It’s official: cover letters are still a thing and are definitely worth writing.

Despite the chatter you may read online questioning the usefulness of cover letters, the fact remains that quite a few HR specialists, recruiters, hiring managers, and career coaches think they’re important.

And considering the number of people who are unemployed, anything you can do to give yourself a leg up on the competition helps.

According to a recent study, only 47% of applicants submit cover letters. What a missed opportunity!

😭 The challenge

I get it: writing a compelling custom cover letter for every application takes time.

And if you write a template cover letter and just ctrl-f to replace job titles and company names, you’re bound to make a mistake sooner or later.

Every hiring manager has received a cover letter addressed to the wrong person or company.

Don’t let a simple mistake be the thing that disqualifies you from your dream job.

⏩ The Cover Letter Toolkit

The Cover Letter Toolkit is an easy-to-use tool that enables you to generate perfect cover letters, customized to each job application, with just a single click.

Here’s how it works

Find the toolkit under the Toolkits menu in the navigation bar.

Create some paragraphs. Don’t forget a salutation (e.g. “Dear Hiring Manager”) and a closing (e.g. “All the best”).

Use variables in your paragraphs to reference things like the job title or company name. They look like this: {{ title }}

Now that you have the building blocks, you’re ready to create your first template.

Drag and drop paragraphs from the Paragraph Builder to the Template Builder.You can re-use the same paragraphs in multiple templates, saving more of your time.

Give the template a name, and save it.

Make a template for each type of role you’re applying to (e.g. “Sales Engineer”, “Customer Success”, “Account Manager”).

There’s no limit to the number of paragraphs and templates you can make, so make as many as you need.

Your templates will appear at the top of the toolkit.

If you want to make a template that’s similar to one you’ve already created, just click the template’s Copy button.

To use a template, open an application on the Applications page, find the Cover Letter section, select a template from the drop-down, and click Generate.

Once the cover letter has been generated you can edit it further from the application’s edit page.

The cover letter is generated in plain text so you can safely copy-paste it into an email or online application form.

🤔 Tips

Here are some tips from the experts.

1. Keep your cover letters brief. Aim for 250-400 words or roughly half a page. (source)
2. Don’t repeat what’s in your resumé. Resumés are for facts; cover letters describe compelling reasons to hire you for this particular job. (source)
3. Emphasize what you can do for them, instead of talking about what you hope to get from the job. Try not to use “I” or “me” too much. (source)

🚀 Get started today

Ready to get organized in your job search?

Head over to searchcity.app and create an account today.