be a quality assurance engineer’s strong point, the complexity of their job requires far more than a factual account of QA responsibilities. It is only in the quality assurance cover letter that the nuance of the role can come to light – impress the hiring manager with how you go about your job alongside what you have done.

When you come to write a cover letter you need to choose your stories carefully. Resume.io’s 180+ cover letter examples and writing guides will help you to impress even the most discerning of hiring managers. When you work in QA, every little detail will be noticed.

Let’s deep dive into the quality assurance engineer cover letter example and writing guide:

• Choosing the best cover letter format and what paragraphs the cover letter should include
• How to make the most of each cover letter section (header, greeting, intro, body and conclusion)
• What approach to take when composing your cover letter
• Simple mistakes to avoid when writing your quality assurance engineer cover letter

Best format for a quality assurance engineer cover letter

Formatting a QA engineer cover letter should come naturally to any process-driven quality assurance professional. There is a certain way of doing things in recruitment and there is no reason to deviate from the norm. Here is the one-page cover letter specification:

• 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)

While your technical and hard skills find their natural home on a QA engineer resume, the cover letter is more about your softer skills – how you work with others and the story behind your achievements. Hiring managers want to hear about your individual impact.

Resist the temptation to reel off a long list of projects; instead concentrate on the quality assurance achievements that your future employer will want you to replicate. Start the stories in your cover letter that you wish to continue at the interview – write it as if it is meant for this hiring manager’s eyes only. There is nothing generic about a QA engineer’s day job.

Our comprehensive cover letter guide delves into far more detail on different formatting approaches including font styles, sizes, and length. We hope that our quality assurance engineer cover letter example below may offer some further ideas:

Cover letter header

The cover letter header is the polished façade of your application in terms of its visual impact, and it should contain all the essential information at a glance. Include your full name, email address, mobile number and ideally your LinkedIn profile if you are active there. You will be checked out on social media anyway, so make it easy for the hiring manager.

There is no need to include your full home address in the header (as there are data protection issues), or the inside address of the employer, but as you are a quality assurance engineer, you might choose to include them for that extra touch of formality. Make sure that you find the correct details – a slip up here could be telling. Your application should exude quality, so if in doubt, keep it simple.

Have a look at our adaptable QA engineer cover letter sample.

Cover letter greeting

The name of any QA Director should be a matter of public knowledge, so it should not be hard to find out to whom the letter should be addressed. If an HR Manager’s contact has been shared on the job description, address it to them instead. 

It is best to err on the side of formality and follow instructions. Another option is to call the employer to find out the name. If there is still no luck, avoid the cold “To Whom It May Concern” greeting – that makes it seem like you are sending out a generic letter. A warmer “Dear (Company Name) IT team” would be fine.

Cover letter introduction

The cover letter introduction should immediately portray you as the safest pair of QA hands. Share an example of your most relevant project and don’t forget to quantify your impact (making sure that it is genuinely impressive for your future employer). 

These few lines will ensure that the hiring manager reads on and wants to find out more during an interview, so be brief and lead with the most impressive headlines. Talk about your experience that is most appropriate to the niche that you will be working in. Anything slightly irrelevant this early in the letter and it will be on the QA rejects pile.

Here is an introduction from our quality assurance engineer cover letter sample.

Cover letter middle part (body)

The middle part, or body, of a QA engineer’s cover letter is a place to mix both career stories with the deep technical details of your expertise. This is not a place to talk about mundane projects. Share only the most impactful achievements and challenging projects and mention skills that few others will be able to boast. 

If you wish to share a dense amount of technical detail, bullet points in this section may serve you well in terms of the visuals. Your cover letter does not have to be written in continuous prose – use lists and bullets to great effect.

Make sure that you pick out the most important demands of the job description and hint at answers to come. You will only have a couple of paragraphs in a one-page cover letter, so you will never be able to tell the full story. Include some examples of your soft skills as you will always need to make things happen alongside a wider team.

How to close a quality assurance engineer cover letter (conclusion and sign-off)

The conclusion to the QA engineer cover letter should make it crystal clear that your employer's quality concerns will be safe in your hands. Finish with one last anecdote or reason why they might want to hire you. Be confident in your application and mention in a call-to-action that you are looking forward to finding out more during an interview.

See how the conclusion is handled in the QA engineer cover letter below.

Basic mistakes in a quality assurance engineer cover letter (and how to avoid them)

QA is all about the detail, so while writing might not be a mission-critical part of a quality assurance engineer’s day job, any mistakes in your cover letter will be scrutinized. If you really wanted the job, why didn’t you notice them? Look out for these howlers:

• Spelling and grammar mistakes: Checking your spelling with online software such as Grammarly and asking a friend to proofread to make sure that it sounds like you is the minimum that you should do. Don’t rush to submit without a final check.
• Formatting errors: The design of the cover letter matters, so make sure that you select an appropriate cover letter template that will tick all of the boxes. Word document formatting can come out strange in certain operating systems.
• Too wordy: Keep your language in the QA engineer cover letter conversational, your sentences short and make sure that every word deserves its place. When you only have 300 words, you need to make optimal use of each one.

Key takeaways

1. Research the employer and think about their QA priorities.
2. Share a mix of technical and soft skills – how you do things matters as well.
3. Include a confident conclusion with a call-to-action to ask for the interview.
4. Look at our quality assurance engineer cover letter sample for inspiration.