As a data analyst, you turn numbers into insights. You collaborate with other data professionals (data scientists, business analysts, database administrators) to retrieve and transform data into meaningful information, generate reports, and create findings to assess the success of business initiatives.
Being a data analyst requires many skills, and while you can’t fit all your successes on your data analyst resume, creating a cover letter provides another avenue to provide this info to a potential employer. Hint: This isn’t the place for modesty.
Writing a great cover letter may feel on par with going to the dentist. Nonetheless, it’s an important task, and we’re here to help by providing five data analyst cover letter examples with some easy-to-follow guidance.
Copy this text for your Data Analyst cover letter!
123 Main Street
Beaverton, OR 97005
(123) 456-7890
January 13, 2023
Hande Ortega
Peloton, Senior Recruiter
125 W 25th St
New York, NY 10001
Dear Ms. Ortega:
When gyms closed during the pandemic, I struggled to maintain my exercise routine. Products like Peloton are essential to meeting would-be exercisers where they’re at. Social, on-demand exercise connects people even when not together. I want to help Peloton more effectively reach customers by creating accurate reports as a data analyst.
During college, I participated in a weekend hackathon and co-founded a social movie rating web app with a programmer friend. Creating movie recommendations for users required compiling and reconciling data from multiple sources including Box Office Mojo and Rotten Tomatoes. After reconciliation, this data was stored in a MySQL database.
As this social movie app grew from 10 to 1,000+ monthly active users, I proactively identified gaps in data collection specifically around marketing. We were spending small amounts on different ad platforms, but we weren’t reliably comparing the data. I centralized this data and created automated reporting to show the cost per user for various ad channels. This improved the effectiveness of our paid ad campaigns by 8 percent.
Through my experience with this app and in my courses, I have demonstrated eagerness and aptitude to learn new tools and technologies. I began dabbling in Excel to improve my fantasy football teams, and, many frustrating hours later, Excel is now my go-to tool. When I wanted to build a voting prediction engine for our student government elections, I tinkered with Python and SQL to collect data from the web and store it for use later.
The potential to work for the company that offered a real solution to me when I could no longer use the gym motivates me to help keep Peloton analytics accurate, up-to-date, and useful. I look forward to chatting with you soon about how my experience working on personal data projects will inform product and marketing decisions at Peloton. Thank you for your time.
Best regards,
Christy Brinkle
Enclosures:
Resume
Application
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Data Analyst No Experience Cover Letter Example
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Copy this text for your Data Analyst No Experience cover letter!
123 Fictional Avenue
Phoenix, AZ 85001
(123) 456-7890
November 20, 2023
Olivia Jones
American Express
123 Fictional Lane
Phoenix, AZ 85001
Dear Ms. Jones:
The thrill of witnessing my fellow student decipher intricate data patterns during a local data science competition crossed my mind when I learned about the junior data analyst position at American Express. Gaining firsthand experience of the power of data analysis amidst intense competition inspired me to apply my knowledge in data warehousing, BeautifulSoup, and more, which can contribute to the growth of an esteemed organization like yours.
While completing my degree in data science at Arizona State University, I specialized in data warehousing, using tools like Microsoft Azure and Apache Hive. For my capstone project, I created a well-structured data warehouse that facilitated data access by 36% and reduced query response time by 22%, boosting the overall effectiveness of data retrieval and analytical workflows.
In a city-wide competition hosted by the International Society of Data Scientists, I leveraged BeautifulSoup and Python to scrape and analyze complex web data. This project honed my skills at extracting meaningful information from unstructured data sources, leading my team to a commendable second-place finish amongst 47 participating local teams.
I employed PostgreSQL to efficiently manage voluminous data sets during a hands-on project in advanced database design. Working on DBeaver and Navicat tools, I created relational databases, optimized complex queries, and facilitated data integrity. This practical experience culminated in a simulated data management system that significantly enhanced data transaction efficiency.
