XobaWrite How to write a cover letter
A cover letter answers one question: why you, for this job, at this company. Everything else is packaging.
Your CV lists what you have done. The cover letter explains why those things matter for this particular job. If the letter could be sent to any employer with the name swapped, it is not doing its job — and readers spot that immediately.
The shape
One page, three or four paragraphs, 250 to 400 words. Longer than that and it stops being read; shorter and it looks like you did not care.
The heading
Your name and contact details, the date, and the employer's details. Then the greeting.
Use a name if you can find one — the advert, the company's team page, or LinkedIn will usually give you the hiring manager or team lead. Dear Ms Adeyemi, beats Dear Sir/Madam, comfortably. If you genuinely cannot find a name, Dear Hiring Manager, is the modern default; “To Whom It May Concern” reads as dated.
A British convention worth knowing: a letter opening Dear Ms Adeyemi closes Yours sincerely, while one opening Dear Sir/Madam closes Yours faithfully.
Paragraph one — what and why
State the role you are applying for, and give one concrete reason you are applying to them. Skip “I am writing to apply for…” as an opening clause if you can; it burns your strongest line.
I am writing to apply for the Junior Developer position I saw advertised on your website. I believe I would be a great fit for your company.
I'm applying for the Junior Developer role. I've been using your scheduling API in a side project for the past six months, and the way your docs handle rate limiting is the reason I wanted to work somewhere that takes developer experience seriously.
Paragraph two — your evidence
Take the two or three things the advert asks for most insistently and show you have done them. Do not restate your CV line by line; pick one example and tell it properly — the situation, what you did, what resulted.
The advert asks for someone comfortable owning a feature end to end. In my internship at Northgate I took our internal booking tool from a spreadsheet to a working web app over ten weeks — gathering requirements from the two teams using it, building it in Django, and training them on it. It is still in daily use by about forty people.
Paragraph three — what you bring that is not on the CV
Optional, and the first to cut if you are running long. Use it for something the CV cannot carry: why you are changing field, what you learnt from a gap, or an interest that genuinely connects to the work.
The closing
One or two lines. Say you would welcome the chance to talk, and sign off. Do not demand an interview, and do not thank them for their time in three separate sentences.
I'd be glad to talk through any of this. Thank you for considering my application.
Yours sincerely,
Amara Okafor
Mistakes that sink otherwise good letters
- The wrong company name. The single most common fatal error, and it comes from reusing a letter. Check it twice, out loud.
- Restating the CV. If the reader learns nothing new, the letter is wasted space.
- Writing about what you want. “This role would be a great opportunity for my development” tells them what they do for you. They are hiring for what you do for them.
- Apologising. “Although I don't have much experience…” Point at what you do have instead.
- Inflated register. “I would hereby like to express my keen interest” reads as unnatural. Write it as you would say it, then tidy.
- No proofread. A letter claiming attention to detail, containing a typo, answers its own claim.
When it goes in an email
If you are pasting the letter into the body of an email, drop the postal addresses and keep everything else. Give the subject line the role title and your name — Junior Developer application — Amara Okafor — so it survives being forwarded. Attach the CV as a PDF with a sensible filename.
A checklist before you send it
- Correct company name, correct role title, correct recipient name
- One page, under 400 words
- At least one specific, verifiable example
- Something in it that could only have been written for this employer
- Sign-off matches the greeting
- Read out loud, then read by someone else