Help them focus on the details you want to highlight by writing concisely and precisely. The majority of recruiters and hiring managers will only spend one minute or less reading your cover letter. Length: Your cover letter should be about a half page to one page long, or about 250 to 400 words. Use a common font, like Arial or Times New Roman, to make your letter easier to read. To streamline your application documents, you can use the same header that tops your resume, including your name, email address, phone number, city and state, and the URL for your online portfolio or LinkedIn profile, if you have one.įormat: Use standard margins for your cover letter-usually one inch on each side-and keep your font size around 11 or 12. Header: Your cover letter is a formal document, so use a formal header. Cover letter basicsĪs you prepare to write your cover letter, here are a few basic tips to get started: In this article, we'll go over the sections you should include in a cover letter and additional tips to write a compelling one. That means to get one interview, you’d have to apply for about six jobs with a tailored cover letter, or about nine jobs without a cover letter.

In a ResumeGo experiment, applications with a job-specific cover letter led to an interview offer 16.4 percent of the time, while applications with no cover letter led to an interview offer only 10.7 percent of the time. This is the point where including a cover letter-even if it doesn't seem necessary-may help you secure more interviews. If the ATS determines that you are a match, a human recruiter will likely look at your application materials next. The first is the applicant tracking system (ATS), which scans your resume for specific keywords to identify whether your experience matches the job requirements. When you apply for a job, your application will often go through two stages before a recruiter invites you to interview.

Cover letter article