this is how to write a good cover letter

by Alison Green on November 12, 2024

Over the course of my career, I’ve read probably tens of thousands of cover letters. (And yes, that’s as boring as it sounds.) What I’ve learned from doing that is that most job applicants’ cover letters are truly awful – and as a result, if you’re willing to put in the time to write a good one, you can stand out from your competition in a really effective way.

A great cover letter won’t get you the job if you’re not qualified, but it can make a hiring manager notice you in a sea of applicants and encourage them to interview you when you otherwise might have been overlooked. In fact, a good cover letter can be such an effective way of boosting your application that I’m always amazed by how many candidates don’t bother to take advantage of the opportunity they offer.

At New York Magazine today, I wrote about how to get cover letters right.

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  1. Three Flowers*

    I’m curious what you think about AI and cover letters. Obviously a first pass by ChatGPT is vague and crappy, but with refinement of the prompt and editing, you get a bit of a shortcut to something reasonably tailored. I have no ethical qualms about this since companies are going to use a much dumber system to weed out resumes. What are others’ experiences?

    1. Public Defender*

      I used Chat GPT to get some ideas of things to say in my cover letter, but I didn’t use it even as a draft really, just one point of inspiration. I think that’s generally the best way to use AI.

    2. Paint N Drip*

      I like to use AI for ELEMENTS of my cover letters. I tend to rephrase most if not all of the content it spits out, but it gives me a place to start – I find the professional dense language of your typical cover letter does not come naturally to me.
      Prompts about how do I address X in the job description with my history of Y? Consolidate XYZ skills into one sentence. Can you turn this vague job description into a skill list. etc.

    4. Nonanon*

      I’ll use it from time to time if I straight up cannot figure out what to say; think less “I have a degree outside this field but here are all the transferable skills” and more “okay, how do I say ‘it be like that sometimes’ in a professional way.” I view it more as similar to asking a friend for their opinion vs. a resume writing service. You’re hiring ME, not ChatGPT; you should be reading my cover letter.

    5. Buffalo*

      I’m hiring for the first time since the advent of ChatGPT, and it’s amazing how many AI cover letters there are now. On the one hand, it’s a tool – I actually *want* employees who can use tech to improve their performance, and I want to credit applicants for their ingenuity. On the other hand, back in my day, we used to write cover letters ourselves, get off of my lawn, etc.

      1. Spacewoman Spiff*

        If you can identify the AI cover letters easily, I think that’s a good example of why NOT to use AI to write cover letters! If someone can use it so well that it’s not evident to the reader that AI was involved in the cover letter…that’s one thing, a sign that someone is using this tool effectively. But I think many more people just use it to produce the sort of generic, toss-it-aside cover letters Alison mentions, that are regurgitating some combination of the JD and the applicant’s resume. I suspect the people best equipped to use AI to assist in cover letters are the people who understand what a good cover letter looks like, and therefore the people least likely to use AI for their cover letters.

        (As an aside, in recent hiring for a writing-focused role in my office, some of the cover letters were obviously produced by AI, and none of those candidates went on to an interview. Why someone would apply to a writing-centered job using materials that don’t showcase their writing skills…)

    6. NaN*

      I had to screen applications recently, and the amount of AI nonsense was unbelievable. We don’t accept cover letters, but the application does have a text box for basically “why are you interested in this job?” The AI-generated answers were very obvious, almost identical from candidate to candidate, and genuinely just bad. Absolute word salad. I support using AI to get started and get ideas about this sort of thing, I do it myself, but good grief please be smart about it.

