How to Write a Cover Letter That Gets Read

Cover letters divide opinion. Some people think they are outdated. Some recruiters swear by them. And a lot of candidates skip them entirely, assuming nobody reads them.

The data says otherwise. 83% of hiring managers report that they still read cover letters, and 67% of UK recruiters consider a tailored cover letter important or essential in their hiring decisions. In public sector roles, academia, law, charities and smaller employers, a cover letter is not optional — it is expected, and sometimes the first thing read.

The catch is that most cover letters are not very good. They rehash the CV, open with a cliché, and give the reader no reason to keep going. 63% of hiring managers say a bad cover letter can disqualify an otherwise qualified candidate, even when the CV is strong.

So if you are going to write one — and in most cases you should — it is worth getting it right.

When you actually need one

A cover letter is worth writing when any of these apply:

• The job advert asks for one (obvious, but a surprising number of candidates ignore this).
• You are applying to the public sector, a charity, academia, or a professional services firm.
• You are making a career change and your CV does not obviously explain why you are applying.
• You have a career gap, a non-traditional background, or anything else the CV alone might leave ambiguous.
• You are applying to a smaller company where applications go directly to the hiring manager.

The one scenario where a cover letter genuinely does not matter much is high-volume online applications through large ATS platforms, where the system is filtering on keywords before a human ever sees the application. Even then, if there is a cover letter field, a good one can help you stand out once the CV passes the screen.

The structure that works

A good cover letter is 250–400 words — roughly three or four short paragraphs. That is one page, with room to breathe. Anything longer and you are asking a recruiter to invest time they do not have.

Paragraph 1: Why this role, specifically

Open with the role you are applying for and why it caught your attention. Not generic enthusiasm — something specific about this company or this position that connects to your experience or interests.

The difference is specificity. The strong version names the role, references the company’s priorities, and connects them to a real outcome.

Paragraph 2: What you bring

Pick two or three things from the job description that matter most, and briefly explain how your experience maps to them. This is not a summary of your CV. It is the bridge between what they need and what you have done.

Use their language. If the job description says “stakeholder management”, say stakeholder management — not “working with people across the business”. Mirroring the job spec shows you have actually read it, and in many systems it helps with keyword matching too.

Paragraph 3: Why this company

One or two sentences on why you want to work for them specifically, not just do this kind of work. Mention something you genuinely know about them — a recent project, their approach to something, their market position. This is the paragraph most candidates skip, and it is the one that shows you are serious.

Closing: Clear next step

End with confidence, not hope. “I would welcome the chance to discuss how my experience in X could support your plans for Y” is better than “I hope to hear from you”.

The five mistakes that get cover letters binned

1. Making it generic. If you can swap the company name and the letter still works, it is not tailored. Recruiters can tell instantly. This is the single most common mistake.
2. Repeating the CV. The cover letter should add context, not restate facts. If the recruiter re-reads your CV in letter form, you have wasted their time.
3. Spelling and grammar errors. 58% of cover letters are dismissed because of these alone. Proofread, then proofread again. Read it aloud.
4. Writing too much. Hiring managers do not have time for a full page of dense text. Keep it to 250–400 words. If you are going over, cut the weakest paragraph.
5. Letting AI write it without reviewing. AI-generated cover letters have a recognisable style — recruiters are seeing them constantly now, and many flag them. If you use AI as a starting point, rewrite it in your own voice and add detail only you would know.

A note on AI and cover letters

There is nothing wrong with using AI to help draft a cover letter. But the ones that work are the ones that have been rewritten by the candidate — with their own examples, their own tone, and specific references to the company and role. The ones that do not work are the ones where someone pasted a job description into ChatGPT and submitted the output unchanged.

A recruiter reads cover letters to hear your voice. If the letter sounds like it could have been written by anyone for any role, it has lost its only purpose.

The short version

Cover letters still matter for most roles. Keep them to 250–400 words. Open with something specific about the role, bridge your experience to their requirements, show you know the company, and close with confidence. Proofread it. And if every word in the letter could apply equally well to a different job at a different company, rewrite it until it could not.