How to Write a Cover Letter
Write a one-page cover letter for one job. Research the company, open with the role and a specific detail, back two or three requirements with results, and close with a clear ask.
You will end up with a one-page letter written for one job. It names the role, backs two or three of the posting's requirements with results from your own work, says why you want this job at this company, and closes by asking for a conversation.
Keep the letter to one page. That is the limit the University of Pennsylvania's career services guide sets for a non-academic job, and it is a better target than any word count.
Step 1 is research, and steps 2 to 5 follow the letter paragraph by paragraph. Step 6 covers format, proofreading, and the file you send. FAQ 1 below has the one field experiment we found that compared a tailored letter, a generic letter, and no letter.
Research the posting and the company before you write
Start with the job posting. Read it through and mark every requirement and skill it asks for, then pick the two or three it stresses most. The University of Pennsylvania guide linked in the introduction uses the same method and adds one more move, which is to write a specific example from your own work next to each requirement you marked. Those notes become step 3. Then read about the company. Go through its website, its about page, and its press page or blog, and check its LinkedIn page for recent posts from leadership. Look for what the company is working on and any goals or problems it has named publicly. A product launch, a new office, a funding round, a published case study, or a leadership change gives you something specific for your opening paragraph. If you know someone who works there, ask what the team is working on, which the same guide recommends. You do not need to become an expert on the company. You need one or two specific details, because they are what separates a tailored letter from a generic one.
Write an opening that earns the second paragraph
Skip "I am writing to apply for..." and "I was excited to see your posting for..." as your first line. Both spend the line on a formula and say nothing about you. Open with something specific. Name the role, and connect it in the same breath to something relevant about you or the company. For example: "Your data engineering team just open-sourced a streaming pipeline framework. I have spent the last 3 years building similar tools at Acme Corp, and I am applying for the Senior Data Engineer role to bring that experience to your team." Or for a less technical role: "Your marketing team is expanding into video content. I am applying for the Video Producer role because I have produced over 200 short-form videos for B2B brands in the past 2 years and know what it takes to make technical products work on screen." Both samples name the role inside a sentence that also says something about the applicant. Penn State's engineering career office asks the introduction to reference the job title and to say where you found the position, so add the source in a clause, such as "which I found on your careers page." If someone referred you, name them here. Keep the opening to one short paragraph, and give the reader a reason to keep going within its first two sentences. FAQ 1 below has a survey figure on how little time a letter gets.
Good to know: If you cannot find anything specific to say about the company, go back to step 1 and read further. If the research still gives you nothing that connects to your own work, put your time into a posting where it does.
Connect your experience to their specific needs
This paragraph is the core of the letter. Take the two or three requirements you marked in step 1 and show how your experience meets each one. Do not only say you have the skill. Show a result. If the posting asks for someone who can manage cross-functional projects, write about a specific project you managed, who was involved, and what the outcome was. If it asks for someone who can improve processes, describe a process you improved and give the result as a number. Build each example as a short story with three parts: the situation, what you did, and the result. Keep each one short, because all of them have to fit on the page with the rest of the letter. Use the same language the job posting uses. If it says "stakeholder communication," use that phrase, not "talking to important people." Penn State's page gives a second reason for doing this. Employers increasingly run applications through applicant tracking systems that filter on keywords such as job titles and specific skills, so the posting's exact terms help the letter reach a person. A specific outcome gives the reader something to check and something to ask you about in an interview. An adjective like self-starter does neither, because nothing on the page stands behind it.
Explain why this role specifically interests you
This paragraph answers why this job at this company. A letter that could go to any company in the industry reads that way. Pick the reason that is true for you. The role combines two areas of your experience in a way your current job does not, the company is doing work that matches a specific professional interest, or you have used its product and have ideas about it. Point to something concrete, such as a product decision the company made, an initiative you read about in step 1, or a direction its team is heading. Leave out flattery that could apply to any company, like "I admire your commitment to innovation." If you are changing industries or roles, address it in this paragraph. Say what draws you from your current field to this one and why the move makes sense. Here is how a data analyst moving into product management does it: "After 3 years of building dashboards that shaped product decisions, I want to be on the side of the table making those decisions. Your posting says this role owns the checkout experiments, and that is the kind of decision my analysis has been feeding." FAQ 5 below covers the career-change letter in full.
Close with a clear, confident ask
Keep the closing paragraph to two or three sentences. Say that you would like to discuss how your experience fits the role, say that you are available for a conversation at their convenience, and thank them for their time. If the posting gives a timeline, such as "applications reviewed on a rolling basis" or "position starts in September," refer to it in a clause. Do not beg, do not oversell, and do not include a line about how you are "the perfect candidate." Let your examples speak for you. Leave salary and benefits out of the letter unless the posting asks for your requirements. End with "Sincerely" or "Best regards" followed by your name, the two sign-offs Penn State's page gives. Do not use "Warmly," "Cheers," or "Thanks!" unless the company's own writing is that casual.