    7. Compliance is fun*

      I’ve shared this before here, but about 4 months ago I was looking for work so I wrote a draft cover letter and resume and fed them into Gemini with the job description. I wanted Gemini to make the cover letter a little snappier and to customise it for the job, which it did perfectly! The worst thing about doing a bunch of cover letters at once is customising small parts, like changing “your company” to “your institution” in all the right places and not missing any so I was pretty happy Gemini could do that for me.
      Anyway, so I gave Gemini a few more job descriptions to customise the cover letters for me… and it forgot the context. This is a common problem with AI. Instead of putting in my previous job names, it put in “my previous experience with [insert company name here]”. And due to the success of the last two cover letters I didn’t properly proof read this one and I sent it off as is and didn’t even notice. The company gave me a job interview, which was when I reread the cover letter and noticed my mistake. But it seems that no one else read my cover letter either and I have been happily working for this company for nearly 3 months now.

    8. Pen and Ink*

      In my experience, it’s almost always quicker and easier to just write the letter than to faff around with the generative AI tool trying to “refine” the prompt and edit the generic dross it produces into something that has a suitable tone and level of personalisation. I suppose if someone is really poor at writing the AI might give them a way to overcome the barrier, but any halfway competent writer should be able to do significantly better without much hassle.

    9. Helewise*

      Don’t assume every company uses a system to weed out resumes. We’re a small office and read every one. I have mixed feelings on AI, but if you can’t write without it that would be a problem in my context. We handle too much sensitive information.

    10. TSS*

      Popping up to play my role as AI Grinch: Please don’t use AI for this stuff because *AI uses more energy and resources than the results could ever possibly justify.* The juice is not worth the squeeze. This area is one of many where you, a being with genuine intelligence, will be far more efficient and effective than any artificial model.

    11. Jennifer @unchartedworlds*

      I have no ethical qualms about this since companies are going to use a much dumber system to weed out resumes.

      I think the main ethical issues with LLMs are

      – how much energy did it use up, in this time of climate crisis

      – how much water did it use (for cooling at the data centre), and is the heat disrupting local ecosystems

      – did the AI company pay the original writers for the writing which was fed in & scrambled as ingredients, or did they just assume it was okay to take.

    12. BurnOutCandidate*

      I fed ChatGPT my resume and asked it to summarize my work history. It gave me an interesting paragraph that I rewrote from the ground up for a cover letter. I don’t know if it was a good idea or a bad idea; that particular job ghosted me entirely.

  2. Mostly Managing*

    This is totally how to write a strong cover letter.
    I’ve been in my current position for about nine months now, and have been told that my cover letter was a large part of how I got the interview. It certainly wasn’t my background, which is highly unconventional for the position I’m in! But I explained myself well enough to get the interview, and interviewed well enough to get the offer.

    (and yes, I used Alison’s cover letter advice at the time!)

    1. Unkempt Flatware*

      I have been told my cover letter is what got me the interviews. I have incredible experience but the cover letter sells me. My cover letter is unhinged. I got so bored one day that I finally wrote it like I was talking to a friend about what I wanted and what I was bringing to the table. I say such wacky shit in there and recruiters and managers love it.

    2. Alisaurus*

      I also got an interview based off of my cover letter once! Writing skills were a big part of the job, and my manager later told me that my letter stood out because I was the only one to use a semicolon. Which made me laugh but I also found fascinating.

    3. Helewise*

      There were so many resumes I reviewed in our last hiring round that were just BEGGING for a cover letter. How do all these things on your resume connect?? Help me help you!

    4. Edwina*

      I used Alison’s advice, too, and I got a quick response from the hiring manager. We’re had a great “conversational” conversation that I don’t think would have happened if she didn’t have my cover letter to reference. Unfortunately we were $45k apart on salary because I would have liked working for her, and I really liked the company’s mission.

  3. Elbie*

    Your tips are tried and true! When I was job searching, I used your recommendations for both my resume and cover letter, and once implemented, my invitation for interviews noticeably increased and I landed a job 5 years ago that has been my favorite of my professional career!

