When it comes to making a great first impression, how a cover letter looks matters just as much as the words on the page. Our library of professionally designed cover letter templates includes options for job seekers looking for work across industries. Whether you want a creative design or a traditional feel, our cover letter designs will make your application stand out.
Here are four things to consider when you choose the right cover letter template:
Our cover letters take the guesswork out of the writing process. Just write your cover letter using one of our templates, and we will do the work for you. You can send off your application in a matter of minutes with confidence that your font, spacing and margins are perfect every time.
If you are interested in a particular position or company, displaying that in a cover letter sets you apart from other candidates. When crafting a cover letter or resume, it is important to learn about your audience. Having a deep understanding of the company, its goals and values can help your letter seem more relevant, and having a suitable template can reflect that directly through its design. By reviewing a company’s mission statement, social media, recent press releases and other company news, you can see the style and writing this company uses and model your cover letter template based on that information. Picking a cover letter style that matches the company culture is important for convincing recruiters that you understand the role at hand.
Hiring managers reviewing applications for a role at a law firm will have different expectations than those hiring for roles at beauty salons, tech companies or restaurants. Choosing a resume template that reflects the industry’s culture is important, so making a unique cover letter and resume for each application is a must. If you are applying for the same role across multiple industries — say, an executive assistant role at an ad agency and a real estate office — you’d likely want to change the design of your cover letter for each position to reflect the different companies’ cultures. Our cover letter templates simplify switching designs and editing your text to personalize each letter to each role at no additional cost. Our cover letter examples provide a good base for creating relevant industry documents.
Our cover letter templates boast attractive, professional designs free of clutter or unusual images that could trip up applicant tracking systems. Not every ATS scans cover letters the same way they do resumes, but if they do, each of our templates will pass through without issue.
Professional: When looking for work in a casual office, like tech, or a more old-school work environment, like accounting, our professional templates are a solid choice for every job seeker.
A successful job search requires more than just an attractive cover letter. To get noticed, you’ll also need an impressive resume. LiveCareer can help you design and write a resume that will set you apart from the competition. You can find award-winning resume templates and industry-relevant examples that will help you make your document stand out and pair nicely with your cover letter.
With the ability to modify colors and fonts, it’s easy to create a resume that will complement your new cover letter. Here are some design pairings to consider:
Modern – Insightful
Being consistent is key in both resume and cover letter construction and the intent behind matching your documents shows that extra thought and care went into creating your documents. A modern set like the ones below can be utilized across multiple industries. Thanks to the easy readability and proper formatting featured in both documents, it fits with semi-traditional tech roles and a more creative approach, like a social media manager.
Traditional – Deluxe
This traditional combination is clean, minimalistic and efficient with its use of text, making it a good fit for industries like banking and law.
Creative – Artistic
Crisp and creative with a bold block look and sans serif fonts, this is a good option for more creative or digital fields as the document pairing is eye-catching and legible.
Professional – Centered
A minimalistic style and light color are great ways to make your documents stand out but not distract the reader. This design combination is perfect for those looking for jobs ranging from teaching to administrative work, where a professional tone can be enhanced with a pop of color.
Basic – Remarkable
Striving to make consistent design choices throughout the creation of both your documents is the best way to project a professional image. Using a more Basic design and the same font and margin pattern makes your documents easy to read while keeping focus on what’s important.
Simple – Bold
Both elegant and effective, simple designs are one of the best ways to make your information prominent while not detracting from the core information in your documents.
Traditional: Professional
Modern: Pinstripe
Creative: Managerial
Yes! You need to write a different cover letter for every application for the best odds of getting hired. There will be similarities between each letter, but how you frame and describe your qualifications should be tailored precisely to the role you’re hoping to fill to highlight the most relevant qualifications. This rule also applies to the design of your cover letter, so the cover letter template you pick should visually reflect the culture of each company.
There are many different ways hiring managers request cover letters for online applications. Some will request you send it as an attachment, along with your resume. Others may ask you to write a cover letter in a text box within an online application form. Occasionally, hiring managers will ask you to send your resume via email and have the email’s body text serve as your cover letter. No matter which situation you encounter, remember that the fundamentals of how to write a cover letter will remain the same.
Keyword assessment by ATS systems is done on both resumes and cover letters. While it is important to include the correct industry terms, keywords should be used sparingly and fit in with the context of your letter. Recruiters will notice formulaic language and if popular terms are thrown in without consideration.
The main components of a cover letter are your contact information and the company contact information, an opener, body paragraphs and a closer that solidifies your interest in the position. The standard format type is a business-style letter, double-spaced in Time New Roman, with a font size between 10 and 12 points and one-inch margins all the way around. Cover letters are most commonly submitted as PDFs, but hiring managers may request Word documents, plain text, or whichever format is most convenient for them. This is why LiveCareer’s Cover Letter Builder lets you customize each section of your document and choose to download your document as any of the three file types mentioned above.
