Cover letter layout

Your cover letter should ideally:

Be tailored to the job posting, role and organization you’re applying to
Highlight and expand on those skills, qualifications and experiences from your résumé (typically included in the Summary of qualifications section or equivalent) that meet the skills and experience requirements from the job posting
Provide an opportunity for you to include examples of how your unique experiences have given you the (transferrable) skills and competencies required to excel in the position
Explain why you’re interested in working for the organization
Outline how the organization would benefit from hiring you
Provide more context for e.g., an unconventional educational background, professional experience, career transition
Reflect your personality, attitude, values and communication skills
Demonstrate your research and writing skills

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!

Do I have to include a cover letter with my résumé?

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 cover letter has been requested. Doing so will make you stand out from other candidates who have not included one (Crosby, 1999, Crosby & Liming, 2009).

For co-op applications specifically, the cover letter is optional, unless noted otherwise, so you may want to focus on writing cover letters for the positions that are most important to you.

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

How do I format a cover letter?

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 are able to 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:

Introduction
Body paragraphs
Conclusion

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)

A cover letter template is available if you are seeking an example of what the document can look like.

How do I prepare to start writing my cover letter?

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, be sure to save a copy of the original job ad for future reference!)

Step 1- Identify job requirements and keywords to highlight

Start from the job description. Take note of the qualifications the employer is seeking. In situations where there is very limited information on the job posting, consider sourcing a job posting for an equivalent role.
Identify what you consider to be the top 2 - 4 most important job requirements. You can sometimes determine the highest priority by noting the order in which an item appears (those near the top of a job ad tend to be the most important) and/or the number of instances a term is mentioned. Another option would be to upload your job ad into a generative AI program such as Microsoft Copilot and ask it to call out the top 3 skills required for the role.
Using the chart below, record these under ‘Job requirements’ in the left column, doing your best to rank them from most to least important.

Step 2- Match the most important job requirements from the job posting to your experience!

Next, select personal examples that best match the requirements that you’ve identified as most critical for the job. These could be skills, competencies, education, training, values and personality traits. Some helpful prompts might be:
1. What have I done that best demonstrates each of the top job requirements?
2. If I have a lot of evidence, which is the most compelling to include?

Tip: Be open to including skills that you’ve developed in a variety of contexts including coursework, volunteer, co-op and other work. For more information on analyzing a job ad, see Deciding to apply.

Using the chart below, record your examples in the middle column.

Step 3- Write sentences or compile notes that connect the requirements to your experiences

Review the connection between the top job requirements you’ve identified (Column 1) and the evidence that you have it (Column 2).
Reflect on your accomplishments, contributions and/or approach for each job requirement.
Using the chart below, draft complete statements or notes (or a combination) for each job requirement in the “Completed statements or notes” column. These will come in handy when you begin to create the first draft of your cover letter.

Tip: Be sure to integrate keywords from the job posting. This will help you speak to the employer's needs more directly and will boost your application score should the employer be using an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). A higher score results in a greater likelihood that your application documents will be read by a hiring manager.

Tip: Filling out the chart takes time and reflection; prepare to dig in and take breaks when you need them.

Preparing to write cover letter – chart

Job requirements- Ranked in order of importance

Evidence I have it

Completed statements or notes

Example:

Respond to client questions and concerns, resolve customer complaints and escalate issues appropriately.

Example:

Summer job at Rogers

Example:

Handled customer phone inquiries
Triaged customer concerns
Deescalated where possible
Escalated to manager when needed

Download a fillable version of the chart:

TIP: You can add to this chart any time you have new experiences. By doing so you are actively curating ideas and examples for future job applications!

References

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