  4. Lily Potter*

    To anyone who thinks cover letters aren’t read/out of fashion/unnecessary (this seems to be a thing on LinkedIn) I counter that I wouldn’t have a job now but for my cover letter. My boss told me that he was about to pass on my application until he read mine. I’m overqualified for the job but I explained in my cover letter why I wanted it anyway. His initial concern with my background was that I’d quit in six months for something better but my cover letter was enough to convince him that I could be in it with him the long haul. I got the job and eight months later have no plans to go anywhere!

    1. Judge Judy and Executioner*

      Yes this! I applied for a job out of my field, but one that I was qualified for with my education and experience. I knew I needed a cover letter to explain, but there wasn’t a spot for one in the online portal. So I leveraged the comment box as a cover letter and put in there that while I knew I wasn’t the typical candidate, it was a dream job for me. I listed the reasons why I was interested and qualified, and mentioned that I hoped they would consider my application. I was still surprised when I got a call back for an interview a few weeks later, especially since I hadn’t bothered to change my resume to fit the role. I know that this was the power of my cover letter in the comment box!

      In my situation, I had already accepted a position at a different organization and had started working there, so I declined to proceed in the dream job interview process. It still would be a dream job, but the compensation package would have come in a little low for me. Also, I knew the previous person in the position and there were some nightmare aspects of the role, so I think it worked out for the best.

  5. Abogado Avocado*

    Just want to say Alison is totally right that a cover letter can make you stand out from the crowd. I’m on a hiring committee where we’ve had a ton of applicants, and where we score (among other things) how well-written and accurate the cover letter is.

    Everyone our committee has chosen to interview has submitted a cover letter that has highlighted important aspects of their work experience and how that experience applies to the prospective job. By contrast, those we’ve chosen not to interview have, to a person, submitted generic cover letters or cover letters that seem intended for another type of job — for example, supervising for-profit llama grooming — when we’re hiring for someone to supervise non-profit llama grooming.

    This experience has underlined for me that a great cover letter not only is an asset for the job applicant, but also to those doing the hiring. And many thanks to Alison for again emphasizing this essential, but often overlooked, part of job applications.

  6. Lamont and Rollo*

    I’ve never used a cover letter myself (not done in my industry), but if I ever needed to this is an incredibly thorough guide.

  7. ubotie*

    Honestly I am very much over cover letters (and I think that whether or not they’re actually a necessary evil/requirement is very much a “know your industry” type of thing). I also think that a lot of the advice around the importance of cover letters assumes that “everyone” is applying for like, white collar, knowledge work-type jobs–and maybe even mission-based nonprofit ones at that. The kind of jobs where hiring managers *really* want to see *passion* and *belief in the MISSION* from job candidates especially when they know they can’t compete on salary and/or other benefits. So yeah sure, cover letter away, I guess. But for A LOT of other jobs, I think that this whole “here is a one-page piece of euphemistic fan fiction about how much I love TPS reports when really I just love having a regular salary and health insurance” rigmarole is another outdated trend that Millennials or Gen Z or whomever should have “killed.” Maybe Gen Alpha will finally kill it when they start entering the workforce in droves.

    1. Sola Lingua Bona Lingua Mortua Est*

      That’s about how I feel. Plus, if the odds of any given manager responding are under 1%, I’d rather focus my efforts on casting as wide a net as possible rather than doubling down spending more time composing a document for free that, odds are, will not be read let alone result in an interview.

      I’m glad they work for others, but if my résumé doesn’t convey that I’m a fit for the job, either it needs work for every job opening or I’m not a fit for that job.

      1. Rosacolleti*

        But often the cover letter gets read first and is the gateway to whether the CV gets looked at.
        I work with grads to help them find that first job and I always tell them to craft fewer but well targeted applications than adopt the scattergun approach. The ‘easy apply’ button is death to an application.

    2. FricketyFrack*

      As a millennial, I’ve been trying my best to kill them by refusing to apply to jobs that require them because the bulk of my career has been spent in mid-to-high-level administrative work and there’s no reason for that nonsense. Requiring a cover letter tells me that employer is going to stick to precedent regardless of whether it makes sense, and that’s not for me. Literally the only scenario in which I’d consider writing one is if I were looking to completely change industries and wanted to highlight transferable skills.

