How to Write a Cover Letter (Free Template + Real Example)

Most cover letters are written in a hurry, say almost nothing, and get skimmed in four seconds. That’s why so many people conclude they’re useless. But a letter that names the company, points at one specific thing you’ve done, and connects it to what the job actually needs is a different document entirely — and it’s still the cheapest way to stand out when your resume looks like everyone else’s.

Here’s the structure that works, a template you can copy, and how to send it as a clean PDF without uploading your personal details to a random server.

What a cover letter is for (and what it isn’t)

Your resume answers “what have you done?”. Your cover letter answers “why you, for this job, right now?”.

That means it should never be a prose version of your resume. If a recruiter can delete your letter and lose no information, the letter had no reason to exist. Its job is to add three things the resume can’t carry: context for an unusual career move, evidence that you understand this specific company, and a tone of voice that sounds like a person.

The 5-part structure

1. The opening line: role + why them. Skip “I am writing to apply for the position of…”. Everyone knows why you’re writing. Open with something only a candidate who did their homework could write.

2. The proof paragraph. One concrete achievement, with a number if you have one, that maps to the main responsibility in the job ad. Not three achievements — one, told properly.

3. The fit paragraph. Take the two or three requirements the ad repeats most and show, briefly, where you’ve done exactly that. This is where you use their vocabulary, not yours.

4. The practical line. Anything they need to know that the resume doesn’t say: you’re relocating, you’re available from a certain date, you’re comfortable with the shift pattern, you’re legally allowed to work there.

5. The close. One sentence, forward-looking, no begging. “I’d be glad to walk you through how I’d approach [specific thing] in a short call.”

The free template (copy and paste)

[Your name]
[Phone] · [Email] · [City]

[Date]

Dear [Hiring manager's name],

[Opening: name the role and one specific, true reason this company —
a product, a recent launch, a value, a problem you know they have.]

[Proof: one achievement relevant to the job's main responsibility.
Situation in one line, what you did, what changed. Use a number.]

[Fit: the two requirements they repeat most, and where you've done
exactly that. Use their words for it.]

[Practical: availability, location, notice period — only if relevant.]

[Close: one sentence offering a next step.]

Best regards,
[Your name]

A filled example

Illustrative example for a customer support role at a small software company:

Dear Marta,

I’ve been using your scheduling app since the redesign last spring, and the thing that stood out was how few support tickets it seems to need — which is exactly the kind of product I want to support.

At my last job I handled around 60 tickets a day for a payments tool. When I noticed a third of them were the same three questions, I rewrote those help articles and added them to the automated first reply. Ticket volume on those topics dropped by roughly half in two months, and our average first response time went from 6 hours to under 2.

Your ad emphasises written communication and working across time zones. Most of my support work has been async and in writing, with a team spread over three countries, so handovers and clear documentation are already how I work.

I’m based in Valencia and available with two weeks’ notice.

I’d be glad to walk you through how I’d handle your top three recurring tickets in a short call.

Best regards, Ana Ruiz

Notice what it doesn’t do: it doesn’t list every job she’s had, it doesn’t say she’s “passionate and hard-working”, and it doesn’t run to a second page.

Formatting: make it look like it belongs with your resume

The letter and the resume should look like they came from the same person. Same font, same header block with your name and contact details, same margins. If your resume was built in our free resume builder, reuse that header exactly — consistency reads as care.

A few practical rules:

• One page. Always.
• Name the file properly. Ana-Ruiz-Cover-Letter-Support.pdf, not letter_final_v3.pdf. Recruiters download dozens of files into one folder.
• Send PDF, so the layout can’t shift on their machine.
• Left-align the text. Justified text creates ugly rivers of white space in short paragraphs.

Sending it: one file or two?

If the application form has separate fields for CV and cover letter, upload them separately. If it only gives you one upload slot — which is very common — put the cover letter first and your resume after it, in a single PDF. You can do that in seconds with Merge PDF: drop in the letter, then the CV, and download one file. Nothing is uploaded anywhere; the merge happens inside your browser.

If the portal insists on an editable document, convert your finished PDF with PDF to Word and check the result before sending — automatic conversion is good, but a quick look at spacing and line breaks takes ten seconds and avoids an embarrassing layout.

The mistakes that get letters skimmed and dropped

“To whom it may concern.” Spend two minutes finding the name — the job ad, the company’s team page, LinkedIn. If you genuinely can’t find it, “Dear Hiring Team” is fine. The generic salutation isn’t fatal; not trying is.

Restating your resume in paragraphs. If every sentence starts with “I”, you’re writing about yourself instead of about the fit.

Talking about what you want. “This role would be a great opportunity for my growth” is about you. They’re hiring to solve a problem — write about their problem.

Obvious generic AI text. Recruiters now read dozens of letters built from the same three phrases. Use AI to tidy your draft if you like, but the specifics — the company detail, the number, the story — have to be yours, because those are the only parts that carry weight.

A wall of text. Four short paragraphs with white space between them get read. One dense block doesn’t.

Tailoring in ten minutes per application

Keep a base letter with the structure above and a bank of two or three proof paragraphs covering your main skills. For each application, you only rewrite two things: the opening line (the company-specific reason) and the fit paragraph (their repeated requirements). Swap in the proof paragraph that matches best, re-export, rename the file, done.

That’s ten minutes for a letter that reads like it was written for them — because the parts that matter were.

Your privacy while you do it

A cover letter and a CV together contain your full name, phone number, address, work history and sometimes your ID. Most free online tools upload those files to a server you know nothing about. Every tool linked here — the resume builder, the merge tool, the converters — runs entirely inside your browser: your files never leave your device, there’s no account, and you can disconnect from the internet after the page loads and everything still works.