I’m confident that my academic experience, rooted in practical application and reinforced through relevant competitions, resonates with what American Express seeks in a junior data analyst. I’m excited at the prospect of discussing how my academic achievements and dedication can translate into success in the finance world. Thank you for considering my application.
Thank you,
Kaito Yamamoto
Why this resume works
- As a beginner, your lack of formal job experience shouldn’t restrict you to discussing school projects or coursework in your data analyst no experience cover letter.
- Drawing from Keito’s example, a reference to your involvement in a competition that put your data analysis or programming language knowledge to the test is a great avenue to highlight your practical skills.
Copy this text for your Data Analyst Internship cover letter!
123 Fictional Avenue
San Antonio, TX 78201
(123) 456-7890
November 20, 2023
Sophia Wilson
Valero Energy Corporation
123 Fictional Lane
San Antonio, TX 78201
Dear Ms. Wilson:
The announcement of Valero Energy Corporation and Darling Ingredients taking a definitive step towards Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) astounded me and appealed to my passion for using data science to support sustainable energy. As a student specializing in data analytics, I seek the data analyst intern role at Valero Energy Corporation, where I can leverage my prowess in dplyr, ANOVA, and more toward your ambitious sustainability initiative.
In a course project aimed at decision-making in renewable energy, I used the dplyr R package to manipulate, explore, and visualize data sets. The results were an 18% increased efficiency and 29% faster decision-making for our hypothetical renewable energy company, demonstrating the utility of systematic data in solving real problems.
During an internship at DASolar, my expertise in ANOVA allowed me to discern significant factors affecting the output of wind turbines. Through detailed statistical analysis, I found that rotor diameter and hub height have a statistically significant impact on power output, contributing to a 23% decrease in turbine downtime.
In a personal project, I analyzed a huge dataset spanning over two decades of global temperature records to infer global warming trends using Google BigQuery. This exhilarating journey of discovery didn’t just unearth crucial insights but stoked my already burning passion for sustainable energy, igniting a relentless thirst to explore and understand our evolving world.
Recognizing Valero’s prowess in refining and marketing and commitment to sustainable energy, I’m keen to contribute to your team. I welcome the opportunity to discuss further how my data analysis proficiency could advance Valero Energy Corporation’s sustainability efforts. Thank you for considering me for this role.
Sincerely,
Amir Khan
Why this resume works
- Showcasing knowledge of the hiring company in your data analyst internship cover letter shows you’ve done your homework and that you’re genuinely interested in the role, which can leave a positive impression on the hiring manager.
- A recent achievement isn’t the only approach to this strategy. You can also refer to the company’s current project or industry-specific awards. Or better yet, align your ethos with the potential employer’s objectives and emphasize how your expertise can help drive these goals forward.
Copy this text for your Senior Data Analyst cover letter!
515 Valley St,
Maplewood, NJ 07040
(123) 456-7890
January 13, 2023
Sheree Ryan
Senior Recruiting Leader at SmartAsset
535 5th Ave, 30th Floor
New York, NY 10017
Dear Ms. Ryan:
As someone who has spent the last 6 years striving to improve my financial literacy, I am intimately familiar with SmartAsset’s value. For instance, I used your retirement calculator to set my 401(k) contribution rate after college graduation. Improving financial literacy is the best vehicle to address income inequality, and I would love to help SmartAsset in that fight as a data analyst.
As SmartAsset works to scale growth, I know one of the most difficult challenges is setting up proper marketing attribution to assess the efficacy of each marketing channel. While at Sensio Marketing, I was instrumental in developing real-time dashboards showing the ROI of ad spend across channels. This required coordination between data engineering to create query-able databases, marketing to understand important KPIs, and the testing team to validate different attribution models for the creation of dashboards. This attribution framework helped our team increase paid ad spend ROI by over 29 percent year over year.
