What Is a Cover Letter?

What a cover letter is for

Your CV is a record. It lists what you have done, where and when, in a format the reader can scan quickly. It has no room to explain anything.

The cover letter is where you explain. It connects the record to this particular job: which parts of your experience matter for it, why you are applying, and anything on the CV that would otherwise raise a question. A move into a new field, a gap, a relocation or an unusual job title can all look like problems on a CV and make complete sense once a reader has one sentence of context.

A good one is short. Three quarters of a page, written for one employer, is the target.

Cover letter or CV: the difference

The most common mistake is a cover letter that retells the CV in longer sentences. The reader already has the CV. If the letter adds nothing, it does not get read past the first paragraph.

Motivation letters, personal statements and supporting statements

Several documents get called a cover letter, or confused with one. They overlap, and they are not quite the same thing:

• Motivation letter. The term used in much of mainland Europe, and sometimes by multinationals here. In practice it is a cover letter with more weight on why you want the role. If an Irish advert asks for one, write a cover letter and give the "why this job" paragraph a bit more room.
• Personal statement. Usually means the short profile at the top of a CV. In education it can also mean a longer statement for a course application. Our guide to the CV personal profile covers the CV version.
• Supporting statement. Common in public sector and some charity applications. It is usually structured around the criteria in the job description, and you answer each one with evidence. Follow the instructions in the job pack, because these are often scored. Our guide to public sector and HSE applications explains how these work here.

When you need one, and when you do not

The short rule: if the advert asks for a cover letter, always send one, because leaving it out is an easy reason to set an application aside. If the advert gives you an optional field for one, it is worth filling in when you have something to explain.

It earns its place most when:

• You are changing career and the CV alone would leave the reader wondering why you applied.
• You have a gap or a short role that needs a sentence of context.
• You are moving to Ireland, or to a different part of the country, and want to show the move is real.
• You are applying to a small employer, where one person reads every application.

It matters least on large graduate schemes and agency applications, where there is often nowhere to put one and a structured form does the same job.

What goes in it

Four short paragraphs:

1. Why you are writing. The role, and where you saw it.
2. Why you. The two or three parts of your experience that match what the advert asks for first, with something specific about each.
3. Why them. One or two lines that show you know something real about this employer.
4. Close. You would welcome the chance to talk, and thank you.

Our full guide to writing a cover letter for an Irish job goes through each paragraph in detail, and our Irish cover letter template sets out what belongs in each part.

Common questions

How long should a cover letter be?

One page at most. Three quarters of a page is better. If it is running onto a second page, you are almost certainly retelling the CV.

Do employers actually read them?

Some do and some do not, and you cannot tell from outside which kind you are applying to. The ones who do read them often use them to decide between candidates whose CVs look similar, which is exactly when you want the extra page working for you.

Should I use the same cover letter for every job?

You can reuse the structure and some sentences about your own experience. The "why you" and "why them" paragraphs need to be written for each job. A letter with the company name swapped in reads like one, and sending one with the wrong company name ends the application.

Who do I address it to?

A named person where you can find one, from the advert, the careers page or LinkedIn. Otherwise "Dear Hiring Manager". Sign off "Yours sincerely" when you have used a name and "Yours faithfully" when you have not.

PDF or Word?

PDF, unless the advert asks for something else, with the same header and font as your CV so the two look like a set. If you are applying by email, the email itself is the cover letter.