Introduction
Writing a successful cover letter doesn’t have to be intimidating.
Whether you’re an entry-level job seeker or making a career switch, it’s essential to tailor your cover letter for the job you’re applying for and showcase why hiring managers should consider your credentials above others.
Crafting a standout cover letter is relatively easy when you know what steps to follow, and the kind of information hiring recruiters are looking for from applicants like you.
In this blog post, we’ll provide all the information and helpful tips you need on how to write a killer cover letter that will take your career prospects to the next level, such as:
- What is a Cover Letter?
- Why are Cover Letters Important?
- How to Format Your Cover Letter
- Additional Cover Letter Formatting Tips
- How to Write a Cover Letter
- Great Examples of Cover Letters
- And a Cover Letter Writing Checklist to help you when you’re finished
Now that you know what we’re learning today, let’s start writing a cover letter to get that awesome tech career!
What is a Cover Letter?
A cover letter is a one-page document you submit with your job application alongside your resume.
Cover letters explain who you are, what you’ve achieved, and why you fit the role and the company.
Furthermore, a cover letter can also supplement and enhance your resume as it explains how you can add value.
Because of the above, if done well, these letters can help you break through the noise as a job applicant and put you on the fast track to landing a job.
And now that we’ve gone over what a cover letter is let’s talk about why you should submit one.
Why Should You Write a Cover Letter?
The main reason why you should write a cover letter is that employers prefer you send them in with your application.
Because if you don’t, you risk losing out on a job opportunity to someone else who went above and beyond with their application.
Take this 2017 Study from Jobvite as 26% of recruiters and hiring managers consider cover letters when making their decision for which applicant should be hired.
This is why they’re critical; a quarter of the time, cover letters are considered in the hiring decision-making process.
But in case you don’t believe that stat, Sage Journals also states that 56% of employers prefer you submit a cover letter.
Consider this, if you were to apply for 100 jobs:
- 56 of those employers want you to submit that cover letter
- Of those 56, if you make it to the final stages of the hiring process, 15 of those employers will use your cover letter to aid them in their decision-making process of who to hire
So if you don’t submit a cover letter, you’ll most likely lose out on those 15 jobs as you don’t have anything to support your application.
Which shows that employers do care about cover letters!
But if you want more information as to why cover letters are essential in the job hunt, read Why are Cover Letters Important? as we answer all of the questions you may have about them.
Now that you understand the reasons for cover letters, let’s start by formatting our cover letter first to make it easier to write.
How to Format a Cover Letter
When formatting a cover letter, there are many things that you can do to make a cover letter look great.
But what you need to focus on primarily are these items such as:
- Which templates to use
- Spacing and Margins
- Fonts and Font Sizes
- Length of your cover letter
When following these formatting guidelines, you’ll have a format that will allow you to write out your cover letter seamlessly.
Additionally, with a great cover letter format, you can ensure that your cover letter will be pleasing to look at from a visual perspective and be worry-free as you’ll meet the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) guidelines.
Let’s jump into each formatting guideline to start creating this cover letter.
Template Builders To Use
When looking at Cover Letter formatting, the first thing you’ll need to do is pick out a template from a template builder.
Now you may be wondering why do I need a template?
For starters, templates help you build ATS-friendly cover letters.
Second, instead of making your template and taking a lot of time to meet all the rules and guidelines, you can save a lot of time by using a template builder.
Template builders make it easy for you to use, as all you need to do is plug in your information, and boom, you’re done.
The template builders that I recommend that you use are as follows:
Each of these websites offer a plethora of templates and template builders that you can use to make a cover letter that you’re confident in.
However, if you don’t like any of those template builders above, you’re always free to take inspiration from those template builders and create your own template using Google Docs.
And if you want to go down that route, start that Google Doc and follow the additional rules below, as your cover letter will need to meet these guidelines.
Spacing
First, starting with spacing, you need to break down each section (Header, Intro, Body, Closing, and Signoff) and leave one space between each part of the cover letter.
