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Cover Letters

Free Cover Letter Builder

Write a cover letter that matches your resume. Pick a template, fill in the blanks with the guided editor, and download a free PDF in seconds — every template is recruiter-ready and uses the same designs as our resume builder.

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Bond

Timeless serif letter — recruiter-safe and elegant.

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Atlas

Bold name band up top, clean sans body.

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Quill

Quiet, spacious, lets the words breathe.

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Marlowe

Accent rule under your name — confident and current.

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Beaumont

Centered, stately, built for senior roles.

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Vivid

Colored contact rail with a punchy header.

How to write a cover letter in four steps

  1. 1

    Choose a cover letter template

    Pick a template that matches the resume you are sending. A shared header, typeface, and accent colour make the pair read as one application.

  2. 2

    Add the role and recipient

    Enter the job title, the company, and the hiring manager's name where you can find it. Addressing a person rather than 'Sir or Madam' measurably improves how the letter is received.

  3. 3

    Write the three paragraphs

    Open with the specific reason you are writing, give your single most relevant achievement with its result, then say why this employer in particular. The guided editor prompts each one in turn.

  4. 4

    Download the PDF

    Export a free, watermark-free PDF and send it alongside your resume.

What a good cover letter actually does

A cover letter is not a prose version of your resume. The resume already establishes what you have done; the letter answers the two questions it cannot — why this role, and why you specifically. If a paragraph could be deleted without losing an answer to one of those, delete it.

The second paragraph is where letters are won. Take the single most relevant thing you have done, state it with its result, and connect it to the problem the posting describes. One concrete story outperforms three paragraphs of enthusiasm, because enthusiasm is claimed by every applicant and evidence is not.

What to avoid

  • Restating your resume in paragraph form. The reader has both documents.
  • Opening with “I am writing to apply for the position of…” — the subject line already said that. Spend the first sentence on something only you could write.
  • Adjective stacking. “Hard-working team player with excellent communication skills” is claimed by every applicant and therefore distinguishes none.
  • Generic AI output. Recruiters recognise it immediately, and it is now a faster rejection than a mediocre human letter.
  • The wrong company name. Read the first and last paragraph aloud before you attach the file.

Cover letter FAQ

Is the cover letter builder free?
Yes. Writing, editing, and downloading a cover letter as a PDF costs nothing, and the file carries no watermark.
How long should a cover letter be?
Half a page — three or four short paragraphs, roughly 200 to 300 words. A full page of prose from someone the reader has not met is far less likely to be read at all.
Do I still need a cover letter in 2026?
It depends on the situation. A letter is worth writing for career changes, employment gaps, small companies where the hiring manager reads every application, any posting that requests one, and roles where writing is part of the job. For high-volume applications through a job board, it usually is not.
Should my cover letter match my resume design?
Yes. A shared header, typeface, and accent colour signal care and make the two documents recognisable as one application, which is why our cover letter templates mirror the resume templates exactly.
What should I write if I do not know the hiring manager's name?
Address the team or department — 'Dear Engineering Hiring Team' — rather than 'To Whom It May Concern', which reads as a mail merge. Check the company's careers page and LinkedIn first; the name is often findable in two minutes.
Can I reuse the same cover letter for different jobs?
Reuse the structure and your strongest achievement paragraph, but rewrite the opening and the paragraph about the employer every time. A letter that could have been sent to any company is worse than no letter, because it demonstrates the opposite of what it is meant to.

Build the resume it goes with

A letter is half an application. Build the matching document in the free resume builder, pick a design from the resume template library, each of which opens as a finished sample document for your role. For more on when a letter is worth writing at all, read do cover letters still matter?