It’s Storytime! Four Parts to a Great Cover Letter — The Basics (Part 1 of 4)

Ever have a great main course at a restaurant, only to be crushed when the dessert disappoints?

That’s what every recruiter goes through when they read a subpar cover letter.

One of the most common mistakes we see clients make is when they invest all their time into writing a great resume but neglect the cover letter.

While it’s true that a great resume is critical to successfully snagging the interview, if the job opening requires a cover letter submission, then your resume is only half the battle.

So, if you’ve been applying to jobs without a thoughtful cover letter, I have good news and bad news.

The bad news is that your lack of a good cover letter has likely hurt your resume-to-interview conversion rate, especially for jobs for which you were “on-the-fence” in the recruiter’s eyes; for highly competitive positions with a large applicant pool, the recruiter is looking for any reason to cut candidates, and a poor cover letter is the first measuring stick they’ll use besides your resume.

The good news is that you’ve come across this article which will teach you everything you need to know about the four parts to an outstanding cover letter.

Luckily, just like your grandma’s cookie recipe, the recipe to a great cover letter is:

1. Easily learnable
2. Very repeatable
3. Highly adaptable

As with your resume, the purpose of this recipe is to clearly and concisely communicate (via a story) to your future employer your value-add; the cover letter also presents you an opportunity to elaborate on any special considerations or outstanding parts of your resume or overall application.

This is such an important point that I’ll be repeating it throughout this article. Communicate your value-add with your resume and cover letter.

A good cover letter can make-or-break your chances of landing an interview; don’t brush it off!

In this four-part article series, I’ll take you step-by-step through transforming your resume into the perfect dessert to accompany the main course you serve the recruiter.

The four parts we’ll cover are:

1. The Basics — Formatting, Grammatical Errors, And The General Flow (YOU ARE HERE!)
2. The Introduction — Who, What, When, Where, Why
3. Your Work Experience — Show Why You’re The Perfect Fit With A Great Story
4. The Conclusion — Finish With A Memorable Flourish

And of course, we’ll start with The Basics below:

1. Getting the Basics Right
2. Formatting: Presentation Is Key, So Make Things Presentable!
3. Grammatical Errors: Write in Perfect English
4. General Flow: As Naturally As Water

Getting The Basics Right

Just like how the recruiter only gives six seconds to scanning your resume, your cover letter only gets a cursory check as well.

This does not mean that you don’t have to care about your cover letter.

What it does mean is that it’s even more important to get the basics right, which are:

1. Formatting
2. Grammatical errors
3. General flow

If the three basic items that I just mentioned aren’t there, you’re out.

Remember, the recruiter is looking for any reason to cut you, and those three items are the easiest ones to check; given written communication is critical for any corporate role, it reflects extremely poorly on you if you fail to present your cover letter well.

Additionally, since your cover letter’s poor formatting, grammatical errors, and choppy flow will capture all of your recruiter’s attention, you damage any chances of explaining extenuating circumstances, such as describing work experience gaps or elaborating on your fit for a “career-switch” role.

These are relatively easy, table-stakes items to get right, which will put you miles ahead your competition. With that said, let’s dive right in!

Formatting: Presentation Is Key, So Make Things Presentable!

Formatting refers to the cosmetic components of your letter: aspects like fonts, white space, font size, file formats, addresses, etc.

They’re simple items to get right but look terrible when they’re wrong.

There are many small components to great formatting, each of which are critical to get the whole picture correct. As such, I’ve broken down everything into 16 formatting elements below. Each formatting element contains actionable advice and my recommendation:

(1) Fonts

My Recommendation: Choose a highly legible font like Calibri, Book Antiqua, or Times New Roman (no Wingdings, as much as I like an April Fool’s Joke).

Use common sense.

If you give your cover letter to a friend for review and he or she strains her eyes to read your cover letter, then your cover letter’s font is illegible.

Don’t shoot yourself in the foot trying to get fancy with fonts such that the recruiter doesn’t even bother paying attention to your letter.

One important note to highlight is that your resume’s font should be the same as your cover letter’s font; consistency between your resume and cover letter is key, both from a content and formatting perspective.

(2) Font Size

My Recommendation: Same legibility requirements as picking your font. I typically use size 12.

Anything smaller than 11 is pushing the limits, and anything greater than 14 begins to look funny, like you’re writing for an illustrated children’s novel; you could go a bit beyond these guidelines depending on the font you choose, but it’s best to stick to these guardrails just to be safe.

Do not shrink/grow your font size to account for content or to shrink your resume down to one page.

If you find yourself making these adjustments, you should edit your letter’s verbiage rather than adjusting the font size as a stopgap. This is usually an indication that there’s something wrong with your letter’s contents.

