Postdoc Cover Letter: Sample and Template

A cover letter for a postdoctoral researcher position, with a fictional example from a Pakistani PhD graduate and a template you can fill in.

When to use this

Use this when you apply for an advertised postdoctoral or research fellow position at a university or institute. Postdoc adverts usually ask for a cover letter of one to two pages, a CV with publications, and sometimes a research statement. You can see examples in our list of funded PhD and postdoc positions.

A postdoc cover letter is read by people who will work with you every day. They want to know what you have already published or built, what you can do for their project from the first month, and what you want to develop next.

Always follow the advert. If it asks for specific headings, a page limit or answers to set questions, use those. The employer's advert is the final word.

What hiring committees look for:

Your PhD topic and main findings in two or three sentences
Publications or other outputs that show you can finish work
Skills that match the advert: methods, software, lab techniques, fieldwork
A short, specific plan for how you would contribute to the project
Signs you can work in a team: co-authors, supervising students, collaborations

The sample

This sample is fictional. The applicant, the papers and the project are invented. Write your own letter in your own words.

Dear Professor [Surname],

I am applying for the position of "[exact title]" (reference [number]) in your group at [University]. I completed my PhD in Computer Science at [University], Islamabad, in [month, year]. My thesis studied how to make large language models run efficiently on limited hardware, and I would like to bring this work to your project on large language model inference.

During my PhD I developed a quantisation method that reduced memory use by [x]% with less than [y] points loss in accuracy on standard benchmarks. This work appeared in [venue, year] and [venue, year], and the code is public on GitHub with [n] stars. I also co-supervised two master's students and taught the undergraduate Operating Systems course for two semesters.

The advert mentions scheduling and serving models across many GPUs. In my last year I built a small serving system for our department's shared cluster, which taught me how batching and memory limits interact in practice. In the first months of the project I could [one concrete contribution], and over the two years I would like to [one longer-term aim linked to the group's work].

I enclose my CV with a full publication list and a two-page research statement. [Referee 1] and [Referee 2] have agreed to write references. Thank you for your consideration.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Ayesha Malik [email] | [Google Scholar] | [GitHub]

Template you can fill in

Dear [Professor / Dr] [Surname],

I am applying for the position of "[exact title]" (reference [number]) at [University / institute]. I [completed / will complete] my PhD in [field] at [University] in [month, year]. My thesis [one-line summary], and I would like to bring this to your project on [project topic].

[Two or three sentences on your main results and outputs: papers, code, datasets, patents.]

[Two or three sentences matching the advert's requirements, with evidence. Then one concrete first contribution and one longer-term aim.]

I enclose [documents the advert asks for]. [Referee names] have agreed to write references. Thank you for your consideration.

Yours sincerely, [Name] [Contact details and profile links]

How to adapt this

Lead with your PhD and its main result, not with your background or motivation.
Use numbers you can back up: papers, citations only if meaningful, datasets, code, students supervised.
Name one paper or project of the group and say how your work connects to it.
Keep it within the advert's limit. One page is usually enough; two at most.
Ask your referees first before naming them.

Common mistakes

Writing a letter about yourself with no link to the advertised project.
Listing every course and certificate from your undergraduate years.
Claiming skills the advert asks for without any evidence.
Sending the letter to a general address when the advert names a contact.
Forgetting to say when you can start if the advert asks.