    3. Insert Pun Here*

      I work in a “passion” industry (book publishing) and the “OMG I have just loved books my whole life, that’s why I’m applying for this job” cover letters are… not disqualifying, but certainly not the strongest candidates. Passion is fine, but also you need to know how to use excel. If it is not immediately obvious from your resume what you can do in excel, then your cover letter is a great opportunity to explain it to me.

    4. CS Life*

      I hire for customer support roles and cover letters are super helpful for me. I get a TON of applicants and resumes either similar or it’s unclear how they qualify. For the first group, a cover letter helps me understand how they differ. I don’t need them to wax poetic about our product or industry, but hearing about the types of issues they’ve supported, their support style, medium, how they’ve gone above and beyond for a customer, etc. helps. For the latter group, it helps me to understand how they qualify if it’s not obvious or what they bring if they are shifting careers.

      2. Reluctant Mezzo*

        Yes, a note along the lines of ‘I am forever annoying my friends by complaining about typos I see in published work’ might be a bit more helpful.

      3. ubotie*

        TBH I think maybe the resume or phone screen should/could maybe do that? So if someone is applying to an admin-heavy role and it isn’t somehow obvious that they aren’t proficient at Excel (which you’d expect to be a very basic requirement by now)…then what the heck have they been doing in their working life, honestly?

        1. SimonTheGreyWarden*

          Working directly with students where we use different software for tracking and where there’s literally never been a need to use Excel? Prior to that, working in customer-service roles?

    5. Lamont and Rollo*

      Yeah, i’m glad cover letters aren’t a thing where I work because I think I’d be pretty bad at them – it would be hard for me to feign enthusiasm over a precisely formatted RFP

    6. Buffalo*

      I’m a huge fan of cover letters, but I agree with you on your two main points:
      1. They’re mostly for white-collar jobs.
      2. Bullshit cover letters that are about feigning enthusiasm are useless.

      For me, the point of a cover letter is connecting your experience to the job you’re applying for, in a way narrative prose can do that a resume can’t. It’s not about, “Convince me you REALLY want this job.” It’s about, “What does your master’s in medieval literature have to do with my dog-grooming business?”

      1. Sola Lingua Bona Lingua Mortua Est*

        For me, the point of a cover letter is connecting your experience to the job you’re applying for, in a way narrative prose can do that a resume can’t.

        This is where it all falls apart for me. I’m a Programmer. Either A, I have your exact alphabet soup, or B, you believe code is code and I can learn your language(s), or C, you need and are holding out for your two-headed left-handed purple squirrel that checks every box. Writing in a document “Code is code and I am willing to learn your language(s) and their nuances; after all, I’ve already learned these other languages” isn’t going to convince anyone of anything.

        It’s a hard farce to execute without becoming farcical.

        1. Buffalo*

          Yeah, that’s fair. Jobs that primarily draw on technical skills that you either have or don’t are also very different from my world.

        2. Tremens*

          Do programmers not need any other skills besides coding, then? No organisation, communication, team-working, leadership, planning or other skills that make them a good hire? That would help a manager know if you’d be effective on their team? Is it really just about what programming languages you know? Is that all you care about in the people you work with too?

          1. Sola Lingua Bona Lingua Mortua Est*

            In my experience, that’s largely how the market works. You can add platform (e.g. OSX, UNIX) and ancillary tech (SQL, Oracle, Virtualization, etc), but they’ll function all but identically to languages. 99+% of the time, it’s the alphabet soup or a personal connection to the hiring manager.

            I do think that things like bedside manner and leadership should differentiate programmers, but I’ve never seen or heard of a persuasive claim. Those are traits that are really only credible when observed.