As with the font, your cover letter’s font size should match that of your resume for consistency.

(3) Line Spacing

My Recommendation: I prefer using “multiple” at 1.25 spacing as my default (which you do so by following the below diagram), but there’s some flexibility with the spacing you use. Single line (1.00) spacing is too cramped, while double line (2.00) spacing (that’s used in academic papers) is far too spacious.

The spacing of your cover letter refers to how much white space is between lines. This aspect is important as proper injection of white space into your cover letter makes it significantly easier for your recruiter to digest your letter, similar to how eating or drinking something acidic in-between bites of fatty foods helps clear your palette.

Like with font size, do not increase or decrease your line spacing to account for content; do so only to increase the overall readability of your letter.

(4) Paragraph Spacing

My Recommendation: The standard is to inject a single return.

This aspect refers to the spacing between paragraphs, which should be greater than the line spacing to clearly delineate between paragraphs. No need to get fancy here.

If you don’t inject any returns, everything looks smashed together, and the recruiter will have difficulty reading your word spaghetti.

Anything greater than a single return, and you waste valuable cover letter real estate, possibly making it appear like you intentionally spaced your letter out because you were lazy.

(5) Paragraph Indentations

My Recommendation: While helpful to delineate between paragraphs, I prefer to not have any paragraph indentations and let the paragraph spacing separate paragraphs because paragraph indentations (1) are redundant (if you already use paragraph spacing) and (2) take up more letter real estate.

Paragraph indentations refer to the space that precedes the first word (in the same line) of a new paragraph.

If you must have paragraph indentations, the standard is to inject a single tab, which is about an inch.

(6) Margins

My Recommendation: My preference is to have margins between 0.5” and 1.0”; all margins around the four edges of your letter should be the same.

Margins are the spacing around your letter, which serves to (1) prevent the printer from cutting off parts of your letter; (2) add white space to bolster your letter’s readability; and (3) calibrate the visual flow of your letter.

The last point refers to the way the reader’s eyes move as they scan your letter; with smaller margins, the recruiter has to read more horizontally, taking more time to read your letter in-between lines, and with larger margins, the recruiter has to read more vertically, spending time to readjust himself or herself visually to a new line.

Anything smaller than 0.5” could impact the way your cover letter prints since the printer might cut parts of your letter off; make things as easy as possible for the recruiter — don’t make them struggle to print your resume!

With anything larger than 1.0”, your letter’s format begins to look too skinny, and the extra white space significantly reduces your available real estate.

Lastly, the margins of your cover letter should match that of your resume for visual consistency.

(7) Headers

My Recommendation: I don’t like headers because they distract from the contents of your letter, and so I typically don’t add them in, preferring to use standard address formats instead (described below in points (8) and (9)).

Headers are formatting structures to quickly and immediately deliver (typically contact) information to your reader before anything else.

If you insist on adding a header, Keep It Simple, Stupid (KISS)!

Don’t make your header excessively ornate as it distracts from your letter and takes up valuable cover letter real estate; consider matching your letter’s header to that of your resume for visual consistency.

(8) Your Contact Information

My Recommendation: The first piece of information your reader should see, you should format your contact information in standard letter format, which is (each on separate lines, right aligned):

Mr./Ms./Mrs./Dr./etc. First Name Last Name, Special Degrees

Street Number and Street Name

City, State Zip Code

Email Address

Phone Number

(9) The Hiring Manager / Recruiter’s Contact Information

My Recommendation: Immediately following your contact information, the recruiter should see his or her own contact information in standard letter format, which is (each on separate lines, left aligned):

Mr./Ms./Mrs./Dr./etc. First Name Last Name, Special Degrees

Job Position

Firm Name

Firm Street Number and Street Name

City, State Zip Code

Email Address

Phone Number

(10) Addressing the Hiring Manager / Recruiter

My Recommendation: When I know the recruiter’s name, I’ll use “Dear Mr./Ms. Recruiter Name,” followed by a colon. If I don’t know the recruiter’s name, I’ll use “To Whom It May Concern,” also followed by a colon.

Addressing the recruiter could take several different forms, most of which are acceptable, but the important part is to use business formal.

Avoid sounding casual as the recruiter won’t take you seriously before he or she even begins reading your letter.

Casual (incorrect) forms of addressing include “Hi,” “Hello,” or any forms of slang.

(11) Signing Off

My Recommendation: I typically use “Sincerely” as it’s the most neutral signoff, followed by my first and last name, but you could use “Regards,” “Best,” or any other signoffs typically used in business emails.

Ending your cover letter is similar to the rules for addressing the recruiter — use business formal, avoid sounding casual.

