A cover letter that could only go to one company

Here is a quick test for a cover letter. Replace the company name with a competitor's. If the letter still makes sense, it is a form letter, and the person reading it has seen hundreds of those.

A good letter fails that test. It could only have been written to this company, about this role, by you. That sounds like a lot of work, but it is mostly a matter of doing things in the right order.

The effort pays off. In a field experiment by ResumeGo, a company that sells CV writing services, applications with a cover letter tailored to the job had a 53 percent higher callback rate than applications with no letter at all. In its survey of 236 recruiters and hiring managers, 81 percent valued a tailored letter significantly more than a generic one.

Do the research before you write

You cannot write a specific letter about a company you know nothing about. Before the first sentence, find out:

• What the company does and who its customers are
• What it has been doing recently, such as a new product, a new market or a change of direction
• What the role is there to solve, which you can usually read between the lines of the posting

Twenty minutes is enough for a first letter. Keep a note of where each fact came from, because you may be asked about it later.

Pick one reason, not five

The weakest letters list everything the writer admires. The strongest pick one real connection between you and the company and build on it.

A real connection sounds like this: "You moved your support team to chat last year. I ran that change for a team of twelve." It names something true about them and something true about you.

If you cannot find a connection like that, it is worth asking whether this is a job you want, or only a job you could do.

Use a simple structure

A cover letter does not need to be clever. Four short paragraphs are enough.

Opening. Say which role you are applying for and give your one reason. Skip the sentence about being excited to apply.

What you bring. Two or three things from your experience that match the most important requirements. Use facts: what you did, for how long, and what came of it.

Why this company. The specific thing you found in your research, and how your experience connects to it.

Close. One or two sentences. Say you would welcome a conversation and stop.

Three hundred words is plenty. A reader who wants more will open your CV.

Say only what is true

It is tempting to round things up in a letter, because a letter feels less formal than a CV. Do not. Everything in it can come back as an interview question.

A useful check: for every claim, ask whether you could talk about it for two minutes without notes. If you could not, cut it or make it smaller. "Helped with the migration" is a weaker sentence than "led the migration", and a much safer one if helping is what you did.

The same goes for the company. If you are not sure a fact is right, leave it out. A wrong fact about the reader's own employer does more damage than no fact at all.

Write the way you speak at work

Read the letter aloud. If a sentence sounds like something you would never say to a colleague, rewrite it. Phrases such as "I am a highly motivated professional" tell the reader nothing, and they appear in almost every letter.

Short sentences and plain words are a relief to someone reading their fortieth application of the day.

Check it against the posting

Before you send it, put the letter next to the posting and ask:

• Does it answer the two or three most important requirements?
• Is there one sentence that could only be about this company?
• Is everything in it something you could defend in an interview?

If the answer to all three is yes, send it.

Sources

• ResumeGo, Cover Letters: Just How Important Are They?, a field experiment with 7,287 applications and a survey of 236 hiring professionals

Where JobUncover fits

JobUncover follows the same order. It researches the company from public sources first, then drafts a cover letter from that research and checks every claim against your profile. Nothing is added that is not in your real experience. You get the draft as DOCX, PDF and plain text, review it, edit it and send it yourself.