How to Write a Cover Letter (With a Template That Works)

A cover letter is three or four short paragraphs that answer one question: why you, for this job. It does not restate your resume. It connects your resume to the specific posting in front of you.

Most cover letters fail the same way. They are one letter sent to thirty jobs with the company name swapped. That shows in the first line, and once it shows, the rest does not get read.

What each paragraph does

Paragraph 1: why you are writing. The exact role and where you saw it. If someone referred you, say so here, because it is the most valuable sentence available to you. One or two lines, no throat-clearing.

Paragraph 2: why you fit. One or two concrete achievements with numbers, chosen because they answer what this posting asks for. Not your three proudest, the two they asked about.

Paragraph 3: why them. Something real about the company: a product, a project, a market they are moving into. One line is enough, and it has to be true. Generic flattery costs you more than saying nothing.

Paragraph 4: the close. That you would welcome a conversation. No pleading, no apologising.

Half a page. Never more than one.

A cover letter template

[Date]

Dear [Hiring manager's name, if you can find it],

I am writing to apply for the [role] position at [Company], which I saw on [source]. I have spent [X] years in [field], focused on [the specialisation the posting names].

At [previous company] I was responsible for [scope], where I [achievement with a number]. I also [second achievement tied to the posting]. The posting mentions [requirement quoted from it], which is what I have been doing in [context].

[Company] interests me specifically because [genuine, specific reason: a product, a market, a public project].

I would welcome the chance to talk.

Sincerely,
[Full name]
[Phone] · [Email] · [LinkedIn]

If you have no experience

Paragraph 2 changes; nothing else does. Use what you have: a university project with a measurable result, volunteer work where you coordinated people, a course you applied to something real.

What does not work is filling the space with adjectives about yourself. "Proactive and detail-oriented" says nothing. "Coordinated six people over a semester" says something.

The mistake that stops it being read

Sending the same letter everywhere.

It is obvious because paragraph 2 lists achievements unrelated to what the posting asks for, and paragraph 3 could be addressed to any company. A recruiter reading twenty of these a day spots it immediately.

The fix is not writing from scratch each time. It is keeping a solid base and genuinely changing two things per application: the achievements in paragraph 2, chosen against the posting, and the specific reason in paragraph 3.

That is where Dopplio fits. You paste the posting, upload your resume, and it shows what the job asks for that is missing from your document, then drafts a cover letter from that same posting for you to edit. You can try it free, and if the resume itself needs rebuilding there is the resume builder.

The letter does not rescue the resume

Worth being blunt about: a person may read your cover letter, but software reads your resume first. Applicant tracking systems rank applications by how well the resume matches the posting, and an excellent letter does not compensate for a resume the parser cannot read.

If you have an hour for an application, the first half hour goes to the resume. How to pass the ATS filter covers what that actually means, and how to tailor your resume to a job description covers the part that decides your ranking.

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