How to Format Your Cover Letter in 2025 (Guide + Examples)

When you apply for jobs, you should submit a cover letter with your resume unless specified not to or if it’s discouraged in your field. Submitting a cover letter gives you an opportunity to share your goals, list your most relevant skills and qualifications and explain why you are interested in the company. Going through the effort to write a cover letter also demonstrates how enthusiastic you are about the role. Since some job seekers neglect to write a cover letter, submitting one can also make you a more desirable candidate by helping you stand out.

Yes, you need a custom, professional cover letter for each job you apply to — unless the job ad specifies not to include one or your field discourages sending one. Unless specified not to, you should submit one with your resume even when it isn’t required because cover letters are one of the best ways to set yourself apart from the competition. Searching for a job is all about finding opportunities to communicate with hiring managers and recruiters, so it’s important to take full advantage of every available opportunity.

For most applicants, the best cover letter format would be the standard one-page business letter. Some job seekers with more than 20 years of experience and highly specialized jobs could opt for the T-format cover letter because it clearly displays how their qualifications match the job description on one page.

The best cover letter date format is month, day and year, written in long form. For example: January 28, 2025. If you’re applying for a job outside of the United States, the standard date style may be different. Research the country of the role you’re applying to to find the correct date format.

The best cover letter begins with a salutation like “Dear John Smith” or “To Jane Doe.” If you don’t know the recipient’s name, you can use a title such as “Head of Marketing.” Never use the generic “To whom it may concern” if you want to be taken seriously.

Always be professional when writing a cover letter closing. An email cover letter should close with a tasteful line, like “Kind regards,” “Sincerely” or “Thank you for your consideration,” and not informal phrases like “Later” or “Thx.”

That depends on what you mean by “personal.” You should personalize every cover letter to each job. This means including the relevant skills from the job advertisement and explaining why your career achievements make you a good fit for the role. On the other hand, adding irrelevant personal details to your application letter can turn off the employer and make you seem unprofessional. Personal details, such as life history, should be limited to specific details that are relevant to your role.

We offer the best cover letter writing tool available online. You can select from many cover letter templates and fill them out with generated text suggestions that help you put your unique experience into words. Our Cover Letter Builder follows cover letter writing best practices and helps job seekers create application letters that bypass applicant tracking systems (ATS), which parse resumes and cover letters for relevance. To top it off, our builder helps you proofread your job application letter for formatting, spelling and grammar errors and make edits before downloading it.

Yes and no. AI tools are helpful for generating ideas, but a cover letter should be specific to you and focused on telling your career story. ChatGPT or a dedicated AI cover letter generator can get you off to a strong start and help you visualize the cover letter formats and structure you want to use, but you’ll always need to add some of your own voice if you want a strong cover letter for your application. 

AI cover letter builders do bring unique value to the table, though! A builder can help you organize your thoughts, overcome writer’s block and even provide you with a stylish template to give your letter polish.