How to Write a Cover Letter With No Experience (+Examples)

Applying for a job without experience may make you feel like you don't belong in the job market. This is especially true when the employer requests a cover letter to accompany your application.

However, you may not realize that you already possess the relevant skills and achievements. They just need to be brought to the surface. You’re about to learn how to do just that.

In this guide, you’ll get:

• Two sample cover letters with no experience in the field.
• Steps for how to write a cover letter with no experience in any industry or job with several no-experience cover letter templates you can copy and adjust.

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Do you want to see specific cover letter examples right away? There you go:

• Recent Graduate Cover Letter Example
• Internship Cover Letter Example
• Entry-Level Cover Letter Example
• Non-Profit Cover Letter Example
• Cashier Cover Letter
• Cook Cover Letter
• Social Work Cover Letter

You can always visit our Cover Letter Examples page where all of them are available.

We extracted data from over 500,000 documents created in our product and discovered that*:

- Cascade, Cubic, Primo, and Classic are the most popular cover letter templates for our users.
- On average, our users create 2.36 documents in our builder.
- Most of our users report having over 10 years of experience. Only 2.63% of users show they have zero expereince. 
 
* The data comes from the last 12 months (August 2023-August 2024)

Before you dive into the instructions for your no-experience cover letter, let’s dispel your doubts about writing it first.

Should You Write a Cover Letter for a Job With No Experience?

Absolutely, yes. A cover letter in your situation is even more important than for a person with some years of experience. That is because you create more space for instances of unpaid employment, academic achievements, and transferable skills that you can draw from to create a relevant application.

Expert Hint: Transferable skills are the ones you use in every job, like data analysis or interpersonal skills. You could learn them in school, while volunteering, or at a job you had.

Let’s see some examples now to prove that theory.

Two Cover Letter Examples With No Experience in the Field

Meet Michelle. She’s only started studying Healthcare Administration and wishes to get a clinic receptionist job. Given no prior experience in the medical field, it could be hard to get it, but she’ll use her transferable skills from other jobs to highlight the most desired skills she found in the job description. 

Example #1: Cover Letter With No Experience

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Example #1: Cover Letter With No Experience—Text version

Now check out Sharon’s story. She’s a recent graduate and a Registered Medical Assistant looking for an internship. Because she doesn’t have experience, she’ll use her academic history and transferable skills, like technical writing, to back up the relevancy of her application.

Example #2: No-Experience Cover Letter

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Example #2: No-Experience Cover Letter—Text version

It’s a good moment to remind you that a cover letter only accompanies your resume. So, in case you don’t have it yet, here are our two guides for How to Write an Entry-Level Resume and First Time Resume With No Experience that can help you out. If the job ad requires it, send your cover letter and resume via email. Here is what you what you should write in the email.

Now read along to find out step by step how to write a cover letter with no experience. You’ll see templates right next to the instructions.

Double your impact with a matching resume and cover letter combo. Use our cover letter generator and make your application documents pop out.

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Want to try a different look? There's 21 more. A single click will give your document a total makeover. Pick a cover letter template here.

How to Write a Cover Letter With No Experience Step-by-Step

Here are 8 steps for how to write a cover letter with no experience:

1. Study the Job Description and Research the Company

First, before you get down to writing, find and note down all the information possible about the skills, qualities, and qualifications needed and wanted for the job. You’ll later use them to build your cover letter around them. Look for them in the job posting. 

Make sure you also review the company’s website and social media to learn about the culture and values you’re hiring into. You can use that to refer to the same goals and prove alignment.

Expert Hint: Want to get a job “just to survive until you find something in your field?” A study by the Strada Institute shows you’ll still be in that dead-end job 10 years later. Your degree will be useless by then, and you’ll have to hit the reset button. Stick it out and stay in your field, even if it’s hard at first. You can always change tracks later with a career change resume and cover letter.

