✦Job search · 12 recordsWrite a cover letter

Most cover letters are either generic or rewritten from nothing for every job, and both are why they go unread. This writes one strong base letter around two or three proof points, then tailors it in ten minutes per application: the opening names the role and why this company, and the middle maps your evidence onto what the advert asks for.

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Free on any plan. You will see this list again in the app, and nothing is created until you press install.

✦ Everything it creates

The whole plan, before you install it

Goal

A cover letter that gets the CV read Week 3

One strong base letter, tailored in ten minutes each time.

Write the base letter Day 7

Built on proof, not adjectives.

  • Pick the two or three achievements I can proveDo firstDay 2
  • Write each one as what I did and what changedDo firstDay 4
  • Draft the base letter under a pageDo firstDay 6
  • Ask one person to read it and say what they rememberDay 7

Tailor it for real applications Week 3

Ten minutes each, not a rewrite.

  • Tailor and send the first letterDo firstDay 9
  • Save each tailored version with the job it was forDay 10
  • Review which letters led to repliesWeek 3

Routines

  • Tailor this week's cover lettersweekly
✦ It comes with a note

Cover letter structure

Opening: the role, and why this organisation, in one or two sentences.

Middle: two or three examples that match what the advert asks for. Each one is what you did and what changed because of it.

Close: what you would bring to the role, and that you would welcome a conversation.

To tailor it: change the opening, swap in the examples that match this advert, and use their words for the skills they list.

✦ Questions

Write a cover letter, answered.

Three or four short paragraphs, comfortably under a page. The reader is deciding whether to look at the CV properly, and a letter that makes its case in half a page does that better than one that makes it in two.
With the role and the reason you want it at this organisation, in the first sentence. Openings about being writing to apply, or about being a hard-working team player, are the lines every reader has learned to skip.
A tailored one, not a new one. Keep a strong base letter, then change the opening, the two or three examples that match the advert, and the closing line. That takes about ten minutes and reads as written for the job.
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