Cover Letters: When They Matter and What to Write

Do cover letters still get read

Sometimes, by some people, for some roles. That is the honest answer and it is more useful than either of the confident ones.

Plenty of recruiters skip them entirely, particularly on high-volume roles where several hundred applications arrive. Plenty of hiring managers read them, particularly for senior positions and small teams. Many read them only when the resume left a question open.

Which means the useful question is not whether cover letters matter in general. It is whether one will matter for this application. Four situations where it reliably does.

The four times a cover letter changes the outcome

You are changing field. Your resume shows an unrelated job title and the reader has to work out why you are applying. The letter is the only place you can say it, and saying it stops your recent title from doing all the talking.

There is something on your resume that raises a question. A gap, a short stint, a move backwards, a relocation. A single sentence closes it. Left unexplained, the reader invents a reason and usually a worse one.

You are applying speculatively or through a referral. Here there is no job description to match against, so the letter is the application.

The job involves writing. Marketing, communications, content, research, law, anything where clear prose is the work. The letter is a work sample whether or not anyone calls it one.

Outside those, a letter is optional. Where an application makes it optional and none of the four apply, your time is better spent tailoring the resume.

The mistake that makes letters worthless

Most cover letters restate the resume in paragraphs. The reader has the resume. Reading a prose summary of a document they are holding is a waste of their attention and yours.

The value of a letter is saying what a resume structurally cannot. A resume cannot explain why you are applying to this employer rather than any employer. It cannot connect two unrelated parts of your history into a deliberate path. It cannot address the obvious objection before it becomes a reason to pass.

Write the letter for those jobs and it earns its place. Write it as a summary and it does not.

A structure that works, in four paragraphs

Open with why this job. Not "I am writing to apply for the position of", which spends your best line telling the reader something they know. Start with the specific thing that made you apply. Something in the job description, a problem the company has, a product decision you noticed. One sentence that could not have been sent to another employer.

Then your strongest relevant evidence. One example, described properly, chosen because it matches what the role actually needs. Not a list. One thing, with enough detail to be believed.

Then the thing your resume cannot say. The career change, the gap, why you are moving, what you understand about their situation. This is the paragraph the letter exists for, and it is the one people leave out.

Close simply. A line saying you would welcome a conversation. No elaborate sign-off, no restating everything above.

Under 300 words. A page of dense text does not get read, and length is frequently a substitute for having decided what to say.

One clear takeaway: if your letter would work for another company with the name swapped, it is not doing anything.

Naming the awkward thing yourself

The instinct is to hope nobody notices the gap, the sideways move, or the fact that you have never done this exact job.

They notice. What differs is whether they hear your explanation or construct one.

Keep it short and unapologetic. "I was made redundant in March when the team was cut, and I have spent the time since completing a data analysis course and rebuilding a reporting project for a former colleague." Two clauses, factual, forward-looking, done.

The same applies to a missing requirement. Naming it and saying what you would need in the first ninety days gets it asked about once. Hiding it means the interviewer spends the whole conversation circling it.

Research that makes the first paragraph possible

The opening line is only writable if you know something specific, which takes about fifteen minutes.

Read the job description slowly for what the team is worried about. The first metric mentioned is what the hiring manager is judged on. The tools named tell you what they actually run.

Then find one recent concrete thing about the company. A launch, a funding round, a change of direction, a public problem. Something you could only know by looking.

Where the posting names the hiring manager, look at what they have said publicly. An observation about their team's work is a much stronger opening than praise for the company's mission.

Phrases to cut

• "I am writing to apply for the position of." The reader knows. Delete and start with your actual first sentence.
• "I believe I would be a great fit." A claim without evidence. Show the fit instead.
• "I am a hard-working, detail-oriented team player." Fits anyone, proves nothing.
• "Your esteemed organisation." Reads as filler in every market where it appears.
• "As you can see from my resume." If they can see it, you do not need the paragraph.
• "I would love the opportunity." Enthusiasm is fine; this specific phrasing has been worn flat.

Using AI to draft one, without producing the obvious version

Most people now draft cover letters with a model, and recruiters have noticed, because the default output has a recognisable shape and vocabulary.

The version that fails is the one where the model was given the job description and asked for a letter. It produces fluent, generic prose with no specific content, because you gave it nothing specific.

The version that works uses the model on material you supply. Give it your actual example in rough notes and ask it to tighten the prose. Then cut the adjectives it added, replace any sentence that would fit another company, and read it aloud to check it sounds like you.

A useful test before sending: could a competitor for the same role have sent this letter with their name on it? If yes, the specifics are missing and no amount of polish fixes that.

The speculative letter, which is a different document

Writing to a company with no advertised role is the one case where the letter carries the entire application, and the usual structure does not fit.

There is no job description to match, so the letter has to supply the reason for existing. That means leading with something you have noticed about their business rather than something you want from it. A problem you can see, a gap in what they offer, a market they have just entered.

Then propose narrowly. A speculative letter offering to help with anything gets filed. One naming a specific function and a specific contribution gives the reader something to react to, even if their answer is that they need something adjacent.

Send it to a person rather than a general inbox, and pick the person who would manage the role rather than someone in recruitment, since nobody in recruitment can create a job that does not exist.

Expect a low response rate and a high quality of response. Speculative applications rarely produce an interview immediately, and they quite often produce one three months later when something opens.

Following up after you send it

One follow-up, roughly a week to ten days later, is reasonable and is more effective than most people expect.

Keep it to three lines. Reference the role and when you applied, add one sentence of genuinely new information if you have any, and close. New information might be something you have finished since, or a relevant development at their company.

Send it to a named person where you can find one. A follow-up to a generic inbox mostly disappears, which is why the exercise feels futile to people who have only tried that route.

Do not follow up more than twice. The line between persistence and nuisance is real and hiring managers describe it consistently.

Format and delivery

Where the form has a text box, paste the letter in rather than attaching a file, unless a file is requested. Attachments get missed.

Address a named person where you can find one, and "Hiring Team" where you cannot. Do not use "To Whom It May Concern", which reads as a template and has for years.

Keep formatting plain. No letterhead, no elaborate design. Where you send it as an email body, the first two lines are what shows in the preview, so put something specific there.

Our career guides cover what each role screens for, which is the fastest way to work out which evidence belongs in the second paragraph.

Questions people ask

Do recruiters actually read cover letters?

Some do, some never do, and many read them only when the resume leaves a question open. They matter most for career changes, gaps, speculative applications and writing-heavy roles.

How long should a cover letter be?

Under 300 words, four short paragraphs. Length is usually a sign that the writer had not decided what to say.

Should I write a cover letter if it is optional?

Only if one of the four situations applies or you genuinely want the role. Otherwise spend the time tailoring your resume, which is read more reliably.

How do I start a cover letter?

With the specific thing that made you apply to this employer. Never with "I am writing to apply for", which spends the most valuable line on information the reader already has.

Is it obvious when a cover letter was written by AI?

Often, when the model was given only the job description. Supply your own examples and cut anything that would fit another company, and the problem largely disappears.

Related reading

• AI Resume Builders: What They Fix and What They Cannot
• Job Boards: Which Ones to Use and How to Search Them Properly