Additionally, when writing the cover letter’s content, which we will review in a second, you’ll need 1.15 – 1.5 point line spacing between each line of your cover letter.
This type of spacing will make your copy on your document more appealing as you don’t want to have too much white space on your cover letter.
Margins
For margins, use margins between .5″ to 1″, but if you need to adjust the margin due to spacing constraints, make sure you look at your template in a PDF format so that it doesn’t come out weird.
Fonts to Use
For font style, keep it clean and professional. Fonts that I and many others recommend are Times New Roman, Georgia, and Arial.
But if those fonts don’t work for you, make sure to use a font that’s easy to read, as you need to avoid fancy fonts at all costs!
Font Sizes To Use
Use any font size between 10.5 – 12 point for font size. Anything larger or smaller will mess up the format of your cover letter.
Furthermore, if you use a small font, it’ll be more challenging for the hiring manager to read your cover letter.
And if you use too large of a font, this will give you less room to sell yourself.
Cover Letter Length
The cover letter’s length should be one page and, at most, 500 words.
It’s not a resume but an introductory letter to let the employer know who you are and why they should hire you.
Your cover letter should be short and to the point, not a biography about yourself.
Additional Cover Letter Formatting Tips
Now that you have the basics down, some other tips that you’ll want to pay attention to are:
- Type of document that you want to save your cover letter format in
- The naming convention of your cover letter
- Alignment of your cover letter
Following these tips will improve your cover letter as you want to ensure the employer can receive and read it well.
Let’s dive in and explore these additional tips, shall we?
Saving your Cover Letter File
When saving your cover letter, you’ll want to save it to a proper file format. And the file formatting that you want to save it in is either in PDF or DOCX format.
PDF or DOCX format is preferred as most employers require this format on their job apps.
The main reason is that PDFs and DOCX files can easily pass through the ATS and cannot be modified by others, so you can be sure that it’s readable and ready to go.
Naming Your Cover Letter File
After you have selected the chosen file format, next, you’ll want to name your file.
When saving the file and naming it, you’ll want to name the file something simple as Your Name – Cover Letter (i.e., Nick Niles – Cover Letter)
Alignment of your Cover Letter
Lastly, before you start writing your cover letter, this is a given but make sure you left align your letter.
Otherwise, all the formatting tips and guidelines will be thrown out the window, as alignment is the most critical part of making a visually appealing cover letter.
If you’ve followed all of the formatting tips we just listed above, you should have a cover letter that’s well formatted and ready for content.
Now let’s move on to the part you’ve been waiting for, which is writing the cover letter.
How to Write a Cover Letter
After you’ve formatted your cover letter, you now need to do the most challenging part: writing it.
But don’t worry, we’re almost to the finish line.
And if you follow the tips and tricks below, you’ll be able to write a cover letter quickly in no time.
But first, before we start writing, you need to understand the essential parts that will help us break down the cover letter, such as:
- Your Contact Info
- Employers Information
- Greeting
- Introduction Paragraph
- Body Paragraph
- Closing Paragraph and Call to Action
- Signoff and Salutation
Each of these parts of a cover letter is essential as it helps us weave together a letter that will catch the eye of employers and convince them to read our resumes.
Let’s break down each of these parts individually and learn how to write this cover letter.
Contact Info
The first part of your cover letter that you need to write out is your contact info.
This part is straightforward as all you need to do put your first and last name at the top, then your phone number and email on another line.
After that, on the third line, put your city, state, and zip code to let employers know where you’re from.
When doing the contact info part, you should center your contact info and make it look like this.
To make your contact info look precisely like the picture above, follows these steps:
- First and Last Name should be bolded and sized 18 point
- Phone number and email should not be bolded and sized 12 point
- Put the city, state, and zip in parenthesis and size that to 12 point
After you have completed the contact info part of your cover letter, move on to the next part.
Employers Information
For the employer’s information, you’ll go directly below your contact info and align the information to the left.
Then, put the date of the application and leave a space between the date and employer information.
