Use This TemplateAre Cover Letters Necessary in 2025?
In today’s job market, cover letters help you showcase qualifications and skills that make you a uniquely desirable candidate. Learn why cover letters are necessary and how they boost your hiring chances.
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Is a Cover Letter Necessary?
If you’re an active job seeker, you’ve likely asked yourself: Do I need a cover letter?
When faced with writing a different cover letter for each application, the question of “do cover letters matter” is bound to arise.
A cover letter isn’t always required, but it can strengthen your application by highlighting your interest and matching your skills to the job. Many employers expect one, and when it’s requested, it’s necessary. It’s a great opportunity to showcase why you’re the best fit for the role.
If you’re debating whether cover letters are still relevant, check out some benefits of including one in your job application.
What is the purpose of a cover letter?
- Share additional accomplishments you couldn’t fit into your resume.
- Provide more context to the achievements featured in your resume.
- Explain and justify gaps in your employment history.
- Showcase your career progression.
- Mention connections you have to the company, such as referrals from current employees.
- Convey your passion for the profession and your motivation to work for the company.
While we’ve explained a cover letter’s purpose and importance, writing one can take time — so we created a Cover Letter Builder that can make a personalized letter in 15 minutes!
Simply upload your resume to generate a cover letter or create one from scratch. Input your target job title and years of experience into the Builder and follow a few prompts. With customizable, professionally designed templates and pre-written content suggestions, our Cover Letter Builder is a great tool for your job search!
6 Reasons Why Cover Letters Are Important in Today’s Job Market
If you’re wondering whether writing a brand new cover letter is worth the effort for that job you’re eyeing, we’re here to tell you all the reasons you should.
Cover letters are entirely customizable, meaning you can virtually write whatever you want to ensure employers understand why you’re the best fit for the job and, more importantly, dissuade any doubts about why you’re not.
Cover letters help you explain employment gaps.
Employment gaps can happen for various reasons — caring for family, pursuing personal projects, or taking a sabbatical. Since long employment gaps can raise red flags with some employers, use your cover letter to briefly explain why you took that time off. Be honest and concise, and quickly shift the focus to your accomplishments.
You can mention employee referrals in your cover letter.
If you’re still questioning the importance of a cover letter, here’s a juicy statistic for you. According to Apollo Technical, An employee referral can boost your hiring chances by up to 40%. Make sure to mention it in the opening paragraph of your cover letter to grab the
Cover letters are ideal for showcasing your career progression.
Resumes list achievements, but cover letters tell the story behind them. Use your letter to highlight how your accomplishments propelled your career forward, showing employers a straightforward narrative of your personal growth, career progression and readiness for the next step.
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They provide space to share additional accomplishments.
A cover letter lets you highlight impressive achievements that didn’t fit on your resume. However, avoid stuffing your letter with unrelated anecdotes and focus on accomplishments relevant to the job that demonstrate why you’re the best fit.
Cover letters allow you to give more context about your resume achievements.
Resumes summarize achievements, but you can add more depth to your accomplishmentss with a cover letter. Use your cover letter to explain key successes, strategies and the impact of your efforts. A well-written cover letter should help employers understand the value you bring beyond bullet points with skills and qualifications.
You can showcase your passion and personality in a cover letter.
Cover letters reveal more than qualifications — they show your enthusiasm and cultural fit. Mention hobbies, personal projects, or motivations that align with the company’s mission and signal your genuine interest in the company. These qualities are crucial for companies that want to build strong teams capable of working together and coming up with innovative solutions — you want to show you have the soft skills to thrive in this environment.
Do You Need a Cover Letter For a Resume?
Yes, but not always. The main purpose of a cover letter is to serve as a complement to your resume. You can’t really apply to a job with just a cover letter; it should always go hand in hand with a professional resume.
However, that doesn’t mean you need a cover letter for a resume in every single case. In some rare instances, a job posting explicitly states they’re not accepting cover letters. You’ll likely come across a job advertisement stating that submitting a cover letter is optional, or there’s no submission box to include one.
What does an “optional” cover letter mean?
An “optional” cover letter means that including one is not a strict requirement when submitting your application, but it is encouraged. It allows you to stand out by providing additional context about your qualifications, experiences and enthusiasm for the role that might not be fully conveyed in your resume.
In cases where the cover letter is optional, we recommend always including one. First, although recruiters and hiring managers should be objective professionals, they are humans, and they can be subject to bias. If they receive dozens of applications and you’re the only one who didn’t submit a cover letter, that might reflect poorly on you.
The extra effort it takes to write a cover letter can yield significant results in your job search.
When to submit a cover letter
When debating whether to include a cover letter in your job application, there are some situations when it’s a no-brainer.
When you’ve found your dream job
It’s not every day you find a job opening that meets all your requirements and genuinely gets you excited about the prospect of working. In those cases, you must take advantage of every opportunity to pitch your candidacy and ensure recruiters see all the ways you’re the best candidate for the job. A cover letter allows you to share additional achievements from the ones in your resume and explain why you’re interested in this particular role.
