What Should a Cover Letter Include? (Checklist)

A cover letter should include six things: a header with your contact details, a greeting, an opening that names the role and grabs attention, one or two body paragraphs that prove you fit, a short closing with a call to action, and a sign-off. Everything else is optional. Below is the full checklist, what each piece actually does, and example lines you can copy and adapt.

The quick checklist

Here's everything a strong cover letter includes, in order:

If you have all seven rows covered, your letter is complete. The rest of this guide explains how to make each one land.

1. The header

Lead with your name and the ways someone can reach you: email, phone, and a LinkedIn or portfolio link. Keep it to a couple of lines. For digital applications you can skip the formal mailing address — nobody is sending you a letter back.

`` Jordan Lee jordan.lee@email.com · (555) 012-3456 · linkedin.com/in/jordanlee ``

If you're pasting into an online form rather than attaching a document, you can drop the header entirely — the form already has your contact info.

2. The greeting

Address a real person whenever you can. A quick LinkedIn or company-page search often surfaces the hiring manager or recruiter. When you genuinely can't find a name, use "Dear Hiring Team" or "Dear [Department] Team."

Avoid "To Whom It May Concern" — it signals you didn't try. And double-check the name's spelling; getting it wrong undoes the effort.

3. The opening

Your first two sentences do the heavy lifting. Name the exact role and give the reader a reason to keep going. Skip the throat-clearing ("I am writing to apply for...") and lead with something specific.

Good openings usually do one of these:

• Name a result. "I cut onboarding time by 40% at my last company, and your posting for a Customer Success Lead reads like the next version of that work."
• Show genuine fit. "I've used your product daily for two years, so when the Product Marketing role opened up, I had to write."
• Connect a shared mission. "Your focus on accessible design is the reason I'm applying — it's the same standard I held as a front-end engineer at Acme."

The opening is the single highest-leverage part of the letter. If you only polish one section, polish this one. Our step-by-step guide to writing a cover letter walks through building each line from scratch.

4. The body

This is where you prove you can do the job. Pick two or three requirements from the posting and show, with specifics, that you've delivered on them before. Numbers and concrete outcomes beat adjectives every time.

Compare:

• Weak: "I'm a hard worker with strong communication skills."
• Strong: "I rebuilt our weekly reporting process, which freed up six analyst-hours a week and got the leadership deck out two days earlier."

Aim for one focused paragraph, or two short ones. Tie what you've done back to what they need — the goal is to make the reviewer picture you in the role, not to recite your résumé. (Your résumé already lists the facts; the letter explains why they matter for this job.)

If you're stuck on structure, cover letter examples for every situation shows the body paragraph done well for career changers, new grads, and people with gaps.

5. The closing and call to action

Wrap up in two or three sentences. Briefly restate your interest, thank them for their time, and say what you'd like to happen next. Confidence beats hedging here.

Example:

"I'd love to talk through how I'd approach your first 90 days on the team. Thank you for considering my application — I'm looking forward to the conversation."

Then sign off simply: "Sincerely," or "Best regards," followed by your name.

What to leave out

Just as important as what goes in is what stays out. Skip these:

• Your entire work history. That's the résumé's job. The letter is a highlight reel, not a recap.
• Salary expectations — unless the posting specifically asks. If it does, give a range and call it flexible.
• Generic filler like "I'm a team player who thinks outside the box." It says nothing.
• Anything negative about a past employer or a gap framed as an excuse. State facts neutrally if you address a gap at all.
• Walls of text. If a paragraph runs past five or six lines, break it up.

One page is the ceiling — most strong letters run shorter. See how long a cover letter should be for the word-count target and why brevity helps you.

Make the checklist faster to fill

Even with the checklist memorized, tailoring a letter to each posting takes time you may not have at 11 p.m. with five tabs open. JobRizzer autofills the application form across Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, and more, and on Pro it tailors your resume to each job so the proof you reference in your letter actually matches the role. Your resume is parsed locally in your browser, you review every field, and you hit submit yourself — there's no auto-apply.

The structure above never changes from job to job. Once you know the seven rows, writing a cover letter becomes a fill-in-the-blanks exercise: header, greeting, hook, proof, ask, sign-off. Keep this checklist open the next time you start one and you'll get through it in minutes, not an hour.