Data without context can be misleading, so I have learned to tell a story with data instead of just building reports. At Chegg, I worked closely with the user research and product marketing teams to build a funnel detailing where users were dropping off in the flow to view questions. Through user research, we collected qualitative data that informed us of potential drop-off areas. After testing product versions to address those areas to determine the impact on conversion rate, that rate improved iteratively by 171 percent over 8 months.
Once reports are live and have been tested to verify utility for the proper stakeholders, I implement automation to streamline the creation of reports and reduce errors. I want to help SmartAsset automate as many reports as possible to reduce hours spent fetching, preparing, and visualizing data—allowing more time to work on higher-value projects and minimizing errors in automation.
I am excited about the prospect of helping SmartAsset reach more people like myself who are struggling with what to do with their finances as early professionals. I welcome the opportunity to share more with you about how my experience can help SmartAsset’s marketing team reach more potential users through accurate attribution, product analytics, and automation.
Thank you,
Adele Gallia
Enclosures:
Resume
Application
Copy of certifications
2 letters of recommendation
Copy this text for your Analytics Manager cover letter!
123 Main Street
Boston, MA 02115
(123) 456-7890
January 13, 2023
Katie Kelly
Liberty Mutual Insurance, Recruiter
175 Berkeley Street
Boston, MA 02116
Dear Ms. Kelly:
As someone passionate about diving into complex data and producing strategic recommendations, I am eager to propel Liberty Mutual’s talent management strategy to greater heights, leveraging my five years of experience as an analytics manager and knack for working with people and teams.
I have direct experience with hiring as I managed a team of 4 analysts at AppHarvest. To improve this process for my team and the company, I worked with HR to determine important KPIs for the hiring process, and our team built institutionalized dashboards in Tableau. Once we had a baseline, HR leadership built action plans to improve time-to-hire, candidate satisfaction with the process, and the percent of on-site interviews that turned into full-time hires.
You’re looking for an analytics manager who can turn messy, non-standardized datasets into action—I have experience doing just that. When I joined the AppHarvest team, our data was largely siloed across different departments and software tools. My team built an engine to ingest, clean, standardize, and join this information. This set the groundwork that enabled us to launch over 20 analysis projects across talent acquisition and marketing that saved the company over $900k annually while improving metrics like time-to-hire.
Your Talent Analytics team’s commitment to fostering a collaborative environment is admirable, and throughout my career, my effectiveness in assessing data analytics needs has been largely due to my ability to quickly bond and connect with colleagues. I am excited to further discuss how my data analysis and process improvement skills can increase the efficacy of equitable hiring and lower the time and cost of hiring exceptional people.
Thank you for your consideration,
Joseph Swift
Enclosures:
Resume
Application
Transcripts
Analytics Manager Resume
Try this matching analytics manager resume.
Data Analyst Cover Letter Writing Steps
We break it down into three easy steps; you’ll have a data analyst cover letter primed and polished in no time.
Step 1: Research the role & its data analyst role
It’s important to customize your cover letter to match the job description for the data analyst position you’re applying for, and you’ll need to connect the dots between your expertise and the potential role.
On the company’s website, dig for info about the data analyst role, the area you’d be working in, and information related to their data processing and data analysis efforts.
- Try to understand the company’s mission, visions, values, and goals.
- Tie achievements from your data analysis background to things you’ve discovered about the company and role.
- Think about your achievements in report generation, data acquisition, projects, etc. Tie these to the company’s goals, objectives, initiatives, and issues they care about.
Step 2: Go into detail about your data accomplishments
One of the most important things to remember when writing your cover letter is not to duplicate your resume. Focus on telling a story about your achievements rather than repeating your job history.
Focus on telling a story about your achievements rather than repeating your job history.
This is your chance to address the specific needs or goals for the data analyst role by touting one or two (maybe three) major accomplishments that connect and align with what the company wants and needs. Use your best and most recent work when possible.
Targeting your examples to hit on the information you obtained when you researched the company and the role will impress them and demonstrate how you’ll benefit their organization.
