Streamline Your Cover Letter Process with Python in Just 3 Steps
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As a former resume consultant, I dedicated over 500 hours to analyzing resumes, often rejecting candidates before they even reached a hiring manager. Along with resumes, I frequently encountered the daunting task of crafting cover letters.
Cover letters can be both intimidating and tedious to write, yet they present a unique challenge in recruitment. Although many job applications list cover letters as optional, an astonishing 87% of hiring managers still review them.
To remain competitive, you must submit your best cover letter. However, this doesn’t mean you should start from scratch every time. Instead, consider creating templates for your letters.
Even templates require effort, as you need to carefully replace every bracketed section. Fortunately, there’s a more efficient way to automate this task using Python.
With minimal technical knowledge, you can create a dynamic function that allows you to input the specific fields that will change for each application. Plus, you can save your final letter in a shareable PDF format. This beginner-friendly method simplifies the cover letter writing process.
Here’s how to do it in a few manageable steps:
- Create a string version of your cover letter.
- Identify the fields that need replacement and define variables.
- Save the output as a temporary file.
- Write the content to a PDF.
Before we dive deeper, let me switch gears and offer a word of caution. While this method is designed to make the cover letter process more efficient, avoid making your applications too generic.
I recommend a bulk application strategy only if:
- You are starting your job search and need to create consistency.
- You believe that job hunting is a numbers game.
- You’re applying for positions through referrals, which may not be scrutinized as closely.
- You view your target role as a long shot and prefer not to invest excessive time on applications that may require more experience.
Whenever possible, customize your resume and cover letter for each role by using relevant keywords and aligning your achievements with what the employer is looking for.
Now, let's get into the coding part.
Writing Your Cover Letter
The initial step in automating your cover letter is to draft it. Below is a hypothetical cover letter for Phil Peacock applying to NBC Universal, which I chose because of my past internship there.
Typically, cover letters consist of three paragraphs, but for this example, we will focus on a few key sentences:
NBCUniversal
30 Rockefeller Center
New York, NY
10112
Dear Hiring Manager:
As a software engineer with 5 years of experience in media across three companies, I have a proven record of developing, scaling, and managing complex features and systems. My B.S. in Computer Science and my MBA make me an excellent candidate for the engineering manager position at NBCU.
Sincerely,
Phil Peacock
Next, we need to consider the fields that might recur in various cover letters. Based on my experience, these typically include:
- Address (including city, state, and zip code)
- Work experience
- Company name (mentioned in the first paragraph)
- The specific role you are applying for
In this example, we will replace:
- NBCUniversal, 30 Rockefeller Center, New York, NY, 10112
- Company (NBCU)
- 5 (years of experience)
- Engineering manager (the desired position)
The Python code to achieve this is as follows:
text = f"""
{company}
{address_1}
{address_2}
Dear Hiring Manager:
As a software engineer with {number_of_years} years of experience in media across three companies, I have a proven record of developing, scaling, and managing complex features and systems. My B.S. in Computer Science and my MBA make me an excellent candidate for the engineering manager position at {company}.
Sincerely,
Phil Peacock
"""
Next, we wrap this in a function with the necessary parameters:
def fill_in_blank(company: str, address_1: str, address_2: str, number_of_years: int, position: str):
text = f"""
{company}
{address_1}
{address_2}
Dear Hiring Manager:
As a software engineer with {number_of_years} years of experience in media across three companies, I have a proven record of developing, scaling, and managing complex features and systems. My B.S. in Computer Science and my MBA make me an excellent candidate for the engineering manager position at {company}.
Sincerely,
Phil Peacock
"""
return text
Now we can generate the cover letter:
letter = fill_in_blank("NBCU", "30 Rockefeller Center", "New York, NY, 10112", 5, "engineering manager")
print(letter)
Saving to PDF
To finalize, we need to convert the letter into a PDF format. First, we write the output to a .txt file:
with open("cover_letter_test.txt", "w") as c:
c.write(letter)
Next, we’ll use the FPDF library to create a PDF:
from fpdf import FPDF
pdf = FPDF()
pdf.add_page()
pdf.set_font("Arial", size=11)
with open("cover_letter_test.txt", "r") as test:
for line in test:
pdf.cell(200, 10, txt=line, ln=True)
pdf.output("cover_letter_test.pdf")
Until employers implement advanced recruitment technologies, cover letters will remain an essential part of the job application process. As a data engineer, I constantly seek ways to optimize tedious tasks, and automating cover letter creation is a perfect application for that.
Remember, if a hiring manager inquires, you can confidently say that you dedicated time to craft a tailored cover letter.
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