2. List Your and the Hiring Manager's Contact Details

A cover letter for candidates without experience is like any other business letter. It needs a properly formatted cover letter header. 

This is the template you can always use to get it right:

3. Address Your Reader

Here, you can’t be generic. Sending a generic cover letter breaks all the important rules:

1. It’s not tailored to the company.
2. It is not personalized to the hiring manager.
3. It tells them you are lazy and not so interested.

So, to make your mark, stay formal and respectful in the address of your cover letter. Here are some good examples you can use:

Formal salutation

• Dear Mr./Ms. [Last Name]
• Dear [First Name] [Last Name]

Using the job title

• Dear Hiring Manager
• Dear Hiring Committee
• Dear Hiring Team

Company-specific job titles

• Dear Recruiter
• Dear Recruitment Coordinator
• Dear Talent Acquisition Specialist

Choosing one will depend on you finding out as much information as possible about the person recruiting and the person hiring.

4. Write an Effective Opening

In a cover letter with no experience, you need to get attention faster, than Usain Bolt finished his best sprint. And the good news is that there is more than one way to do that right in the opening. You can lead off your cover letter with:

• A referral that’ll matter to the hiring manager
• Something about the firm that excites you
• A huge accomplishment from school

But don’t break your neck to be creative. In a pinch, just give a few hard facts that show you’ll work hard. That’s an A-1 strategy. 

Here’s a template that may come in handy:

5. Show Your Relevant Skills and Achievements

“Hire me.” Said nobody who ever got a job. Unless, of course, they gave a reason that made sense to the manager. So how can you do that? It’s actually pretty easy! 

You just have to find out what skills they want and show when you’ve used them, even in a small way. Those achievements can be school accomplishments. You don’t have to shake the world. But they must show you’re at square 1 and not somewhere in the parking lot. That goes in the second paragraph of your cover letter with no experience.

See a template that can get you there:

Expert Hint: According to an NCES study, the employment rate for people who finish high school is 72%. Better still are college students at 79% and college grads at 86%. Think your education doesn’t matter in a cover letter with no experience? Think again, but you must use it to show skills the organization craves.

6. Explain Why You Are the Perfect Fit for the Job and the Company

Remember the values and goals you read about in step 1? Now, it’s time to use that knowledge. In the last body paragraph, explain why you want to work for this company specifically by leveraging what you’ve learned about them. That’s your chance to build even better engagement with the reader. And, of course, a stronger case for your application.

Check out a universal template that will help you with that:

7. Close and Sign Off Professionally

Your closing paragraph should reinstate your enthusiasm for the role and interest in applying. Is there a better way to do this than requesting an actual interview? Ask for one in your closing paragraph, and the only thing left for you to do is end it with a polite sign-off and your name underneath.

Here’s a template for you to close your cover letter without experience:

And here are some more examples of polite sign-offs:

• Best regards
• Kind regards
• Sincerely
• Thank you
• Respectfully

8. Format Your Cover Letter Properly

Now that you’re done with the writing part, take care of the looks. The format of your cover letter must show you’re like a rocket, ready to blast off. And here’s what your cover letter should look like:

• Fit your text into three paragraphs.
• Set margins at 1 inch.
• Left-align the parts of your cover letter and single-space your text.
• Make your cover letter with no experience less than a full page.
• Use the same attractive cover letter font in your resume.

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Key Points

Things you need to remember when writing a cover letter with no experience in the field:

• Use the 3-paragraph cover letter format.
• Start your no-experience cover letter with the supervisor’s name.
• Mention the job in the first paragraph of your cover letter with no experience, and explain why you want it.
• Show entry-level achievements in the second paragraph.
• To end your cover letter with no experience, request an interview.

Do you have questions about writing a cover letter with no experience? Check out the full guide on writing cover letters. Need more templates? Check out these free MS Word Cover Letter Templates. Let’s chat in the comments below. And thanks for reading! 

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