Cover Letters: Dead, Alive, or Just Misunderstood?

Every few years, someone publishes a piece declaring the cover letter dead, and the internet erupts in agreement. "Nobody reads them anymore," the argument goes. "They are a waste of time. Focus on your resume and your LinkedIn profile. Cover letters are a relic."

I have been hearing this for twenty years. And for twenty years, cover letters have continued to be read, to make differences, and to be the thing that separates one strong candidate from another when everything else is roughly equal. So let me tell you what I actually think, based on experience rather than trend pieces.

The cover letter is not dead. The bad cover letter is dead. There is a meaningful distinction.

"A well-written cover letter is not a formality. It is an argument. It says: here is why I am not just qualified for this role — here is why I am the right person for it."

What the bad cover letter looks like

You know the bad cover letter. You have probably written one. It begins: "I am writing to express my interest in the [Job Title] position at [Company Name] as advertised on [Job Board]." It spends three paragraphs summarizing the resume in prose form. It closes with: "I look forward to the opportunity to discuss my qualifications further at your convenience."

This letter is a waste of everyone's time, including the writer's. It contains no information that the resume does not already contain. It demonstrates no knowledge of the company, no understanding of the role, no personality, no genuine interest. It is a formality written by someone who knows they should include a cover letter but has no idea why.

When hiring managers say they do not read cover letters, this is the cover letter they are not reading. And fair enough. There is nothing to read.

What the good cover letter does differently

Over my career I have kept a small file of cover letters that genuinely impressed me. I do not keep many. Maybe twenty or thirty over the years. But the ones I kept share certain qualities that I think are worth describing.

They open with something specific. Not "I am applying for the position" but an immediate signal that this person has thought about this particular company and this particular problem. One letter I remember began: "Your recent acquisition of [Company] suggests you are moving toward a vertically integrated service model. That is exactly the transition I helped [Previous Company] execute over three years, and I believe the parallels are worth discussing." I read the rest of that letter carefully. I called that candidate the next day.

Good cover letters make a single, coherent argument. Not a list of qualifications. An argument. Here is the problem you are trying to solve. Here is why I am positioned to solve it. Here is the evidence. They are persuasive in the way a good lawyer's brief is persuasive — not emotional, not gushing, not flattering, but logically structured and supported by evidence.

They are short. Three paragraphs. Four at the most. The purpose is to earn a closer look at the resume, not to replace it. If a cover letter is longer than one page, something has gone wrong. The reader does not have time for your autobiography, and the attempt to provide one reads as an inability to edit — which is itself a signal about how you will communicate in the role.

When cover letters matter most

I want to be honest: there are roles and contexts where cover letters matter less. If you are applying through a recruiter, they may never see your cover letter, or they may summarize you to the hiring manager without it. If you are applying to a high-volume entry-level role, the logistics often mean your cover letter is never read. If you are being referred by someone inside the company, the referral usually carries more weight than anything you write.

But there are contexts where the cover letter is actively decisive. Small and mid-sized companies often read everything carefully, because they have fewer applicants and every hire has a larger proportional impact. Creative and communications roles often use the cover letter as a writing sample — in which case your cover letter is literally a demonstration of the skill they are hiring for. Senior roles often involve human review of every application, and a well-crafted letter can separate you from a field of strong candidates. Career change applications, where your resume tells a different story than the one you are trying to tell, need a cover letter to bridge the gap.

The voice problem

The single biggest mistake I see in cover letters — besides the formulaic opening — is the attempt to write in a formal, elevated register that does not sound like an actual human being. People write cover letters in a voice they would never use in conversation or even in a work email. The result reads as artificial, which undermines the primary purpose of a cover letter: to convey that a real person with genuine interest and relevant experience is on the other end of this application.

I tell everyone I coach: write your cover letter the way you would speak if you were having a serious professional conversation with the hiring manager over coffee. Confident. Clear. To the point. Not casual, but not stilted either. The goal is competent and human. That combination is rarer than you would think, and it stands out.

Your cover letter is a first impression of how you communicate. Make sure it communicates something worth knowing.