What is Cover letter?

A cover letter is a short note that goes with your resume. The resume says what you’ve done. The letter says why it matters for this job.

When it’s worth it

• The application requires one.
• You’re changing careers, and the resume alone looks like a puzzle.
• There’s a story the resume can’t tell: a move, a gap, a personal tie to the company.

What to put in

1. Why this job and company, in a sentence or two. Be specific.
2. One or two results that match the posting, with numbers.
3. A short close. Thanks, and that you’d like to talk.

Keep it under a page. Three or four short paragraphs is plenty.

A short example

Dear hiring team,

I’m applying for the Customer Success Manager role because Acme’s move into mid-size accounts is the work I’ve done for the last three years. At Northwind I took over 40 accounts with falling usage and lifted renewals from 78% to 91% in a year, mostly by running quarterly reviews that customers actually wanted to attend.

I’d love to talk about how I could help with your new onboarding program. Thanks for reading.

Alex

It’s short, it’s about this company, and it’s built on one result with a number.

Mistakes to avoid

• Repeating the resume. Add the “why”, not the list.
• Opening with “My name is”. They know. Start with the job and why you want it.
• One letter for every job. If it would work for any company, it won’t work well for this one.
• Going long. If it needs scrolling, cut it.

In Hunter

Hunter can write cover letters from your experience bank, only when an application requires one or for every application, in Word, PDF or both. See Tailored resumes and the fact check.