Here you’ll need the company’s name, street address, city, state, and zip code for their information.
To find an employer’s information, you can go to the employer’s website and look towards the bottom of their homepage or the contact page to find their address.
Once you find this info, this section should look like this:
Once this part is completed, move onto the greeting.
Greeting
When starting your cover letter, you’ll need to address it to the hiring manager or department you’re applying to.
The greeting is vital because addressing your cover letter to the right person or department shows that you did your research, which will separate you from the other job seekers.
Many job seekers need to take the time to do proper research, as writing a generic greeting or cover letter is a common cover letter mistake make.
And if you don’t take the time to research who the hiring manager or hiring department is, this will make you look lazy, and it could cost you a job opportunity to someone who went above and beyond.
Don’t let this be you, as finding the hiring manager or department is very easy.
Take a look below to see how to find the hiring manager.
How to Find the Hiring Manager or Department
To find the hiring manager or department, all you need to do is read the job description (JD), as most of the time, they’ll have a statement like this:
If however, the JD doesn’t have a listed manager, do a simple LinkedIn search and search up the department + manager (i.e., for customer success it would be Manager of Customer Success, or Director and etc.)
Once you find the person start the greeting by saying Dear First & Last Name.
But if all else fails and you cannot find anyone that you could potentially report to, do not use a generic opener such as:
- To whom it may concern
- Dear Madam or Sir
- Dear Recruiter or Hiring Manager
Instead, just use Dear Hiring Department (i.e., Dear Customer Success Department)
That way you can avoid looking lazy and still show you’ve done some research.
After you’ve figured out who to greet, it should look like this:
From there, you’re now ready to write the introduction paragraph. So keep reading. You’re almost done!
Introduction Paragraph
To start your cover letter, the introduction paragraph will be the one that sets the tone as you need to hook the employer into reading all of it from start to finish.
And to do this, your intro paragraph should cover these necessary items such as:
- Who you are
- What job that you want
- What makes you a fit for the job
- One result or metric that makes you a fit for the role
Covering these four parts of your cover letter will tell the employer everything they need to know, so they’ll be interested in reading more about you.
Before writing the introduction, make sure you understand what the role entails and what the employer needs so you can show metrics relevant to the JD.
Now I know this is easier said than done, so let’s break down a quick example.
How to Write the Introduction Paragraph
Let’s say I was applying for this job as a sales development rep here:
I would start my intro paragraph like this:
“Dear John Smith,
To introduce myself, my name is Nick Niles, and I would love to join your company Recurly as a Sales Development Representative.
Currently, I work at company XYZ as a Sales Assistant at an SMB Software provider. During my time at company XYZ, I have generated 44 Sales Accepted Leads which generated $500K in pipeline while meeting or exceeding my quota every month on the job.
With my current and past sales experiences, I believe I’m the right candidate for this job.”
As you can see within the sample job description, they want someone who can meet sales targets and generate interest which the results and metrics in the sample paragraph shows.
And it’s that simple show them who you are, what job you want, and why you’re a fit for the job through past experiences, results, and metrics.
This will get the employer to read through your cover letter. And, of course, make sure you fill in the paragraph with your experiences and results, as you don’t want to lie on your cover letter.
If you need help writing out your cover letter, let us know, as you can schedule some time with us on our Services page to get that job you want!
Body Paragraph
Now that the intro is written and you’ve hooked your reader, the body paragraph will reinforce what we can do and how we can add value to the given company we’re applying to.
And within your body paragraph, you’ll need to include elements such as:
- Why you want to work for that specific company
- Why you’re a fit for the company
- More metrics and past results
- Three bullet points of skills and knowledge that you have
With these elements, these will make your body paragraph stand out while making a lasting impression.
And now that you know what you need to do within the body, let’s write it out.
How to Write The Body Paragraph
Using the same example from the job description earlier, you’d want to write your body paragraph like this:
“The reason why I want to work for Recurly is revenue and customer retention are crucial metrics in any business, and knowing that Recurly is the #1 Subscription Management and Billing Platform, makes me very excited to see that this opportunity is open so that I can make a massive impact with future customers if given the opportunity.
