Whether you are an external or internal recruiter, you will have read thousands of cover letters. If you work in an agency, you may have even advised your candidates about making some improvements. You understand all too well the power of words in those first few moments of contemplation for a hiring manager.
When it comes to writing your own cover letter for a new job, you, therefore, know that you will have a tough time competing with your equally savvy recruiter peers. Your skills at selling candidates to a hiring manager are the same skills that you will use to sell yourself. With one big difference – it is your career on the line, not just one more commission.
This added pressure can make you doubt everything that you know. It is easy for all that advice that you have been giving out over the years to seem stale and cliched. It can be a brutal realisation that maybe you aren’t such a cover letter guru after all.
Don’t worry. Cover letters aren’t so complicated, and much of the advice that you have been offering is perfectly sound. We will go through much of the standard advice in this blog – not because you don’t know it, but just as a reminder that sometimes the simple approach is the best. Stick with us, though. You never know what you may have forgotten.
Inspiration can also come from unexpected places. Our library of cover letter examples is filled with stories from all sorts of professions. In this writing guide and corresponding recruiter cover letter example, we cover the following:
- A cover letter format to frame your recruiting career (with a cover letter sample)
- Telling the right mix of recruiter stories to get the job
- Writing a cover letter with no recruitment experience
- Mistakes to avoid if you want to secure an interview.
Or, if you’re looking for additional inspiration for cover letter writing, you can check out our related cover letter examples:
Best format for a recruiter cover letter
The format for a recruiter cover letter is relatively simple. Start your career story with your most relevant achievement, include plenty of context to your successes in the middle part, and end with a note on why you want the role. A cover letter is about telling your personal story and lifting the lid on your motivations.
The hiring manager won’t expect anything different from the standard cover letter structure. They will invite you for an interview because the content is compelling, not because you have decided on some whacky way of presenting your career story. Include the following:
- 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)
Recruitment is an incredibly metric-heavy profession, but make sure that you are sharing the metrics that matter to your future employer. Be particularly careful if you are moving from agency to in-house or vice versa. They are two very different recruiting existences, so bear that in mind when you are outlining your accomplishments.
The most important aspect of your cover letter should be your industry expertise and ability to understand the hiring requirements. Finding those unicorns is no simple matter, so an active social media presence will be equally important. Make sure you share details of your LinkedIn profile in the header section.
One last bit of general advice for a recruiter cover letter is that it should stick to the top-line numbers of your career. You won’t have the space to explore individual projects in the cover letter, so make sure that you are able to impress enough with the overall career story.
As you know, plenty of nuanced decisions are around the cover letter writing process. Our comprehensive cover letter guide explores this in more detail. Our recruiter cover letter example may also offer some inspiration:
Dear Ms. Davies,
I am a recruiter with seven years’ experience fulfilling the staffing needs of market research agencies, both small and large. I believe you’ll find my experience will help ensure continued trust in QRSTUV as a leader in industry research. I would like to put myself forward for your current recruiter vacancy.
In my most recent positions as a senior recruiter I’ve developed a strong sense of which types of candidates engage most effectively with their roles. I have recruited top-performing analysts and field interviewers in quantitative and qualitative research, from entry-level to senior manager levels, in temporary and permanent positions.
In my most recent role I have led my team in implementing some impressive changes. For instance:
- Developing procedures that go beyond talent pools and instead build talent pipelines. This reduced average time to fill mid-level and senior positions from 41 days to just 32.
- Spearheading an initiative which engaged in-house researchers to evaluate the effectiveness of our job advertising channels and posts. This resulted in changes increasing eligible candidate applications across positions by 26%.
As you will notice on my CV, I am re-entering recruitment in market research after a year working for an advertising agency and large corporation in fast-moving consumer goods. This exposure has broadened my perspective on other qualities that will be valuable for market research practitioners, particularly those who engage with clients.
I am confident that I’ll be able to secure talent that will stay, thrive, and inspire at QRSTUV. I hope to speak with you further in an interview.
Sincerely,
Ruby Hayes
Cover letter header
The cover letter header is a functional part of the cover letter that no recruiter should spend too long contemplating. Recruiters are expected to be ruthlessly efficient, so if you go to any kind of lengths to design the header it will seem that you are prone to wasting time on unnecessary tasks. Not a good look for someone who has 25 roles to fill at any one time.
Include your full name, email address and mobile number. It is also important to include a link to your LinkedIn profile – you never know when a hiring manager might want to check out your online activity. You can be sure that they will.
There is no need to include your full home address – there are data protection issues here. Also, the inside address of the employer is no longer required. Use the space on the page for your career story rather than satisfying outdated conventions.
Cover letter greeting
The cover letter greeting is not difficult for a recruiter who is used to corresponding with hundreds of candidates every week. A formal “Dear Mr/Mrs/Ms Surname” will suffice. Stick with this format even if you know the hiring manager personally – other people may be reading the cover letter. Keep it formal.
If you do not know the person hiring for the role (and the name isn’t included on the job description), try your best to find out a suitable recipient. A call to the company might help or alternatively, a quick LinkedIn search. Your research prowess is a key aspect of your role, so get digging. Avoid the disinterested “to whom it may concern” at all costs.
