Sample Technical Cover Letter with a Referral

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By Alison Doyle
Updated on 11/26/19

Merging the skills required in business technology is a valuable part of writing an effective cover letter. You should include specific examples in your work experience that relate directly to the position you're applying for.

Tips for Writing a Technical Business Cover Letter

In the following example, the applicant is vying for a position as a Technical Business Analyst and has a significant amount of experience. Notice how their past work is related to the job posting as well as the business' success as a whole. 

This cover letter also mentions a referral from a business contact. If you include a personal reference in the opening paragraph, you will grab the attention of the hiring manager or recruiter and that connection may land you the interview.

When writing cover letters for technical positions, be sure to include technical details without complicating the work. Remember, the reader wants to understand what you know, particularly what programs and languages and how they related to your job. They do not need a crash course in it.

Use the following example as a guide and be sure to personalize your letter to suit the position you're applying for.

Technical and Business Cover Letter Example

This is an example of a cover letter for a technical position. Download the technical position cover letter template (compatible with Google Docs and Word Online) or see below for more examples.

Screenshot of a sample technical cover letter with a referral
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Technical and Business Cover Letter Example (Text Version)

Oliver Applicant
123 Main Street
Anytown, CA 12345
555-555-5555
oliver.applicant@email.com

September 1, 2018

Amanda Lee
Director, Human Resources
Acme Tech
123 Business Rd.
Business City, NY 54321

Dear Ms. Lee,

Please accept the attached resume for the position of Technical Business Analyst as recently advertised on Monster.com. I've had the pleasure to review Acme Tech's website, and to speak with Jane Doe, a colleague at Acme Tech, and am very enthusiastic about the position advertised. I believe that my combination of technical skills, consulting experience, and business sensibilities would serve Acme Tech well in this position.

My foundation is as a developer in multiple languages and on many platforms. If the situation requires getting code done, I deliver high quality, clean, working code, quickly and correctly. I'm comfortable with structured code, databases, OO programming, and "specialty" languages such as might be found in workflow or business rules systems. I have every confidence that to the extent the position requires actual coding, I can sling code with the best.

To the extent that the position requires analysis of business rules and processes, I have specific experience in two main areas that are closely related.

On the analysis side, I was the Product Manager for a large system. In that capacity, I was responsible for extracting functional requirements from end users, customers, marketing, etc., and translating those requirements into detailed requirements.

On the business rules side, as the Product Architect for a suite of enterprise systems, I led the requirements definition and vendor and partner review for a collaboration system that included a business rules engine component. While I was not involved as a developer in these systems, I am quite familiar with this class of products and the salient features that define their value.

On a more general level, I believe I bring the broad "soft" skills you can have confidence in with a candidate that will represent Acme Tech to your customers. I trust you would find me to be well-spoken, energetic, confident, and personable, the type of person on whom your customers will rely. I also have a wide breadth of experience of the type that gives you the versatility to place me in a number of contexts with confidence that the level of excellence you expect will be met.

In most situations, technical decisions must be made within the context of larger business constraints. Throughout my career I have strived to keep business issues in the forefront, be it as a developer implementing a test framework to capture defects as early as possible, or as the Product Manager for an enterprise system, allocating resources and prioritizing enhancements to meet strategic objectives. Focusing on business imperatives is a core value of mine, one that I bring to every project on which I work.

I greatly appreciate you taking the time to review my credentials and experience. Acme Tech's blend of business strategy, market analysis, and information technology is very exciting. I hope that you'll find my experience, interests, and character intriguing enough to warrant a face-to-face meeting, as I am confident that I could provide value to you and your customers as a member of your team.

Sincerely,

Oliver Applicant