"response to the advertisement of PostDoc position" - a cover letter

This is what I have written. Would you please give me advice on the following: Thank you very much in advance.

Dear Prof. ****,

I am writing you in response to the advertisement of PostDoc position under your supervision. I am currently finishing my PhD programme under the supervision of Dr. *** at the Department of ****. My dissertation is entitled "*****". I am due to submit my dissertation in the **** 2011 and defend it in the future date. I found the research topic to estimate the demand systems for the smart appliances, such as smart meter and electric vehicles, fascinating and with significant policy implications for the **** electricity market and for other countries as well. I believe that I would be able to contribute to the field because my previous researches and experiences are tightly related to the topic.

My PhD dissertation consists of three papers which analyse the energy storage from different angles, i.e. consumer, developer and societal perspectives, using distinct methodologies. In order to evaluate the profitability of the storage system when it was combined with the wind generation, I wrote a code of simple power system in the MATLAB which takes into account of the storage system that was operated under different operational strategies. This paper is published in the November 2010 issue of ****Journal. When I investigated the storage system from the consumer's perspective, I employed regression techniques to investigate the effect of pumped hydro storage system on the shadow price of electricity using historical data for the *** power system and WILMAR model to calibrate potential effects of large scale electricity storage on the wholesale electricity price. Moreover, I used the time series analysis to investigate the effect of storage system on the economy through the electricity market by examining the effects of electricity price and sector specific electricity consumption shocks on the sector specific value added.

In the future, I would be very much interested in examining the household electricity consumption behaviours and estimate the demand systems of electricity consumption, smart appliances and optimal pricing mechanisms for the electricity usage and adaptation of the smart appliances using the survey data such as ****.

Furthermore, as a graduate student, I combined the research and the teaching. Most recently, I led the tutorials on Mathematics and Statistics for the first year students at *** and involved in the correction of the final exams for the academic year of 2009/10 and 2010/11.

I have enclosed a copy of my curriculum vitae, together with three manuscripts. If you require any further information please call or write me an email.

Thank you very much for your consideration and looking forward to hearing back from you.

Best regards,
****

PhD Scholar
Mobile ******
email *****
address *****

Let's be more formal and call it a postdoctoral position, even if it says PostDoc on the ad.

Okay, and in the SECOND sentence of the essay you should give the reader the most powerful, persuasive sentence you can muster up. What is it? What is the unique, great idea that drives you? Can you adopt an idea that you know is meaningful to the organization with which you want the position?


You'll have to be more specific here. What do you mean? If you truly are ready to contribute to the field, you need to be able to express some unique idea instead of just generally saying you have research experience related to the topic. Give the reader something she can sink her teeth into. Give her a real concept/idea.

As you refine this, speak to their interests. What are their interests?
:-)

In the future, I would be very much interested in examining the household electricity consumption ...