Free Cover Letter Templates, Writing Guide, and Tips

Use a formal, yet personal salutation
Despite common practice, opening a cover letter with “To Whom it May Concern” or “Dear Sir/ Madam” is not the way to win the job. Rather than using a generic salutation, take heed from our cover letter templates, and do a Google search or LinkedIn outreach to find the name of the hiring manager. If, despite your best efforts, you can’t find the recipient’s name, keep the salutation as personalized as possible, by including a title such as “Senior Medical Assistant Hiring Manager.” You can also address it to the company, like so: “Dear Microsoft.” This small gesture can go a long way to facilitate a connection immediately.

Create an attention grabbing opening line
Craft your cover letter as a narrative, rather than a sales pitch, and use an alluring opening line to draw in your reader. Instead of introducing your name and repeating the obvious (that you’re applying for this position), pack in a punch. Explain why this job excites you and describe the most interesting thing about you, making you an ideal candidate. Spend 10 minutes jotting down ideas for an opening line, write whatever comes to mind, pick out the keywords and string them together in a compelling way. For example: “Over the past five years, I consistently reached the 95th percentile of sales revenue while leading a team of seven salespeople, all of whom persistently reached at least the 80th percentile. I am truly excited about the possibility to bring my excellent track record to Alpdemir Design Products.”

Mention your most hire-worthy information first
With such stiff competition in the job market these days, chances are your potential employer will have to sift through countless cover letters and resumes. That’s why it’s so important to take tips from cover letter templates. To raise and retain the hiring manager’s interest, start off by selling your most stellar qualities. Don’t just rattle off your qualifications and achievements, show why you are more qualified than the rest. Mention any personal contact you may have with the company, be honest if you are switching industries or have a notable gap in your career, and draw attention to anything unique in your career history which immediately sets you ahead of the pack.

Identify the company’s needs and demonstrate how you will fill these
Keep in mind that this cover letter isn’t about what this job could do for you; it’s about what you can do for the company. Spend time researching the company’s current challenges and argue that you’re the best person to supply solutions. Draw attention to your achievements that demonstrate your abilities in these areas, and focus on how you could produce even greater accomplishments for the company in the future. Be confident in your capabilities without being cocky and don’t apologize for skills you lack. Take note of our experienced cover letter templates where the applicant mentions what specific skills they can replicate to achieve future successes for the company.

Use punctuation markers for quick impact
As mentioned before, it’s likely that your cover letter will arrive among a sea of similar pleas, so make it as quick and painless as possible for the recruiter to glean the necessary information. Keep your cover letter short and do your best to break down your information into bite-sized pieces. For example, bullet points are ideal for listing top achievements or crucial skills and can be used to condense content. Similarly, use quantifiable metrics to give past accomplishments more weight. Don’t tell employers that you “managed other employees”; instead, reveal that you “managed entry-level employees.” As exemplified in our cover letter templates, keep your letter’s length under one page, and don’t go beyond four paragraphs.

Use anecdotes to showcase your personality
When writing your cover letter, always remember the adage “facts tell, but stories sell.” Use anecdotes to weave in your personality. Include fitting testimonials from past colleagues, and wherever possible, use words to paint a portrait of yourself rather than just listing skillsets. So for example instead of saying, “I am an incredibly hard worker” you should offer a short narrative: “In the summer of ’96, I headed a team toiling day and night for three weeks straight to have the production up and running in time.” This story demonstrates your leadership skills, resilience, and commitment to hard work beyond the call of duty.

Show how well you’d fit the company culture
It’s more than just deciding if you’ are suitable for the available role; recruiters want to see if you’re an ideal fit for the company as a whole. As part of your research before the writing process, scour the company website, team page, and social media channels for clues to the company culture. Doing this can provide valuable insights into the potential personality of your hiring manager. These insights will inform which of your soft skills to showcase throughout your letter. It doesn’t matter how qualified you are for the position: if who you are as a person isn’t a match for their team, it’s likely that you won’t make it past the first round.

