What to Include in a Cover Letter for Remote Jobs
For many reasons, a remote job might be the right choice for you. However, if you’ve never had a remote job before, you may be wondering how to showcase your experience.
Even before the pandemic ushered remote work into the spotlight, you likely had more remote work experience than you realize. And highlighting this remote-relevant experience is what can help you land interviews. It’s something you can and should do on your resume, but don’t stop there. Take advantage of your cover letter to highlight even more of your remote work skills.
Your Remote-Relevant Experience
While many workers are gaining remote work experience during the pandemic, think back to before the pandemic. What are all the ways you gained remote work experience then?
Did you volunteer for an organization but conduct all the fundraising from home? Did you do some freelance work for a far-flung client? What about in your job? Did you coordinate meetings with colleagues in other cities? Did you manage accounts for clients based in other time zones? Work collaboratively using only cloud-based tools?
All of this—and more—counts as remote work experience, even if you worked in an office setting. It demonstrates that you’ve got relevant remote work experience, so make sure to shine a spotlight on it in your remote job cover letter.
Your Remote-Relevant Skills
Working from home requires many skills that not every employee possesses. When you don’t have a boss popping into your cubicle, you need to be motivated and organized to make sure you get the work done as efficiently as possible.
Remote employers look for certain skills in every applicant, such as:
- Self-motivation
- Excellent communication skills
- Problem-solving skills
If you possess these skills, you’re more than halfway there. So, use the cover letter to explain how you use the skills in your work to help the employer envision you in the role.
Your Personality
One of the advantages of in-person work is that you get a chance to meet your coworkers and your boss face-to-face and bond with them professionally and socially. These casual encounters give everyone a chance to know each other as more than employees.
While it is possible to know your remote coworkers the same way, it does take more time and effort. So, inject a little bit of your personality into your remote job cover letter, so your future employer has a better understanding of who you are.
One or two simple sentences about why you like doing what you do or how you discovered your professional career path should do the trick.
Remote Job Cover Letter Sample
The specifics of your cover letter will be unique to you, as will how you highlight your remote work experience. Here’s a sample cover letter for a remote job to help get you started.
When I read your job posting for a Director of Remote Operations, I was immediately struck by how much the position sounded “like me,” and I am thrilled to apply. I find myself becoming more energized the more I read about your company and this particular role, and I’d like to tell you more specifically why I feel we’re a great fit for each other.
To be clear, I am not seeking another “job”—I am seeking an opportunity that will allow me to combine my passion for the remote operations space with my deep operations experience in leading, growing, and mentoring high-performing teams. Knowing the overarching goals of the organization, as well as its values and culture, I’m confident I have the skills you seek in policy creation, process improvement, metrics defining and tracking, risk monitoring and management, and vendor contract management.
For example, as Operations Manager at [Company Name], the operations team I oversaw was responsible for reducing shipping costs by 20% in one year while supporting revenue growth of 100% year over year. Much of this work was done in a distributed way over phone, email, web and video conferencing, and document sharing, and I enjoyed the remote nature of the job immensely. Learning new tools and technology is consistently part of my personal and professional growth.
Underpinning my success? I possess a unique combination of digital and traditional business operations experience, and I’ve collaborated with teams of all sizes, experience levels, and generations. I welcome the opportunity to discuss the role and my qualifications with you further. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Showcase Your Remote Skills
Some job seekers simply regurgitate their resume in their cover letter, but that’s wasting a golden opportunity to truly convince an employer of why you’d be a great remote employee. So use this opportunity to show all the relevant remote skills you have that make you an ideal candidate for the job, and the position could be as good as yours.
Finding a new job can be difficult, but you don’t have to job search alone. Remote.co, along with our sister site, FlexJobs, offers career coaching services. Schedule your personalized appointment today.
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By Jennifer Parris | Categories: Work Remotely
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1 Comment
Leslie V. Hudson on August 24, 2018 at 5:56 pm
I don’t have any remote experience per se but I have worked from home on several occasions. I never gave much thought to my cover letter. The examples were very good so the next time I apply for a remote job I will use these suggestioons.