Cover letter introduction
The introduction to a recruiter cover letter needs to start with some impressive statistics. The hiring manager is not interested in individual stories at this point. They want to know how influential you are in your market. That can only be measured by your hiring stats
Looks at the demands of the job in question and focus on what matters. Make sure that you are talking about examples from similar markets and types of roles. Most recruiters are deeply specialized in their verticals – only industry insiders will secure those interviews.
Dear Ms. Davies,
I am a recruiter with seven years’ experience fulfilling the staffing needs of market research agencies, both small and large. I believe you’ll find my experience will help ensure continued trust in QRSTUV as a leader in industry research. I would like to put myself forward for your current recruiter vacancy.
Cover letter middle part (body)
The middle paragraphs of cover letters should expand on certain aspects of your recruiting experience. Let your future employer know exactly where your expertise lies and talk about the kinds of roles that you fill. This is your opportunity to let them know what sort of work you hope to do in the future.
You should also detail your broader experience of sourcing and client-facing work. One of the toughest aspects of recruiting is finding the right person, so your social media credentials should be front and centre. It is equally hard to close deals at the other end of the process, so talk about how you manage your client relationships. The magic happens at the opposite ends of the process.
If you are joining an agency, talk about how you collaborate with your team. No recruiter works on their own, so this teamwork aspect is critical. Equally, in-house recruiters should mention how they get to know their hiring managers. Teasing the job specification from a hiring manager who doesn’t really know what they want is an art form.
Technology is a vital part of a recruiter’s operating system, so you have to nod to your ability to learn quickly and adapt your working patterns. AI is not the latest tool in a recruiter’s armoury, and many recruiting employers would expect them to be open to making the most of what it offers. It can take on much of the communication legwork, that’s for sure.
In my most recent positions as a senior recruiter I’ve developed a strong sense of which types of candidates engage most effectively with their roles. I have recruited top-performing analysts and field interviewers in quantitative and qualitative research, from entry-level to senior manager levels, in temporary and permanent positions.
In my most recent role I have led my team in implementing some impressive changes. For instance:
- Developing procedures that go beyond talent pools and instead build talent pipelines. This reduced average time to fill mid-level and senior positions from 41 days to just 32.
- Spearheading an initiative which engaged in-house researchers to evaluate the effectiveness of our job advertising channels and posts. This resulted in changes increasing eligible candidate applications across positions by 26%.
As you will notice on my CV, I am re-entering recruitment in market research after a year working for an advertising agency and large corporation in fast-moving consumer goods. This exposure has broadened my perspective on other qualities that will be valuable for market research practitioners, particularly those who engage with clients.
Every recruiter will understand the importance of the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) so if you are applying to a large employer, you should expect them to be using some sort of software as a database. It is debatable whether this performs the initial selection, but as AI advances you can be sure that this is a possibility. Be on the safe side and include enough keywords from the job description to make your cover letter seem relevant. That will help you when a hiring manager reads it, too.
How to close a recruiter cover letter (conclusion and sign-off)
The conclusion of a recruiter cover letter should reiterate your interest in the role. Recruiting is a tough gig, so motivation is incredibly important. Your future employer will want you to be chomping at the bit to chase those placements, so the cover letter should end on a confident and positive note. You know that you are good at your job, and you hope to have the chance to discuss your experience further during a potential interview.
Every recruiter knows the impact of a compelling call to action. Give the employer the impression that you won’t be on the job market for long.
I am confident that I’ll be able to secure talent that will stay, thrive, and inspire at QRSTUV. I hope to speak with you further in an interview.
Sincerely,
Ruby Hayes
Recruiter cover letter with no experience
Recruiters may come into the industry from HR or from another sales-based role, so it is normal not to have experience. Hiring managers will mainly be looking for people skills and insane levels of drive. The attrition rate for novice recruiters is very high – a lack of success in the early months can be demoralising.
Show that you understand what the job entails, and if you are an agency recruiter, do not shy away from being money-oriented. Chasing those commissions is what keeps the industry going (and also what keeps the standards high). Show that you understand the link between quality work and client retention. People will always move jobs – if clients keep coming back to you, there is a recurring revenue stream right there.
Basic mistakes in a recruiter application letter (and how to avoid them)
Recruiters understand the value of concise and accurate communication, so avoiding basic mistakes should come naturally to them. Employers won’t tolerate you making a mistake in an offer letter to a candidate, so demonstrate your attention to detail in the cover letter.
- Use Grammarly to check your spelling and grammar. Ask a friend to check that the cover letter sounds like you, but don’t be too conversational.
- Make sure that you are sharing enough quantifiable detail – don’t tell stories that do not have any substance behind them. These should be conversation starters for an interview.
- Make sure that the cover letter is tailored for the role – do not be tempted to go with a generic letter. Every recruiting job is different.
Key takeaways
- Write a cover letter worthy of your recruiting skills.
- Match your career stories with the demands of the role. Check out our cover letter sample for some inspiration.
- Your motivations are key – why do you want the job?
If you are struggling to make your cover letter look the part, don't forget that you can always recruit the help of our cover letter templates.