Additionally, I also believe that I’m a fit for this role because with my current and past experiences being a Sales Assistant and Sales Intern, I have acquired many skills such as:
- CRM and sales tool knowledge (HubSpot, Salesforce, and Salesloft)
- Cold calling and sales development skills (Currently have met my quota 100% of the time since working at company XYZ)
- 2+ years of experience in Sales and Customer Service both over the phone and in person.”
Here you reinforce why you want to join the company and show that you’ve done your research, as you need to scan their webpage and home/about page to figure out why you want to work for them.
For this example, I just went to the website to see what problems they solve and why I would be personally excited to work for them.
Then you drive the point home showing that you can succeed in the actual role as you label the relevant skills and achievements in the JD.
Which shows that you are competent enough to do the job.
And if the employer has read up until now, you need to bring it home and get that interview!
Closing Paragraph and Call to Action
The last paragraph of the cover letter is the closing and call to action (CTA).
Here you need to include elements such as:
- Thank you for the employer
- Your contact info
- And call to action
To finish out your cover letter strong, here’s what you will write:
“Thank you so much for taking the time to review this introduction. I’m very excited about the possibility of working for your company.
Within my application, I have included my resume for your review.
If there are any potential synergies here, I would love to speak with all of you as you can contact me at (XXX) XXX-XXXX or through email at firstlastname@gmail.com.”
Here you thank the reader for their time and reinstate how enthusiastic you are about the job and what the next step would be if they wanted to speak to you.
And that wraps up the cover letter writing process, and now we need to close out the letter.
Signoff and Salutation
Lastly, you’ve completed the final paragraph, you must close out the letter.
And to do this, skip a line or two towards the bottom and have a statement such as
“Looking forward to speaking with all of you soon.”
or
“I hope to speak with all of you very soon.”
After you have the last statement down, then skip another line and finish it out with a salutation such as:
- Kindest Regards
- Sincerely
- Best Regards
Or any other salutation you find that fits.
Then, skip another line and put your name down at the bottom once more, as this section should look like this:
And that’s a wrap! To see what all of the sections look like in action, here it is:
Great Examples of Cover Letters
If you’ve gotten to this point, great work! You now know how to write a cover letter.
Just in case you need some inspiration, here are some examples of cover letters made by those template builders we spoke about earlier:
Resume Genius Cover Letter Example
ResumeLab Cover Letter Example
MyPerfectResume Cover Letter Example
Resume.io Cover Letter Example
NovoResume Cover Letter Example
Cover Letter Writing Checklist
After you’ve written your cover letter entirely, make sure you go through this checklist and ask yourself these questions to make sure you’ve covered everything:
- Is my cover letter formatted properly?
- Does my cover letter include my contact info, employer information, greeting, intro, body, and closing paragraphs with a CTA and salutation?
- Is my cover letter free from spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors?
- Is my cover letter saved in PDF or DOCX Format with your name in the file name?
- Does my cover letter look good when saved in PDF or DOCX Format?
- Does my cover letter include my name and contact info?
- Have I double-checked and read my cover letter out loud?
- Have I had a friend or family member read over my cover letter for the last edits?
If you answer yes to all of these questions, you’re ready to move on to either job hunting or writing out your resume depending on where at you’re in the process.
Conclusion
So there you have it! By following these tips on cover letter writing, you’ll be able to whip up a great cover letter with ease.
And to go over what we learned, here’s what we’ve covered:
- What cover letters are
- Why cover letters are important
- How to format a cover letter
- How to write a cover letter
- Great examples of cover letters
- And the checklist you need to make sure your cover letter is excellent
Lastly, remember, stay confident, clear, concise, and, most importantly – honest!
We wish you all the best of luck in your job search journey, and if you need any help along the way – we’re always here for you.
Now that you have the cover letter completed, remember that you also need a resume!
And if you need help writing one, look at our guide, How to Write a Resume, to get started.