Generally, I have basically had my cover letter as my cold email and probably had about 25% respond back. My resume and GPA are not stellar by any means and I am a non target. My cover includes my info, background, why I am interested and a request to set up a phone call for more info. It is about 3 short paragraphs.
In general, I know everyone says keep it short and simple.
Do you find it annoying when people send 3 short paragraphs?
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If you mention everything about yourself in your initial cold email they have no reason to speak with you, because what else will they learn about you?
Keep it very short, sweet, and simple.
Use your subject heading to grab their attention with how you're connected with them. I do this format:
"Interest in firm - school undergrad reaching out" (If alumni) "Interest in firm - fraternity chapter undergrad reaching out" (If same fraternity)
Your greeting should be about one sentence long - it'll include your name, major, and university. Then follow up with how you found their information/name who referred you to them.
After that you should go into your request to speak with them.
My cold email format is about 5 sentences long and separated into 3 sections to make it look shorter. I prep my emails the night before, and then wake up at 8AM and hit send. Weekdays only. I've gotten about a 50% same day response rate, and about 75% total response rate with my emails. But then again I'm hitting mostly boutiques/MM.
Personally, I leave my GPA out of the equation unless specifically asked because I'm only a freshman and I got a 2.0 first semester (lol pledging) and have a 3.4 now for a cumm of around 2.7. But I did get my offer without even talking about my GPA and just being very personable.
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