Sample cover letter for Full Time position at Hivos

Dear Sir/Madame,

This letter is to express my enthusiasm about applying as a Project Officer for the Mideast Creatives Youth Entrepreneurship at Hivos. I for long have been inspired by Hivos’ mission to contribute to a free, fair and sustainable world. I come from a solid entrepreneurship and economics background that dates back to my undergraduate career. During my BA in Economics from the American University in Cairo (AUC), I cofounded the first product innovation competition and online show for University students in Egypt; The Hit, in partnership with the biggest ecommerce website in the MENA region; Souq.com, to sell the winning products on their portal. Afterwards, I was granted a research fellowship from MakeSense; a French organization which aims to help solve the challenges of social entrepreneurs through its crowd generated manuals and tools. The objective was to travel to 16 countries around the Mediterranean region for the duration of 5 months to conduct research on social entrepreneurship as a viable alternative to the NGO model. The research was funded by private sector companies; Orange for telecommunications and Veolia for environmental services, to provide a framework for the companies’ CSR vision in the Mediterranean region on our findings. My passion for Economic development grew after witnessing firsthand the binding constraints facing entrepreneurs’ in the region and accordingly I joined the Queen Rania Foundation for Education and Development (QRF) as a teacher assistant to develop the first Arabic Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Economic development in the Middle East called Arabs Economies; Status Quo and Trajectory. The MOOC quantitatively analyzed the biggest challenges facing the region’s economies; from access to finance, poverty and unemployment, etc. I currently work as an economic advisor at Decode Economic and Financial Consulting firm with tremendous connection and understanding of the local economy and doing business in Egypt. My job caters for the increasing interest and need among businesses and organizations to monitor, analyze, understand and forecast the Egyptian economic and market trends in specific and the regional markets in general. I am thankful for my past experiences as they are constructive yet diverse in nature. They gave me the resilience to handle managements' pressures of getting things done and getting them done right -with several stakeholders in each of the above mentioned projects . My fellowship with MakeSense and content design experience with QRF have taught me that effective communication and true collaboration for a shared target -that I am in charge of- are essential for proper work. My current employment at Decode EFC have instilled in me a strong capacity to have a solid vision and strategic view on the local economy while learning to keep clients happy through very detailed propositions. I feel that the mix between my work experience; in the regional and local context, and extracurricular activities are an indication of my eligibility as a viable candidate for the job. Hivos is a place where I can be an asset and a place I want to be.