    7. Janne*

      I’m Dutch and we don’t really do euphemistic fan fiction here (yes, we’re direct bordering on rude) but cover letters are really common here. Yes it’s for white-collar jobs, that’s true. But no, we don’t write a poetic story about our love for TPS reports.

      My cover letters are quite like the things I would tell in an interview. Examples of why I would be good at the job, like interpersonal skills, planning, focus. Maybe not things you’d be able to describe as achievements in a resume, but more like stories about how I do my work and what I’m good at. A couple of things I’ve received as feedback from former colleagues (which ties in nicely with what my references would say) and an explanation of how this job will fit into my career plans.

      I had some interviews where they were like “So how are your planning skills? Oh wait, I think I read it in your letter already, great planning skills, okay, next question” hahahaha

      1. allathian*

        Yes, this. I’m in Finland and I’m certain that our direct communication style would put a lot of Americans off. We also don’t do euphemistic fan fiction.

        But cover letters are still a thing in many industries hiring office employees. My job is written comms adjacent, and a poorly-written cover letter could be a reason to reject your application.

        We’re also currently hiring a temp for my coworker who’s going on a job rotation for 6 months, and there’s at least one strong candidate we decided to interview based on their cover letter. I’m pretty certain my cover letter way back when was what got me the interview because I switched careers in my mid-30s and had an unconventional career path until then.

    8. Tea Monk*

      Yea, I have to be ghosted and try to trick AIs and write work fanfic ? People want to work, and there should be a process to get job seekers and providers what they both want

  8. Jill Swinburne*

    I agree with all this and really hope they’re not going the way of the dodo. I’ve been complimented on my excellent cover letters (everything I know came from this site!), yet I wrote what I think was legitimately the best I’ve done and immediately got a link to complete a questionnaire.

    Then it turned out to be some dumb screening tool featuring questions about the appeal of jobs unrelated to the one I was applying for, and those personality questions where they ask the sane questions in different ways. I had a rejection later that day – and I’m certain that my original application and stellar cover letter was never even looked at. (The site I was using tells you when your app has been viewed).

  9. Keladry of Mindelan*

    I’ve been reading AAM for 13 years (good grief…that doesn’t seem possible) and when I interviewed for my current (new) job last month, the hiring committee could not stop talking about how much they loved my cover letter.

    It’s so interesting because, when I was a new grad applying for jobs (around the time I started reading AAM), I DESPISED everything about cover letters. Now I kind of enjoy writing them (probably because I know how to do them properly thanks to Alison and can write a solid cover letter in my sleep for just about any position).

    (I promise I don’t use parenthesis in my cover letters. The ADHD squirrel brain is taking over today).

  10. MarfisaTheLibrarian*

    I really started recognizing how useful a good cover letter is when I was hiring–we had plenty of people whose backgrounds didn’t line up perfectly with the job description, but their cover letter made a good argument for their ability and desire to do the kind of job we were advertising. There was one candidate whose cover letter didn’t at all acknowledge the discrepency between her resume and the job itself but who did manage to get an interview (based more on shared-alma-mater type reasons) and she turned out to be a close contender–highly motivated to pivot to our part of the field, had relevant experience–but none of that was highlighted in her cover letter, which is probably seriously impacting her job search

  11. Former Govt Contractor*

    I can absolutely testify that the right cover letter can land you the job. It happened to me – my bosses’ boss told me he picked my resume out of the pile and knew I was the right fit.

  12. learnedthehardway*

    Thank you for this!!! My son has been taught to write very lengthy, horrible cover letters by his co-op program (honestly, they’re a wall-o-text) and I haven’t been able to convince him (despite being in recruitment) that this is ineffective.

    I think seeing an outside perspective will help him realize that the purpose of the cover letter is to communicate effectively, not to follow a set of (out of date) guidelines.

  13. Mad Scientist*

    Alison’s cover letter advice is always top tier!

