The cover letter formula
Three short paragraphs:
- Why this company. One sentence that proves you actually researched them. Not "I'm impressed by your mission to innovate" — something specific you noticed about the product, the team, the recent shipping pace, the technical decision they made in their public engineering blog.
- Why you. One paragraph. Two or three of your most relevant accomplishments — the same ones that anchor your resume, but reframed as the reason this company should want you, not as a list of what you've done.
- Logistics close. One sentence: when you're available, what time zone, your phone or email if it's not in the header, a thank-you. Done.
What to skip
- "To Whom It May Concern" — find a name. LinkedIn, the company's careers page, sometimes the job listing itself. If you genuinely can't, "Hi [Team Name] team" works.
- Restating your resume. The cover letter is meant to add context and personality, not duplicate.
- "I'm a hard worker who is passionate about…" — every cover letter says this. Recruiters skip past it.
- Adjectives without evidence. "Highly skilled at React" means nothing without "shipped two React Native apps to the App Store with combined 800k installs."
The 9 templates
Each cover letter template is the design twin of a resume template — so submit them together and they look like a curated set, not a Frankenstein. Browse them on the cover letter templates page.
How the builder works
- Open the cover letter builder.
- Pick a template. Switch any time without losing your draft.
- Fill in your contact info, the recipient's, and the body text. Autosaves to your browser as you type.
- Tweak the accent color, paper size (A4 / Letter), and spacing in the customize panel.
- Download. PDF, no watermark, vector text, ATS-readable.
An example: rewriting a generic opener
❌ "I am writing to express my enthusiastic interest in the Software Engineer position at your esteemed company. I believe my skills and experiences align well with this role."
✅ "I read the engineering blog post you published last month about cutting deploy time from 11 minutes to 90 seconds — the decision to lean on Bazel remote caching is exactly the kind of problem I'd want to be working on. I spent the last two years at Stripe doing similar work on the API gateway."
Frequently asked questions
Is the cover letter builder also free?
Yes — completely free, no signup, no watermark, same as the resume builder. All 9 cover letter templates are unlocked from the start.
Do I really need a cover letter?
It depends. About 25% of recruiters in tech read them; 70%+ in non-tech do. Always include one when (a) the job listing says 'cover letter required', (b) you're a career changer needing to explain the pivot, (c) you have a personal connection to the company worth mentioning, or (d) the role is competitive enough that small differentiators matter.
How long should a cover letter be?
Three to four short paragraphs. Half a page is plenty; a full page is the absolute maximum. Recruiters spend less time on cover letters than on resumes — make every sentence work hard.
Should I customize each cover letter for each job?
Yes — at minimum the company name, the role, and one specific reason you want this job (not a generic 'I'm passionate about your mission'). Generic cover letters are obvious and often skipped. The 80/20 version: 80% of the body is reusable; 20% is custom per application.
Related
- Free resume builder — pair your cover letter with a free resume.
- All 9 cover letter templates.
- How to write a resume.