A well-crafted data science cover letter has the power to distinguish you from the crowd. It creates context around your resume and lets prospective employers see beyond the bulleted lists with qualifications and accomplishments.
Getting Started
While writing your data scientist cover letter for entry-level positions, consider the following questions:
- What data science projects have you participated in?
- With no experience to offer, what unique skills do you have that make you a good fit for the position?
- How is having no prior work experience in data science an advantage?
- Do you have a cover letter for a data science internship that you can revisit?
Crafting a cover letter for data science entry-level positions should revolve around your personality traits and unfolding potential. But, most importantly, it gives you a chance to address a company’s pain point and demonstrate you have what it takes to offer a solution. And that’s precisely what can move your application to the top of the pile.
Data Scientist Cover Letter Example
Consider the following junior data scientist cover letter example, looking to specialize in AI research engineering:
Dear Hiring Manager,
As a recent graduate with a degree in data science and a lifelong interest in technology, I find Dozen’s constant commitment to leveraging AI to solve the F&B industry’s biggest challenges fascinating. My passion for data-driven research for answering hard questions with data has always driven me forward in my ambition to develop novel techniques to understand food data and build applications to address business problems.
With three years of experience in Tensorflow and PyTorch in college, I’m confident I will be an excellent fit for Dozen’s next junior AI research engineer. My hands-on experience in infrastructure construction (AWS, GCP, Docker) and understanding of key machine learning concepts have given me the innovative and technical skills necessary to successfully provide your company with appropriate technological solutions to client issues.
I know that Dozen’s plans involve designing and implementing new predictive machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms to improve outcomes and economies of scale. This project perfectly matches my interests and is an exciting opportunity to identify and formulate analytical problems underlying waste management and supply chain. With this initiative, I would happily leverage my knowledge of machine learning, optimization toolkits, Python, and R to achieve groundbreaking results.
I look forward to discussing how my innovative ideas and data science expertise can transform Dozen’s research into AI capabilities for better performance and efficiency.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
Writing a Winning Data Science Cover Letter with No Experience
How do you write a compelling data science cover letter if you have yet to gain work experience in the field? An excellent data science cover letter should convey that you’re the perfect fit for the company. But you can’t make that impression if you’re not an expert on your target company first, right? So, before you start writing, note the following steps you need to take:
- Research the prospective employer;
- Describe your skills and achievements;
- Format your data science cover letter.
Research Your Prospective Employer
Researching an employer is necessary for any job candidate—especially when writing a cover letter for data science entry-level roles. Data science serves many industries. So, as a budding professional, you must showcase your interest in that line of work—be it security, stock trading, food innovation, or consulting. Moreover, you should be familiar with their main competitors in the market and the technology your target company uses. There are clever ways to incorporate this knowledge into your cover letter. And fortunately, there are plenty of sites where you can find all the information you need.
Company’s Website
A company’s website is the first place you should look because its services, projects, product descriptions, and news are all there. Their About Us page reveals the company culture and its core values. So, mention some of those in your data science cover letter—showing your avid interest in this job opportunity with this company. After all, no employer wants to be just one of many.
Stackshare, G2 Track, and Similar Sites
Stackshare and G2 Track are crowdsourced platforms where companies’ team members share the technology they use in their workplace—including top Fortune 500 companies like Amazon and Walmart. You can explore the company profile to find the application and data tools, utilities, and business tools it employs daily. And if you’re proficient in any of those, add them to your data science cover letter.
Social media
Don’t forget to check out the company’s LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter presence. These will inform you about the company’s latest projects and upcoming initiatives. Moreover, they might give you a sneak peek into recent team events and help you understand the company culture. You can then tailor your data science cover letter to impress a potential employer with your proactivity right from the start.
Annual Report
If you’re applying for a job at a publicly traded company, their annual report is an absolute gold mine. That’s where you can become familiar with the company’s industries, their business segments, a management’s discussion and analysis (MD&A) of the business’s financial condition, and even financial results over the past few years. You can also find the list of the board of directors and executives, with their occupations. In addition, the annual report shares details about their product lines, operating locations, and project leads. Not only is this a bonus for your data scientist cover letter, but it will also benefit your data science interview preparation.
The Job Description
It’s essential to fully understand the job description and ensure your cover letter demonstrates you meet your prospective employer’s needs. Like your resume, you should customize it according to the data science internship or junior position you’re applying for. This doesn’t mean you should go overboard with self-praise—tie your skills and education to the company’s business goals or a relevant issue you believe you can solve.
Describe Your Skills and Achievements
Your skills and achievements are vital to an excellent data science cover letter, which must be coherent and impeccable. Each paragraph should be well-thought-out to serve a particular purpose. You need an opening directed to the right person, an introduction that creates interest and curiosity, and body paragraphs that bind your qualifications and skills to the company’s targets and plans for development. And finally, you should have a strong closing paragraph with a must-have call to action.
Format the Data Science Cover Letter
Formatting can speak louder than words. A clean and stylish cover letter consistent with your resume exudes professionalism and a serious approach to the job application process. Fortunately, there are simple rules you can follow to create an elegant and sharp cover letter:
- The cover letter and resume must have the same design.
- A cover letter should be up to one page long.
- Fonts should be easy to read, e.g., Calibri 10–12pt.
- Use one-inch margins and align to the left.
- Spacing should be consistent.
- Ensure the file type is compatible with various devices.
- Use transition words between paragraphs
Data Science Cover Letter Тemplates
Writing and formatting a data science cover letter from scratch can be daunting—especially if you’re fresh out of college or transferring into data science from a different field. So, we’re sharing cover letter samples for five of the most sought-after jobs in data science: data analyst, BI analyst, data engineer, data architect, and data scientist:
- Data scientist cover letter template
- Data analyst cover letter template
- BI analyst cover letter template
- Data Engineer cover letter template
- Data Architect cover letter template
Writing a Data Science Cover Letter for Entry-Level Positions: Best Practices
If you’re new to writing data science cover letters, you may feel the need to be thorough. But that’s not what crafting a cover letter is about. You should find a way to keep it short and impress your potential employer in less than a minute.
Consider the following pointers specialists recommend when writing a data science cover letter for an entry-level position:
- Balance hard and soft skills
- Keep it short
- Customize your input
- Quantify successes
- Review and edit the text more than once
Ready to Advance Your Data Science Career?
Before writing your data scientist cover letter, you may want to hear what industry experts have to share about it. With the course Starting a Career in Data Science: Project Portfolio, Resume, and Interview Process, a top-level data scientist and his team guide you through all the steps to landing a data science internship or an entry-level job.
You’ll learn how to create your data science project portfolio, build your resume, get an interview through networking, succeed during the phone interview, solve the take-home test, and ace the behavioral and technical questions.
