Job Seekers

Writing Better Cover Letters

Its whole job is to say what the resume cannot: why this role, and how the pieces of your history connect to it.

The short answer

  • A cover letter should say something the resume cannot. If it summarises the resume, it is spending a reader's attention to tell them what they already have.
  • Three things earn their place: why this role specifically, the connection your resume does not make obvious, and anything that needs explaining.
  • Short. Three or four short paragraphs is plenty, and a long one is usually a sign the point has not been found yet.
  • It matters most for career changes, unusual paths and roles where writing is part of the job. It matters least where your resume already answers the posting directly.

What it is for

A resume is a record. It shows what you did and when. What it cannot do is explain a decision, connect two things that look unrelated, or say why this particular role is the one you want.

That is the entire job of a cover letter. Everything else in it is filler, and the most common filler is a paragraph-form retelling of the resume that sits directly beneath it.

The three things worth writing

Why this role. Something specific enough that it could not be sent to another company. One accurate sentence about what they do and why it interests you beats a paragraph of admiration.

The connection your resume does not make. This is the highest-value part. If your background is in logistics and the role is in operations analytics, the resume shows two things and the letter makes them one thing. Name the transferable capability and give one concrete instance of it.

Anything that needs explaining. A gap, a relocation, a change of direction, a short tenure. Brief and matter-of-fact, without apology. Explaining it once here is better than leaving a reviewer to guess, because a guess is rarely generous.

What to cut

The resume summary. They have the resume.

Adjectives about yourself. Passionate, detail-oriented, hard-working. Every applicant claims them and none of them are evidence.

Flattery of the company. Two sentences maximum, and only if specific. Generic praise reads as a template.

Anything you would not say aloud. If a sentence would sound strange spoken in an interview, it will read strangely here.

On drafting help

Generated first drafts are useful for the same reason an outline is: they break the blank page and give you something to react to. GigFinder includes a cover letter generator that drafts from your profile and the job you are applying for.

Treat the output as a draft and not as a letter. The parts that carry the value are the specifics only you know, which means the editing pass is where the letter is actually written. A draft sent unedited reads exactly like what it is, and reviewers see enough of them to recognise it.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Three things: why this role specifically, in terms that could not be sent to another company; the connection your resume does not make obvious, especially where your background looks unrelated; and a brief matter-of-fact explanation of anything that would otherwise be guessed at, such as a gap or a change of direction.
Three or four short paragraphs. A long cover letter is usually a sign the writer has not yet found the point. Nothing in a longer letter compensates for a reader stopping halfway.
It depends on the application. They matter most for career changes, unusual paths, and roles where writing is part of the job, because those are the cases where a resume alone leaves a reader with a question. They matter least where your resume already answers the posting directly.
As a first draft, yes, and it solves the blank page problem. Send it unedited and it reads exactly like what it is. The parts that carry the value are the specifics only you know, so the editing pass is where the letter actually gets written.

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Draft it in the application

The cover letter generator drafts from your profile and the job you are applying for, so you start from a draft rather than a blank page.

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