Project Manager Cover Letter

Project managers work to get projects completed by juggling many moving parts at once. But even if you’re brilliant at what you do, you’re at a disadvantage if you don’t attach a strong cover letter to your application.

To maximise your chances of landing an interview, follow these four tips for writing your project manager cover letter:

1. Highlight your project manager skills

A project manager is responsible for every step of a project — from brainstorming to optimising workflow and coordinating teams. To showcase your management expertise, feature a variety of hard skills and soft skills throughout your project manager cover letter.

All project managers track timelines and report to stakeholders, so you can mention a few generic project management skills. Mostly, though, it’s critical to describe your industry-specific abilities. For example, if you work in IT, show your knowledge of concepts like the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC).

Here’s a list of other key skills on your CV you can include in your project manager cover letter:

• Budgeting
• Data analysis
• Scrum management
• Time management
• Project scheduling
• Productivity tools (for example, Asana and Trello)
• Agile management
• Database management
• Leadership skills
• Risk management

2. Provide examples of your achievements with hard numbers

Use hard numbers in your cover letter to show how you apply your project management skills to the job.

Because it’s focused on tracking targets, project management is highly data-driven. So employers will expect to see exactly what you’ve achieved in the past to determine what you can offer their team.

To show recruiters what you can do, quantify the size, scope, and budget of the projects you were responsible for, like this:

Where possible, link your achievements to exact figures like in this example:

Implemented best practices and monitored performance and progress, delivering 100% of projects on time or ahead of schedule and 98% on or under budget.

Precise numbers and percentages like these highlight the results you’ve achieved and prove your value as a project manager.

3. Format your project manager cover letter correctly

Create a great first impression by using the proper cover letter formatting. A well-organised cover letter shows your attention to detail and logical thinking.

Follow these tips to set out your project manager cover letter:

• Make your cover letter one page or less
• Pick an appropriate font with a consistent size (10.5–12 points)
• Put your name in a centre-aligned header
• Address the recruiter by name (for instance, ‘Dear Mrs Chivers,’)
• Organise 3–4 paragraphs and a bulleted list about your relevant experience and skills
• Wrap up with a polite sign-off, like ‘Your sincerely,’ followed by your name

Laying out your cover letter like this makes it easy for an employer to find the most important information about your project management experience. Using correct formatting also highlights your professionalism.

4. Open with a strong introduction

Typically, recruiters skim cover letters. To get noticed in a crowd of project manager applicants, start your cover letter with a confident introduction.

Use your introduction to grab the employer’s attention by:

• communicating your passion for project management
• describing why you resonate with the company’s mission statement or work values
• emphasising an impressive achievement
• showing that you researched the organisation
• dropping the name of a contact at the company

Then, continue summing up who you are and why you’re a perfect fit for your target project management role in the rest of your cover letter.