Step 3: Communicate the right tone
Keep your cover letter brief—one page or less. Similar to writing a resume, if you include too much, recruiters may be overwhelmed, grow bored, or, worse, skip reading it entirely.
Data analysts like direct and clear communication. So, be straightforward, genuine, and professional. On the flip, be personable to distinguish yourself from other candidates. It’s a bit like a college application—outstanding grades and academic achievements are great, but extracurriculars can make the difference between getting in or not.
Now that you’ve written a great data analyst cover letter, what’s next? Proofread! Make final revisions, save your document (something professional), and send your cover letter to your prospective employer along with your resume, application, and any other requested information.
Your Data Analyst Cover Letter Outline
So, you’re starting with an empty page and want to know how to start. You need a jumpstart and a structure. Start with our comprehensive outline that breaks down your data analyst cover letter into discrete sections and clearly shows you what to include in each part:
Begin your cover letter for a data analyst
Your contact info: Most people don’t write cover letters from scratch. If you’re using one of our cover letter templates above, you may want a matching resume template; just replace the filler with your info.
As a data analyst, you know the importance of details, so don’t accidentally leave any of the generic information intact or forget to include your name, email, and number.
- Formatting: If you create a block business letter (instead of using a template), then including your address is fine. Many letterheads will have your name prominently displayed on the template, but a block letter shouldn’t include your name with the address as your name on the signature line is sufficient.
Date: Hopefully, you’re not procrastinating and are writing your letter in advance of when you want to send it. If this is true, update the date before sending it! Also, make sure that any of your data analyst supporting documentation is up-to-date and has the same delivery date as your cover letter.
- Formatting: Always use the full date, e.g. January 13, 2023.
Inside address: This is the name and address of the recipient. Include their name, position title, and the company’s address.
- Formatting: Each section of the address should be on a new line. Double space between the inside address and the greeting.
Example
Katie Kelly
Liberty Mutual Insurance, Recruiter
175 Berkeley Street
Boston, MA 02116
Greeting: The salutation can set a positive tone or dull first impressions. Whenever possible, direct your cover letter to the specific person in charge of hiring you as a data analyst.
Avoid:
- Dear Manager,
- Dear Hiring Department,
- To Whom it May Concern:
Figuring out who the hiring manager is can sometimes take extensive sleuthing skills. Include figuring this out as part of your research into the company and job role. This is another way to make your cover letter stand out from others:
- Dear Ms. Kelly:
- Dear Ms. Ortega:
- Formatting: Using a colon after the name is the formal way to do it. A comma is probably okay but will depend on how “professional” a company is.
Write your cover letter with data in mind
Body: The main section of your data analyst cover letter will be three to four—maybe five—paragraphs explaining your interest in the job, what makes you a good candidate, and your enthusiasm for future discussion. Next, we’ll break it down.
- Formatting: Single-space your lines but double-space between paragraphs.
Opening paragraph: Think compelling! Skip generic stuff that will bore the reader. Instead, start with a short sentence or two showing how you came to know about the position and why it speaks to you.
Don’t use something like this:
Example
I found your posting online and am interested in filling the data analyst position.
That’s a non-starter and a snoozer! Instead, try:
Example
As someone who has spent the last 6 years striving to improve my financial literacy, I am intimately familiar with SmartAsset’s value. For instance, I used your retirement calculator to set my 401(k) contribution rate after college graduation. Improving financial literacy is the best vehicle to address income inequality, and I would love to help SmartAsset in that fight as a data analyst.
This lead-in demonstrates a personal connection, shows a strong interest in the job, and pulls the reader in. It also demonstrates that you’ve done your homework and understand how you can contribute to the company’s goals.
Paragraphs 2-3: Now that you have their attention, hit them with some facts and figures regarding your great accomplishments. Reminder: don’t repeat your resume. This is a good opportunity to expound on a couple of your biggest accomplishments.