Format it cleanly and proofread twice
Use standard business letter format: your contact details at the top, the date, the hiring manager's name (if you have it) and the company name, then the body. Use the same font as your resume, at 10 to 12 points. Penn State's page describes the shape as an introduction, one to three body paragraphs, and a conclusion, all of it one page or less. Leave out text boxes, graphics, and special symbols, which the same page warns can confuse an applicant tracking system. Read the letter out loud. If a sentence sounds stiff, rewrite it the way you would say it to a colleague. Then proofread it a second time for typos and grammar, and check that the company name, the job title, and the hiring manager's name are spelled the way the posting spells them. On file format, follow the posting. If it names a format, use that one. If it says nothing, send a PDF, because it holds your layout across devices. Penn State's page accepts .doc, .docx, or PDF, so a Word file is not a mistake either. Name the file with your name and the words cover letter, such as Jane-Smith-Cover-Letter.pdf, and not CoverLetter_Final_v2.docx. Before submitting, open the file on a different device or email it to yourself, and confirm that the fonts, margins, and line breaks came through and the letter still ends on page one.
If the letter runs past one page, cut the sentences that repeat your resume first (FAQ 3 below), then trim step 3 to its two strongest examples. If the opening still reads like a template, go back to step 1 and find one specific thing about the company or the role to open with. If you are applying to several similar jobs, keep your finished letters in a folder labeled by role type and start each new one from the closest match. The structure and the tone carry over. The paragraphs that name one company and one job do not, so rewrite the opening and the step 4 paragraph every time, and search the file for the previous company's name before you send it. The letter travels with a resume, and our guide on how to write a resume tailors it to the same posting. When the application leads to an offer, our guide on how to negotiate a salary covers the pay conversation this letter leaves out. FAQ 1 below covers whether cover letters get read, FAQ 2 how long one should be, FAQ 4 what to do without the hiring manager's name, and FAQ 5 the career-change letter.
Questions we get asked about this
Answers from experience, not a textbook.
The evidence says yes, with two caveats. ResumeGo ran a field experiment between July 2019 and January 2020, sending 7,287 fictitious applications to real job postings. Applications with no cover letter drew a callback 10.7% of the time, applications with a generic letter 12.5%, and applications with a letter tailored to the job 16.4%. That puts the tailored letter 53% ahead of no letter and about 31% ahead of a generic one. Its companion survey of 236 recruiters and hiring managers found that 87% read cover letters, that 81% value a tailored letter significantly more than a generic one, and that 84% spend a minute or less reading one. The first caveat is that ResumeGo sells resume and cover letter writing, so the study measures the value of its own product. The second is that the experiment predates AI writing tools. A 2025 working paper by Jingyi Cui, Gabriel Dias, and Justin Ye studied a large online labor platform that gave its users an AI cover letter tool. After the tool arrived, the link between how closely a letter matched the job post and whether it drew a callback fell by 51%, and employers turned to other signals, including work history. In the same data, time spent editing an AI-written draft was positively correlated with being hired. It is a working paper, not yet peer reviewed, and it covers one platform. Write the letter even when the posting calls it optional. Penn State's page says to always include one when you have the opportunity. If you draft with an AI tool, rewrite the draft around your own results from step 3, because wording that matches the posting is what the tool gives every applicant.
One page. The University of Pennsylvania guide linked in the introduction says a letter for a non-academic job should fit onto one page, and Penn State's page says one page or less. In practice that is three to five short paragraphs, meaning an introduction, one to three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. If you run past the page, cut the sentences that repeat your resume (FAQ 3 below). A letter for a faculty position follows different conventions, which the same guide covers separately.
No. A letter that is a paragraph version of your resume bullets adds nothing to the application. Use it for what the resume's format leaves out: why you made a career move, what draws you to this role, and how your experience connects to the problems this employer has named. The University of Pennsylvania guide draws the same line. It says not to repeat your resume verbatim, and also not to hesitate to refer to the most important information in it. Name the achievement, then add what the resume cannot hold, which is the situation around it and why it matters for this job. To test the letter, ask what the reader learns from it that the resume does not already say. If the answer is nothing, rewrite the step 3 examples.
Look for the name first. Search LinkedIn for the company name and the department named in the posting, and check the posting itself and the company's team page. If you find the name, use it. If you do not, write "Dear Hiring Manager." The Penn State page linked in step 2 says to address the letter to a specific person if possible, and accepts "Dear Hiring Manager" or "Dear Search Committee Chair" otherwise. Use one of those in place of "To Whom It May Concern," which addresses nobody in particular.
Lead with transferable skills, not job titles. Penn State's page gives the same advice to anyone without the exact experience a posting asks for. Work out what your previous work taught you that the new field uses. A teacher applying to corporate training has classroom management, curriculum design, and presentation skills. A bartender moving into sales has built customer relationships, handled objections, and worked under pressure. Name the skills that overlap, give an example of each from your previous role (step 3), and say why you are making the change (step 4). Do not apologize for your background or call yourself a non-traditional candidate. Present the change as a deliberate choice. If you have taken courses, earned certifications, or done volunteer work in the new field, name them, because they show you have already started building the knowledge the role needs.
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How to Write a Cover Letter
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