Cover all the requested requirements
Now, this may seem an obvious point to make, but it’s easy to omit critical information in your cover letter. When using these cover letter templates, think carefully about the job description and what it demands. This is your first shot to impress your potential employer, and if you make the slightest slip-up, it could be your last. Read the job description thoroughly, then touch on all of the requirements the job requests. Sometimes recruiters may even include a particular question they want you to answer. Failure to do so, or failure to capture them with your creative reply could land your cover letter at the bottom of
the pile.

Round it off with sincerity
The last lines of your cover letter should tie everything together with a neat bow of sincerity. Don’t end on an overly enthusiastic note. So, avoid thanking the hiring manager ever so much again and again for considering you for the role. Rather, briefly express polite gratitude for their time and consideration and deliver one last good reason why you’d be the best fit for the job. Our general cover letter templates provide a good example: “I look forward to enhancing your already solid reputation through diligent work and an innate ability to quickly learn and apply new concepts and skills. I am available for an interview at your convenience. Thank you for your time and consideration.”

Keep the channels of communication open
As seen in the example from our cover letter templates above, keep the channels of communication open by ending your cover letter with an ask. Put the ball in the hirer’s court with an invitation to contact you for a follow-up interview or to send through any more necessary information. Communicating in this manner shows you’re serious about the position and feel confident to take the application process to the next level. In ending off, strike a balance between conveying initiative and enthusiasm while avoiding desperation. Employ an authentic sign off that shows respectful friendliness such as “Best” or “Sincerely,” as given in our cover letter templates.

If you don’t hear back, reach out.
When it comes to the tiptoe game of following up, be sure to read the job listing thoroughly before you make contact. In some instances where employers expect an influx of applications, recruiters may specify that they will only notify successful applicants. In this case, if you don’t hear back within the stipulated time, then move on to the next job. In other situations, recruiters will state a waiting period to provide time for processing applications. During this window, it’s best to wait patiently for a response. Where employers do not offer a waiting period, the general rule of thumb is to wait five business days before following up either by phone or e-mail.

Prepare before you start writing
If you prepare before writing your cover letter, then it will take less time to complete, and it will flow more seamlessly. As you read through our cover letter templates, take a minute to ponder why you’re applying for the position, what having this job would mean to you, and why you’re the best fit for the role. Then do a quick search, find out what challenges the company faces and consider how you could come up with solutions. Scroll through their website and social channels to get a feel for the organization’s culture and use this information to guide your tone. Just before beginning, instill confidence in your writing by imagining you’ve already received the best possible response from the recruiter.

Strike a conversational but formal tone
If you want to walk the walk (or in this case work the work), you first have to talk the talk. Get into the mind of your hiring manager by adopting the language that they would use with customers. Match your tone to the company culture, keep it conversational but official, and avoid using too many adverbs or cliches such as “I am a team player.” Be honest and authentic in your approach, portray the quirkiness of your personality through your words without coming across as overzealous or prematurely grateful. And be careful of humor, it may sound good in your head but could potentially fall flat.

Read your cover letter over and over again
If the points above sound challenging to achieve, rereading your cover letter will help you comb out the self-hindering cobwebs. Cross-reference your copy with the job description. When doing so, ensure you answered every question and went the extra mile to position yourself above the rest. Regardless of what industry you are applying for, it’s crucial to run more than one spell-check and make sure that your grammar is perfect. Enlist the help of a friend to give your letter the once over and ask them the following two questions: “does this sell my skillset in the best possible light?” and, “will this letter help me stand out from other applicants?”

Don’t be generic; create a unique cover letter every time
Even though in today’s digitalized age, the need for a cover letter has come under question, there’s no denying that submitting a generic copy, or worse yet, having no cover letter at all, could nullify your chances of nabbing the job. That’s why using compelling cover letter templates is so crucial. For each application, no matter how many jobs you are submitting to, tailor your cover letter for that particular posting. Rather than cut corners by regurgitating your resume, use the opportunity to highlight key points or add in novel content such as multimedia or testimonials, that underscores why you make an awesome employee.