Short Cover Letter Sample

Cover letters don’t have to be long. Even if it’s only a few paragraphs, a short cover letter can be enough to sell yourself to a hiring manager.

When you write a cover letter, your goal is to pitch yourself to the company. All you need is a few skills, accomplishments, or qualifications that showcase why you are a great pick for the job you’re applying to. Keeping your cover letter short ensures that you stay focused and efficient, making your application credible and quick to read.

With the short cover letter samples, steps, and tips below, you’ll have your application ready in no time.

How to write a short cover letter

A short cover letter will have these sections:

1. Greeting
2. Intro
3. Body
4. Signoff

To write a short cover letter, it’s best to start at the beginning:

Step 1: Greeting

Greet the hiring manager. If you know them by name, be sure to address them that way. If you don’t know who will be reading your application, you can address your cover letter to the team or department who you are applying to.

Step 2: Intro

Briefly introduce who you are and why you are writing. You should mention explicitly what role you are applying to, in case your cover letter gets mixed up with other open positions. You may also want to mention where you saw the job posting and a few key skills or attributes that make you a strong fit for the position.

Step 3: Body

In the body of your short cover letter, highlight some key accomplishments or skills that make you a great candidate for the role. Try to think of specific examples of our achievements, whether they are in sales numbers, customer happiness scores, or the size of the teams you have experience managing. Concrete examples of your abilities are a great way to impress hiring managers.

Step 4: Signoff

To end your short cover letter, invite the hiring manager to contact you so you can discuss the opportunity further. This might go without saying–of course the company will contact applicants they are interested in–but a call to action never hurt anyone.

Finish with your name and contact details.

Short Cover Letter FAQs

With the modern job market changing as fast as it does, it’s fair to have some questions about cover letters. Here are some common questions about writing a short cover letter, answered:

Do I really need a cover letter?

Yes, you do need to learn to write a cover letter. A great cover letter can be the thing that gets a hiring manager to read your resume. It can even be the thing that gets you the job. Even if the job portal says that a cover letter is optional, you should always write one.

While your resume has all of your most relevant skills and experience, your cover letter is where you can use those qualifications to tell your story. It’s where you can really show your personality, and demonstrate in your own words why you’re right for this position.

These days, employers probably have access to your portfolio and social media profiles, in addition to your application materials. A cover letter can seem like extra work that the employer might not bother to read. And in many cases, this could be true; the company might use an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to sort resumes and never bother reading cover letters at all. Many applications will even say in the application requirements that a cover letter is optional.

Even if it’s optional, however, you should include a short cover letter in your job application. You don’t want to create a situation where the hiring manager has to choose between you and another candidate, and they choose the other one because they have a cover letter and you don’t.

Why write a short cover letter?

Hiring managers are always in a hurry. They are typically looking for candidates in addition to their other duties, and they want to spend as little time reviewing applications as possible. You should make your cover letter and resume as easy-to-read as possible.

The best way to keep your cover letter readable is to keep it short, with short paragraphs and a simple structure. This way you can sell yourself and tell your career story, without boring the hiring manager.

How short is too short?

Typically, a cover letter has three paragraphs: An introduction, a body paragraph, and a closing paragraph. Some cover letters can run longer than this, with multiple paragraphs describing different experiences or reasons the applicant should be hired, but this is rare.

When you write a short cover letter, three paragraphs is enough, and each paragraph only needs a few sentences. Cover letters don’t need to be long to be effective.

If your cover letter is just a sentence or two, however, you may need to add some details. Even a short paragraph should be close to half a page, or somewhere between 200 and 350 words. If it is shorter than that, it will look like something you typed out carelessly, without any consideration for the company you are applying to.

How do I keep my cover letter short?

The best way to keep your cover letter short is to stay focused on the skills and experience most relevant to the position you are applying to. If you can cut any extraneous details from the cover letter, it will be shorter, more focused, and more effective.

This means it’s important to customize your cover letter for each application.

To do this, study the job posting carefully. It will have specific details about the job requirements and duties, as well as the type of employee the company is looking for. Use this information to inform how you write your cover letter. It should demonstrate that you have all the qualifications needed for the job, using the same terms.

If you really want to make sure your cover letter is perfectly tailored, research the company outside of the job posting as well. Find the company’s accounts on social media, and look through the company website for the company’s mission statement or company values. Since your cover letter is a place where you can express your own values, this is an opportunity to show that in addition to bringing the right skills, you will fit right into company culture.

When you have finished researching the company, you will know exactly what they are looking for in an employee, and you will be able to cut your resume down to exactly the right details and nothing extra.

What is the best short cover letter format?

Your cover letter should use the same format as your resume. This is true for both design and file format.

The application might ask specifically for a resume in PDF or Word. Your cover letter should use the same format.

If you are applying through email, not an online portal, you may choose to write your cover letter in the body of the email. This is acceptable, but it is best to include an attached copy as well, so the company’s hiring manager can keep it on file. They may also want to run it through an ATS.

A great way to make sure your cover letter matches your resume is to use a resume builder to create a cover letter. VisualCV, for example, offers several cover letter templates that perfectly match resume templates, ensuring that your cover letter and resume share a coherent style.

Cover letter samples

Coming up with a short cover letter from scratch is no easy task. It can help to work from a cover letter template or cover letter sample when you get started. Once you have a sample, you can customize the wording to suit your own voice and experience.

With that in mind, here are some short cover letter samples to inspire you:

Short cover letter template

Short cover letter sample: no experience

Short Cover Letter Sample: Communications Specialist

Short Cover Letter Sample: Web Developer

Short Cover Letter Sample: Mechanic