For example:
Example
As SmartAsset works to scale growth, I know one of the most difficult challenges is setting up proper marketing attribution to assess the efficacy of each marketing channel. While at Sensio Marketing, I was instrumental in developing real-time dashboards showing the ROI of ad spend across channels. This required coordination between data engineering to create query-able databases, marketing to understand important KPIs, and the testing team to validate different attribution models for the creation of dashboards. This attribution framework helped our team increase paid ad spend ROI by over 29 percent year over year.
We do want to emphasize the connection between your resume and cover letter. Put your strongest and most tangible accomplishments on your resume. However, your cover letter gives you more space to explore your success in light of what the company specifically needs out of a data analyst.
This also shows the importance of customizing both your resume and cover letter to the specific job you’re applying for. Your cover letter should introduce your resume and present complementary information that directly ties to the desired role.
Closing paragraph: This is your last chance to make your case and finish strong. Show hiring managers and recruiters how your values and qualifications align with the needs of the role and the company.
Keep your momentum going and don’t end on a flat note like this:
Example
I feel I am a great candidate for this data analyst position, and I am anxious to discuss the opportunity with you soon.
Yuck. This is generic and boring. Nothing at all to make them remember you.
Return to the value you’ll bring value to the company, and creatively restate your interest in the job. Include a call to action, stating your anticipation of follow-up communication and an interview. The following closing paragraph shows your commitment to finding a career-forwarding role:
Example
I am excited about the prospect of helping SmartAsset reach more people like myself who are struggling with what to do with their finances as early professionals. I welcome the opportunity to share more with you about how my experience can help SmartAsset’s marketing team reach more potential users through accurate attribution, product analytics, and automation.
End your data analyst cover letter
Signature: Say “thank you” if you haven’t done so in your closing paragraph. Use a professional close with your real name.
- Formatting: If you print your data analyst cover letter, quadruple space to leave room for signing your name in blue/black ink.
Example
Thank you for your consideration,
Adele Gallia
Enclosure(s): Here, you can provide any additional information that the job requires such as applications, references, or data analyst-related certifications.
- Formatting: Use the singular or plural form of “enclosure” depending on how many documents you’re enclosing. List each item on a separate line.
Example
Enclosures:
Resume
Application
Copy of certifications
2 letters of recommendation
Including your supporting documentation with your cover letter is always the professional thing to do. Don’t make them ask for it.
Next Stop To Your Data Analyst Job
With your top-notch data analyst cover letter in hand, consider your resume. If you’re looking at your resume, and it doesn’t seem up to snuff, no worries.
It’s normal to need to revise your resume to match each job position you apply for and, as we noted, you want to make your resume and cover letter work together seamlessly to be synchronized with the job description.
Never fear, our resume tips can offer some fresh ideas from our professional resume templates and resume examples like this editable one below.
Data Analyst Resume
Need a resume to pair with your data analyst cover letter?
Creating and revising career documents is never a fun job; we understand, and we’re here to lend a helping hand. Use the best AI resume builder and expert-approved guidance as stepping stones to make your data analyst resume and cover letter outstanding. Before you know it, you’ll be interviewing and starting your next role in your data analysis career.
Adding a personal touch by addressing the hiring manager by name can elevate your whole job application, so we strongly recommend trying out all options first. This includes checking the company on LinkedIn, browsing its website, or even emailing or calling to ask for a name. However, if it’s not possible, you can always use “Dear Hiring Manager.”
Make your interest in the company an echoing sentiment throughout the cover letter. For instance, mention that your experience in Python has led to a 30% increase in efficiency in your past role and how excited you are to bring it to the new company. Don’t forget to mention how using big data technologies, such as Hadoop or Apache Spark, has allowed you to handle complex and large datasets, providing vital insights that drove strategic decisions. Add some relevant metrics as a cherry on top.
Focus on transferable job skills. For instance, if you previously worked in tech support, mention how your ability to explain complex topics to a non-technical audience means you’ll excel at translating large data sets into actionable insights for the company’s stakeholders.
