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Creating application documents is a process of targeting your message to a specific audience: your potential employer. Tailoring application materials will prepare you for the storytelling you may do in the next stages of the application, particularly interviews!

Drafting targeted cover letters can be a time-consuming process. However, the Work-Learn Institute (WxL) conducted a research study in 2018 and found that employers typically rank a customized cover letter as the third most important source of information to make screening decisions (Pretti and Drewery, 2018).So, although there are exceptions, it’s most often to your benefit to include a cover letter – and you must do so when the posting states to include one!

If you are submitting your résumé online for a posted job, be sure to follow the instructions. If there are no instructions or they’re unclear, it’s typically a good idea to include a cover letter. You may include a brief note in the body of your email, but it’s typically best to attach a cover letter document along with your résumé even if no a cover letter has not been requested. Doing so will make you stand out from other candidates who have not included one (Crosby, 1999, Crosby & Liming, 2009).

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If an online application system allows you to submit only one document, you could consider combining the cover letter and résumé into one document.

• Length – typically 1 page but in some cases longer is permitted (refer to application instructions, if they exist, to guide your decision)

• Typically 3+ paragraphs

• Layout - ½ inch to 1-inch margins

• Font - 10 to 12 size font (match your résumé font style and size)

• Header- You may include the same header as your résumé since it’s expected that the résumé and cover letter are submitted together

• Date - Common to include the date

• Position title – Include the position number as well if there is one in the job ad

• Contact information: Include the employer’s contact information

• Address the cover letter to “Dear Hiring Manager,” “Dear Hiring Committee,” or “Dear Recruiter” if you do not know their name. It’s more personal to address the letter to a specific person, so if you know or can research and find out with certainty the hiring manager’s full name, include it (first and last names). Avoid using gendered titles such as “Mr” or “Mrs” unless the job ad specifically includes those titles.

The basic format is:

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Introduction

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Body paragraphs

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• Sign off with an e-signature or typed signature

• Write in the first person (‘I,’ ‘me’) and use complete sentences (for impact, key points can be included in a bulleted list)

There are many ways people use to map out an outline of their cover letter. Below is an approach that uses a table. Another option might be to use different coloured highlighters to categorize important pieces of information from the job posting. Feel free to move the text in the job posting around so that information is grouped by skill or theme in a way that makes sense to you. (If you do this, save a copy of the original job ad for future reference!)

Expand the following content for more information.

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• Next: How to write a cover letter

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Crosby, O. (1999). Resumes, Applications, and Cover Letters. Occupational Outlook Quarterly, 43(2).