    I was working on a cover letter a few months ago and devoured every bit of advice about cover letters on this site. I was so grateful for it because I realized I had been approaching cover letters all wrong all these years. The one I wrote recently was the best I’ve ever written thanks to Alison’s advice! (Yes I got the job)

  14. Junior Assistant Peon*

    As someone who’s hired people, I found cover letters useful to explain situations where a candidate appears to be blast-applying to ill-fitting jobs. Someone who’s overqualified can explain that they want a lower level of responsibility, someone who isn’t local can explain that they’re interested in relocation to my area, someone who’s done different work before can explain that they want to change fields, etc.

  15. Seashell*

    Thankfully, I haven’t had a need to write a cover letter any time recently, but it is interesting to see as I have kid who will be trying to get internships and full-time jobs in the not-so-distant future.

    When I was looking for jobs after getting out of school with a professional degree in the 90’s and having to move home with my parents after a disaster in the apartment I was living in, I applied to jobs wherever, and some involved a very long commute or were far enough to require a move. I figured it would be obvious that I would be moving, since I was a recent graduate, so I never mentioned it in the cover letter.

    I did get one phone call where the employer said “I got your resume. Are you sure you want this job?” as it would have been an awful commute. I was embarrassed, but I said that I was living with my parents and would be happy to move as soon as I found a job. I didn’t get an interview for that job.

    After that, I did start sending resumes with the address and phone number of my then-boyfriend/now-husband. He lived about a 1/2 hour away from me, but in a different state where I was applying for a lot of jobs. I got more interviews after that and eventually got a job.

    I can see employers thinking people might want to turn a far-away job into a remote job these days, but that wasn’t an issue when the above story occurred.

  16. Alisaurus*

    Interestingly enough, my current role involves screening applications, and I have read several that were worded very similarly to cover letter examples in AAM posts! Not verbatim, but close enough that I could tell they were influenced by here. (The first time, I actually looked back at Alison’s cover letter advice because I was curious if I was remembering correctly.)

    I didn’t conduct the interviews, but I would have been tempted to try to ask something about AAM… maybe about their professional resources? I don’t know. lol But I was so curious.

  17. Always Tired*

    I also like to say that a cover letter is a one page persuasive essay. The prompt is “why should I hire you in particular?” and the sources I’m pulling from are the job posting and my life. I can whip one out in 10-15 minutes with minor checks for grammar and spelling. When I was last job hunting (2 years ago) every interviewer mentioned my cover letter specifically.

  18. Jenesis*

    How odd would it be to highlight non-work experience in your cover letter?

    I ask because both of the most recent places I worked for were pretty toxic environments that I was actively trying to escape from long before I left (or got fired, as it was) and I don’t actually have any “work success stories” I can draw from to highlight my skills. Would it be all right to pull examples from personal projects, volunteering, or general life experiences (“My passion for Excel spreadsheets was put on full display when I planned my wedding”) that wouldn’t belong on a resume?

  19. Rosacolleti*

    Great advice. As an employer who does lots of recruiting, I have 3 tips.
    1. Follow the instructions- if they ask for specific info in the cover letter, include it!
    2. Unless your CV marries up perfectly with the job requirements, address the requirements one by one – make it easy for the reader to want to interview you.
    3. Use the cover letter to marry up your skills & experience with the job requirements, don’t make them guess eg if they are asking for X but you have Y and can explain how they are similar – write that. Don’t assume they will know.

    In my experience less than 5% of applicants write good cover letters, & that’s generous! I always look at them first and that determines if the CV gets looked at.

  20. Esmerelda Margaret Note Spelling*

    I was always taught that you should end a cover letter with “Yours sincerely” if you knew the name of the person to whom you were writing, “Yours faithfully” if you didn’t. Is that advice out of date now (or possibly something that matters only in British English, and was never convention in the States)?

    1. Nanashi*

      I was taught this for British English back in 1994, and my current impression is that things have become way more relaxed.

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