(12) Enclosures

My Recommendation: While I typically add this section in post-signoff in the form of “Enclosure(s): Resume,” adding an enclosures section is not required unless the job application includes other items besides a resume and cover letter, such as reference letters or portfolio documents.

Enclosures is a single line in your letter that captures whether any other documents accompany your cover letter in your job application.

It can be convenient for recruiters as they’ll know from your enclosures statement whether they’ve fully reviewed all the documents submitted in your job application; the most standard enclosure is your resume.

(13) Cover Letter Length

My Recommendation: The standard cover letter length is one page max and min, regardless of length of work experience.

Anything greater than one page is far too verbose and risks the recruiter completely ignoring the cover letter; anything less than a page makes you appear lazy or inexperienced.

If you find yourself unable to write a one-page cover letter, consider elaborating more on your existing work experience or major accomplishments.

(14) File Formats

My Recommendation: Anything other than PDF format is outside the norm.

The PDF format makes it easy for your recruiter to open and view your letter, and it signals that your letter is in a finalized form.

If you submit your letter in a Word document, your recruiter will think that your letter is half-finished, which damages his or her perception of your application.

Any other formats border on “making things more difficult for your recruiter,” which is a non-starter.

(15) File Naming

My Recommendation: I prefer the “First Name Last Name_Document” format.

Make things easy for your recruiter.

Generically naming your cover letter “Cover Letter” (or your resume “Resume”) makes it hard for your recruiter to match all your documents together.

While it doesn’t matter which specific format you choose, ensure the one you use is simple, clear, and consistent.

File naming is a very easy aspect to get right, only takes a second to do, and only needs to be done once.

(16) Getting Creative?

My Recommendation: Don’t.

Some clients have asked about getting creative with cover letter formatting or content to stand out from the crowd; they argue that presenting their cover letter creatively will impress the recruiter and compel them to read deeper beyond the initial six-second scan.

Listen, I understand the desire to get creative, especially within the confined walls of the standard job application.

Here’s why you don’t want to do this.

Recall that the purpose of the cover letter is to clearly and concisely communicate your value-add to the recruiter.

Presenting your cover letter creatively interferes with the “clearly” and “concisely” part of that mission statement even if the content of your cover letter does demonstrate your value-add.

Recruiters simply don’t have the time or energy to parse your creatively presented cover letter into something they can understand, and they certainly can’t do it in six seconds.

They’d rather read about the $10M you saved in procurement expenses for your previous firm vs. taking in the fancy color scheme you added to your cover letter’s header.

So, make things easy for them — Keep It Simple, Stupid!

Grammatical Errors: Write In Perfect English

Grammatical errors are self-explanatory: Don’t have any. At all. Period.

They add no value, detract from the contents of your letter, and paint you in a bad light.

Check, double-check, and triple-check that you have no grammatical errors in your cover letter (or anywhere else in your job application documents).

Run your letter through Word’s spell-check function, and have your friends and family read your letter multiple times.

Take a fine comb and catch any and all grammatical errors.

General Flow: As Naturally As Water

The general flow of your cover letter refers to the direction, cadence, and ease with which the recruiter reads your letter and is closely tied to your letter’s proper formatting and lack of grammatical errors.

Your letter should read top-to-bottom, left-to-right, in a cadence that has the recruiter moving down your letter at a steady, rhythmic pace.

Anything that disrupts this rhythmic flow breaks the “story-telling” atmosphere that you want to create with your letter.

You want the recruiter to consume your letter in one uninterrupted session without getting distracted by any structural surprises; it all has to make sense and flow naturally, like water.

You should examine and refine your cover letter’s flow after writing initial drafts of your letter and accounting for any formatting or grammatical errors.

Read your cover letter as if you were the recruiter and ask yourself whether the direction, cadence, and ease with which you read the letter is good; have your friends and family read the letter as well and listen closely to the way they read it.

Again, everything should flow naturally.

At the end of your letter, the recruiter should think to himself or herself: “This candidate’s story of his or her accomplishments and work experience absolutely fits what we want. Let’s interview this candidate!”

Final Thoughts

That’s a wrap for part 1 of writing a great cover letter! The key to any great cover letter lies in getting The Basics right — the formatting, lack of grammatical errors, and general flow. Once you perfect The Basics, move on to the other three pivotal ingredients below:

1. The Basics — Formatting, Grammatical Errors, And The General Flow (YOU ARE HERE!)
2. The Introduction — Who, What, When, Where, Why (coming soon)
3. Your Work Experience — Show Why You’re The Perfect Fit With A Great Story (coming soon)
4. The Conclusion — Finish With A Memorable Flourish (coming soon)

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