How to Write a Great Cover Letter and Land Your Dream Job in 2024

Why Cover Letters Matter

They may seem like a pointless pain in the rear, but cover letters serve an essential function in a world where the average job posting receives 250 applications: they allow you to stand out and tell your story.

All of the resumes a hiring manager sees look roughly the same. The same formatting, the same words, the same information. They all start to run together, and every applicant is reduced to some variation of a 16x9 PDF file. This is why cover letters are so important; they remind the hiring manager that there is a human behind the application, and, when done right, showcase exactly the ways in which that human is wonderfully suited for the job at hand.

Your resume shows your five years of sales experience, but it doesn’t tell the story of the huge strategic deal you sold to the customer who was identical to your prospective employer’s ICP. Your resume lists what looks like a series of random roles in different industries, but it doesn’t demonstrate how the threads of those roles connect to make you a perfect fit for this role. Your resume mentions your sabbatical, but it doesn’t explain the shift in perspective it inspired, which will be invaluable for this very job.

All of this is to say: your resume doesn’t tell the story of you. And that story is essential if you want a real shot at landing this job. This, above all else, is why cover letters matter.

How Do I Actually Write A Good Cover Letter?

Good news: you have an opportunity to differentiate yourself in the very first line of your cover letter. 

Most applicants, in the interest of speed, will address their cover letter “To Whom It May Concern.” But you’re not going to do that, because you know that this is a subtle but important chance to showcase your attention to detail. 

Here’s how: 

• Use LinkedIn, the company’s website, or a tool like ZoomInfo to find out who the hiring manager is
• Address your cover letter to that person.

Boom. Already ahead of the pack. Well done.

Alright, now to the meat of it. The biggest thing to keep in mind is your ultimate goal with your cover letter: for the hiring manager to read it and think, ‘Holy smokes, this person sounds like a perfect fit. I absolutely have to interview them.’

To produce that reaction, you need to clearly and impactfully demonstrate why your particular background, experience, psychological makeup, and so on is tailor made for this role, as if you were created by some higher power for the sole purpose of doing this very job. This first requires a fundamental understanding of the job itself—not just the explicit requirements listed on the posting, but the qualities the ideal candidate must possess. So while this may seem obvious, it is important to spell it out: you must take some time to really understand the job before you get to writing.

If you really want to nail your cover letter and are willing to spend a few extra minutes to get it right, here’s a useful exercise:

1. Take out a piece of paper and create a two-sided T-chart
2. On the right side, list out the key requirements and ideal qualities for the role you want. Then, on the left, come up with the pieces of your background—stories, experiences, whatever—that best align with that particular requirement or quality. 
3. Congrats: you now have the skeleton of your cover letter!

Ok, now it’s time to write. Don’t overthink it on your first draft—you can edit later. 

• Tell the story of why your unique collection of traits and experiences makes you a great fit for this job. 
• Show the hiring manager that you’ve done your research (bonus points if you can throw in some of the keywords from the job posting), and let your enthusiasm and personality shine through. 
• Be concise—you want your cover letter to be between a half-page and a page—but not at the expense of specificity. The details are what bring your experience to life. some text
  • Don’t say that you ‘worked on a major marketing project for a big retailer.’ No, you ‘developed the multi-channel marketing strategy, including detailed KPIs, milestones, and a tactical plan, for Kohl’s, resulting in a 30% increase in conversion rate and a ten point increase to NPS.’ Go beyond the generic. 

After finishing your first draft, give it some time to breathe and then come back with fresh eyes for your final edits. Use paragraph breaks and bullet points to make it easy to read and nice to look at. Make sure the structure makes sense and that it flows naturally. Cut out any fluff or redundancy. As you go through each sentence, ask yourself: does this sentence help me demonstrate to the person reading this why I’m a great fit for this specific job?

Sometimes it’s helpful to have a starting point for inspiration. If you’d like something to get you going, you can use Type, an AI-powered writing assistant that helps you write smarter. And in fact, we have a lovely cover letter template designed to help you write a cover letter for a resume in minutes.

How to Use This Free Template to Write a Cover Letter for a Job

Here's how to go from our general template to a personalized cover letter in just a few clicks.

1. Open up Type, click "New Document," and select the "Cover Letter" template from the gallery.
2. Under "knowledge sources," you can include a link to the person's website, LinkedIn profile, or any articles or interviews that showcase their work. This will give the writing AI more context to work with.
3. Hit "Generate," and watch as Type’s writing AI creates a custom cover letter for you in seconds.
4. Refine the letter with our Rewrite brushes. You can adjust the tone, shorten the text, enhance readability, and more.
5. Add your own personal touches and specific details about your career, skillset, and passion for the company or its mission. If you need some ideas, brainstorm with Type Chat, a chatbot that lives right next to your document.
6. When you're done, ask Type to review your work for any grammar or spelling mistakes. It would be a shame to craft a beautiful cover letter that’s ruined by a hidden typo.
7. Export your completed cover letter from Type and include it with your resume.

Tips to Keep in Mind for Job Application or Internships

Your cover letter is not just a bland summary of your resume. It’s your opportunity to bring you, the perfect candidate for this job, to life for the hiring manager. To that end, here are some tips to help you craft the perfect cover letter:

• Keep the reader and the role in mind. Remember, you aren’t just writing a cover letter ‘To Whom it May Concern’—you’re writing it to an individual hiring manager hiring for a specific role. Take the time to make sure your cover letter speaks to what that person is most likely to care about.
• Be specific. Most cover letters are generic, using vague language that doesn’t say much of anything. This is good news, because it gives you a chance to differentiate yourself. Provide detail in your stories and examples to bring them to life such that the hiring manager can’t help but see what kind of person you are.
• Let your personality shine through. It’s important to remind the person reading your cover letter that you are, in fact, a human being. Relevant personal stories are great for this. Depending on the role and industry, it might also make sense to use a bit of creative language that serves as a pattern interrupt for the hiring manager and makes them pay attention. This is not to say that you should sprinkle a bunch of F-bombs throughout your cover letter. Just spice it up a bit.

Accessing Our Free Cover Letter Template

We’ve made getting started with our cover letter template a breeze. Just log into your Type account and open a new document. Once you're in the document editor, select the "Generate" button to open the "Generate Draft" menu. Tap "Use template →" to open the template menu, where you can choose "Cover Letter" from the options. Easy as that.

Now It’s Your Turn

As the great Maya Angelou said: “Ain’t nothin’ to it but to do it.” Thankfully, we’ve made doing it easier than ever with Type. (Okay, that sentence sounded a bit strange. We may need Type’s Rewrite brush to clean it up).

With Type’s AI-powered document editor, crafting a standout cover letter is easy. You’ll be a step closer to your dream job in no time.