When you have more to say
If you’ve written a good resume and still feel like it falls a little short of all the relevant skills and qualifications you can offer a company, you should accompany it with an equally strong cover letter. A cover letter can also help you explain many slightly undesirable aspects of your
When you have time to write a good cover letter
Recruiters can spot a generic cover letter in seconds. Submitting a cover letter you didn’t try to customize to your unique achievements and the job requirements is a sure way to get recruiters to dismiss you from hiring. Therefore, only submit a cover letter if you can honestly spend some time editing it to its best version. Of course, you can always get help from our professional Cover Letter Builder and create a personalized letter in minutes!
Professional Cover Letter Examples to Land a Job
If you need help writing your cover letter, our cover letter examples are a great tool. Resume experts write these samples, showing you the skills, experiences and phrasing that make your cover letter shine.
When Not to Include a Cover Letter
There are a few instances where you shouldn’t include a cover letter in your job application:
The job doesn’t require a cover letter.
Although uncommon, some employers will explicitly request that applicants NOT include a cover letter with their resume, so ensure you read the job advertisement carefully.
The online application doesn’t allow adding a cover letter.
Many companies only accept job applications through their digital forms. If the online application form doesn’t allow you to submit a cover letter, feel free to omit it.
The application deadline is too tight.
There might come a time when you find a job opening that seems like the perfect fit, but the deadline to apply isn’t enough to write a quality cover letter. We would only say it’s somewhat acceptable not to submit a cover letter on this rare occasion. It’s not ideal, but if you have to choose between writing an excellent resume or a cover letter, the resume takes priority. However, to avoid this dilemma, we created a top-of-the-line Cover Letter Builder that writes you a personalized cover letter in minutes.
Writing Tips for a Standout Cover Letter
To help you write a cover letter that provides value to employers and gets you a callback, follow these tips:
- Personalize your greeting.
One of the easiest ways to show recruiters you mean business is by addressing your cover letter by the recipient’s name. Find the hiring manager’s name on LinkedIn or the company’s website to show your attention to detail and willingness to go above and beyond.
- Start with a strong opening.
Hook the reader by starting your opening paragraph with an impactful statement about your qualifications. For instance, instead of saying, “Hi, I’m interested in your company.” try something like, “After seven years working at the top global beauty corporations, I am ready to provide my marketing expertise and insight as a consultant to up-and-coming startups like yours.”
- Tailor your letter to the job.
Prepare to write your cover letter by reading the job advertisement and company. Ensure you choose achievements, skills and anecdotes that directly reflect the job’s requirements. This approach is a sure way to get called back for an interview!
- Explain why you want the position.
Go beyond listing qualifications by explaining why you’re passionate about the role and how it aligns with your career goals. Showing potential employers you admire a company’s work will make them eager to have you on the team.
- Demonstrate you’re a cultural fit.
Get noticed by recruiters by sharing details about your values, personal projects or volunteer work in your cover letter. Even though these accomplishments might not strictly relate to your career, they can give recruiters a peek into who you are so they can gauge if you mesh well with the current team members’ personalities.
- Keep it concise.
Your letter should be one page long and contain three to four paragraphs. You can improve the readability of your body paragraph(s) by formatting it with bullet points.
- Include a call to action.
Close your letter by confidently telling potential employers you’re enthusiastic about getting this job and encouraging them to set up a future interview.
- Proofread your letter.
Before pressing send, run your cover letter through a proofreading tool — our Builder has an integrated spell-checker. Other options include Grammarly, Hemingway or a trusted editor or writer friend.
Key Takeaways
- Cover letters are necessary if the job opening clearly states you should include one.
- A cover letter is essential because it allows you to communicate personally with potential employers and share a referral from someone in the company, your passion for the job and additional career achievements.
- You shouldn’t include a cover letter in your job application if the job advertisement says not to write one, if the online application form doesn’t give you the option to submit one or if the deadline for applying doesn’t provide you with time to write a letter.
- If the job you’re applying for says a cover letter is optional, it’s your prerogative whether to include one or not. However, we encourage you to write one in this case, as it can help you stand out from other applicants who opted not to include one.
FAQ
Do I need a cover letter for an internal promotion?
Yes. A cover letter can help you show current colleagues and potential supervisors many professional qualities they’re not yet aware of, especially if they haven’t directly collaborated with you on a daily basis.
When applying for an internal position, include a cover letter that states all the reasons why an internal hire is beneficial to the company. Bring special attention to all the ways you already know the company and its internal processes. In addition, provide specific examples of instances where you’ve collaborated with potential future team members and any positive impact from those collaborations.
Do I need a cover letter for a part-time job?
Most part-time jobs won’t ask you to submit a cover letter for a job. Unless the job advertisement asks for a cover letter, you don’t need to include one. If the job ad says cover letters are optional, including one can help your chances of getting hired.
Do I need a cover letter for an internship?
Internships may require you to submit a cover letter in your application. Most companies have limited slots for their internships, so competition can be high. A cover letter can help you showcase your accomplishments during your academic career and the goals you hope to achieve in the internship and future job.
How do I format a cover letter?
You should follow the rules of a business letter when formatting a cover letter. Business and cover letters follow the same structure: a header with the date, recipient’s name, address and greeting — in that specific order. It follows with the opening, body and closing paragraphs and ends with an appropriate sign-off.
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