The short answer
A cover letter is for what your resume cannot say: why this role, which two or three pieces of your experience matter most to this employer, and one honest line on anything that looks like a gap. Write three or four short paragraphs, well under a page, specific to this posting. Every fact in it should match your resume exactly.
The letter is not a second copy of your resume in sentences. It picks the evidence that matters for this job and tells the reader why it matters. A letter that could be sent to any company adds nothing, and a specific one is the only kind worth your time.
When to send one
Send a letter whenever the application asks for one. When it is optional, a letter is most useful if you have something specific to explain or connect: a change of field, a return after a break, a move to a new city, a referral, or a requirement you meet in an unusual way. At a small company, where the person hiring often reads every application, a short specific letter can carry more weight.
When the form says not to include one, do not. And when it is optional and you have nothing specific to say, a generic letter is unlikely to help.
A structure that works
Most strong letters have the same four parts. The order matters less than the rule behind it: every paragraph should say something about this job and something true about you.
- The opening. Name the role, then start on something specific to this posting, such as the product, the customers or the problem the role exists to solve, and the one fact from your experience that speaks to it.
- The middle, in one or two paragraphs. Connect the two or three strongest matches between what the posting asks for and what you have done. Give each its real number, scope or outcome, and say why it matters to them. Use the posting's own words where they describe your work.
- The honest sentence. If there is a requirement you clearly do not meet, name it in one sentence, say what you have that is closest, and how you would close the gap. Leave it out if there is no such requirement.
- The close. Say in a sentence or two what you would do first in the role, drawn from your experience. Stock lines such as "I look forward to hearing from you" are harmless, but they say nothing. Give the last sentence something to do.
Addressing the letter
Use the hiring manager's name if the posting gives one, or if you can find it reliably. Otherwise "Dear [Company] team" is polite and accurate. Check the company name twice. A letter addressed to the last company you applied to is an easy mistake to make and an expensive one.
Stay consistent with your resume
The letter and the resume will be read side by side, sometimes by different people at different stages. Use the same job titles, the same dates and the same numbers. If a figure appears in the letter, it should appear in the resume too, or be something you can show.
Do not upgrade anything in the letter that the resume states modestly. If the resume says you supported a launch, the letter should not say you led it. The letter adds context and reasons. It does not add new claims.
A worked example
This example is fictional. The posting is for a Customer Support Team Lead at a meal-kit delivery company called Harvest Box. It asks for someone to lead a team of eight agents, build a quality review process, and work in Zendesk. Previous people management is listed as preferred, and Spanish as a plus.
Jordan is a senior support agent at an online furniture retailer. Before writing a word, Jordan lists what is actually true.
- Four years in support at Oakline Furniture, all of it in Zendesk.
- Built the library of saved replies the team of twelve uses for its most common questions.
- Trained the six agents who joined over the last two years, from their first shift until they handled tickets alone.
- For the past year, ran the weekly quality review: scored 20 tickets a week against a checklist written with the team lead.
- No formal people management. No Spanish.
The generic version
The opening most people write first: "I am excited to apply for the Team Lead position at your innovative company. I am a hard-working, passionate support professional with excellent communication skills." Every word could appear in anyone's letter to anyone. None of it uses the notes above.
The letter Jordan sent
"Dear Harvest Box team,"
"Your posting says the new team lead will build a quality review process. For the past year I have run the weekly quality review at Oakline Furniture, scoring 20 tickets a week against a checklist I wrote with our team lead."
"I have worked in Zendesk for four years and built the library of saved replies our team of twelve uses for its most common questions. I have also trained the six agents who joined in the last two years, from their first shift until they handled tickets on their own."
"I have not managed people formally. Our team lead has run the team while I trained and reviewed, so this would be my first role with direct reports. I would build on the training and review work I already do, and ask for regular check-ins with my own manager in the first months."
"In my first month I would review a sample of tickets with each agent and agree on the checklist we score against, so the review process starts from how your team already works."
"Kind regards, Jordan"
What the example shows
Every number in the letter comes from Jordan's notes: four years, twelve people, six new agents, 20 tickets a week. The opening starts from the posting's own words, not from guesses about the company's culture. The missing requirement is named once, plainly, and followed by something useful. Spanish is not mentioned at all. It is a plus Jordan does not have, and a sentence about it would only draw attention to it.
The letter is also short, under 200 words in its body. It does not repeat the resume's bullets. It chooses three facts, puts them next to the posting's needs, and stops.
What usually goes wrong
Most weak letters fail in one of a few predictable ways.
- A generic opening that could be sent to any employer.
- Repeating the resume in full sentences instead of choosing from it.
- Claims that appear nowhere on the resume, or a stronger version of ones that do.
- Flattery about the company that has nothing to do with your experience.
- Apologizing for a gap or a missing requirement, instead of naming it once and moving on.
- Writing about every requirement you do not meet, rather than only the biggest one.
- The wrong company name, left over from the last application.
- Running past a page. If the letter needs a second page, it is trying to be a resume.
How Verlane handles it
After tailoring a resume, you can ask for a cover letter in the same chat thread. It is written from the same evidence as the resume, so the two are built from the same facts.
- The letter draws on your resume, your stored notes, which Verlane calls Mindbase, and the answers you gave to its questions about this job. Nothing else counts as evidence.
- It follows the structure above: three or four short paragraphs that open on something specific to the posting, connect your strongest matching facts with their real numbers, name the biggest requirement your evidence does not show in one honest sentence, and close with what you would do first.
- A requirement you said you do not have is never claimed. When your evidence is thin, it writes a shorter letter rather than padding it.
- Every sentence is checked against your own material before you see it, and a sentence nothing supports is removed.
- Past cover letters you have stored in Mindbase are used as examples of your tone and phrasing, retargeted to this job.
- The greeting uses the hiring manager's name if you give it, and otherwise addresses the company's team. You can download the letter as a PDF.
- If a letter cannot be written, you see an error. Verlane does not quietly substitute a template letter.