100+ Free Cover Letter Templates

A personalized cover letter partnered with a sleek design can leave a meaningful impression on hiring managers. Our library of cover letter templates can save you the time and effort of agonizing over margins, font choices and color schemes so that you can focus on impressing recruiters with your skills.

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Why You Need a Cover Letter

    • Even if an employer doesn’t formally request a cover letter in the job posting, it’s always a good idea to include one.

      First of all, it’s just expected. Cover letters are the business norm in most countries.

      Better yet, a cover letter is a chance to show your personality and include more information about yourself than you have room to include in a resume alone.

      A resume and cover letter work together as complementary documents to provide a more well-rounded account of who you are as a job candidate.

    • Why You Need a Cover Letter

      Human Resource Director Cover Letter Sample

While your resume provides essential information such as your work history dates and your primary skills, a cover letter provides a chance to tell a story about your skills and work experience.

So if you want to stand above the competition for a job, a cover letter is an effective tool to do so.

Recommended Cover Letter Templates

You’ll find our entire collection of free cover letter templates below, but we strongly recommend you consider these premium templates. Our certified resume writers partnered with designers and recruiters to make these professional and ATS-friendly designs.

Our Best Free Cover Letter Templates

These elegant and classic templates for a cover letter can help elevate your cover letter, regardless of your level of experience or career path. These templates are especially appealing if you’re interested in a conventional job in banking, accounting, teaching or law.

Free Modern Cover Letter Templates

These modernized templates for cover letters provide streamlined designs with brightly colored margins and minimal font choices. These cover letter designs are well-suited for progressive candidates applying for jobs in the tech or creative industries.

Free Contemporary Cover Letter Templates

These cover letter layouts rely on two- or three-column formats to help you prioritize your personal and professional accomplishments. These designs are ideal for recent graduates or job seekers with work gaps who would like to dedicate sections to explaining those academic and professional breaks.

Free Creative Cover Letter Templates

These visually stunning and nontraditional cover letter layouts are fancy and bursting with creativity. When selecting from this category, make sure your choice will be considered appropriate in your industry.

Free Clean Cover Letter Templates

These downloads elevate basic templates for cover letters with bold pops of color. Lively designs can help brighten a standard cover letter and visually impress hiring managers.

Free ATS-Optimized Cover Letter Templates

Before your cover letter makes it to a hiring manager, the format will be scanned by an applicant tracking system (ATS). These downloadable templates have purposely designed ATS-optimized layouts with standardized margins and fonts.

How to Use Our Cover Letter Templates

Our cover letter templates are simple to use. Simply hover over the image of a template you admire and click the download button. A Microsoft word file is saved to your device –– allowing you to open and tailor it to your specific needs.

Whether you use one of our templates or a similar cover letter template online, keep an eye out for these important features. A well-designed and well-written template of a cover letter needs to:

    A good cover letter template helps to streamline the writing process by including pre-written paragraph templates that you can further personalize to include all of these aforementioned details. This attention to detail can help impress hiring managers by demonstrating your clear understanding of the position’s requirements.

    Your contact information

    Your contact info should visually match the information on your resume. Most templates include the following information –– just be sure to tailor it to match your resume:

      Hiring manager’s contact information

      The hiring manager’s contact info follows a very standard business letter format and should include the following information in this order:

      • Add credibility to your resume by adding additional information to one or two major accomplishments listed on your resume. Your cover letter addresses this by adding examples of said accomplishments or advancements and directly tying them to the need of your desired job opportunity.
      • Create a personal connection between your professional motives and the company's mission statement or business goals by introducing your professional passion.
      • Incorporate strategic keyword phrases and terms from the job description to pass initial applicant tracking software, or ATS, scans as well as demonstrate your attention to detail and understanding of the job requirements.

      Summary statement or objective summary

      Your introduction paragraph plays a similar role to your resume’s summary statement or objective summary. It is your opening pitch to explain how and why you are qualified to fill the needs of an open position and should mention:

      • Professional full name
      • Current job title
      • Phone number
      • Professional email

      Body paragraphs

      Your cover letter’s body paragraphs will build on your opening pitch by referring to specific accomplishments mentioned on your resume. You need to use this space to explain your thought and work process to achieve results and how you plan to replicate these accomplishments in this new potential work environment.

      A strong cover letter template will include pre-written text with dedicated fill-in spaces when you can add the following info:

      • Professional full name
      • Job title
      • Optional mailing address associated to the workplace
      • Phone number
      • Professional email

      Concluding statement

      Your concluding statement quickly summarizes your professional marketing pitch and invites the hiring manager to connect with you for further consideration. An effectively designed cover letter template includes fill-in-the-gap sections to add the following information:

      • Job title/related experience
      • Reason for applying
      • Personal/professional connection

      Signature

      • Professional example 1
      • Responsibilities/success metrics related to the open position
      • Draw connection and comparison to the open position
      • Professional example 2
      • Responsibilities/success metrics related to the open position
      • Draw connection and comparison to the open position

      Upgrade Your Cover Letter and Resume

      Although we have hundreds of free templates for your cover letter, we know that writing a cover letter can be nerve-wracking. If you find yourself struggling, try our Cover Letter Builder. Our builder comes with pre-written cover letters, job-specific paragraph templates and writing tips while a subscription unlocks exclusive templates, unlimited online storage, and our Resume Builder.

      FAQ: Cover Letter Templates

      Do I need a different cover letter for every job?

      You do need a unique cover letter for every job application. That doesn’t mean that you have to create a new cover letter from scratch. Your introduction and conclusion can be templated paragraphs that you tweak to meet each job opening’s unique requirements.

      What file format should I use for my cover letter?

      Unless the job application asks for a specific file format, you should upload your cover letter in a PDF or Word docx file format. These file formats are the most frequently used and are familiar to applicant tracking systems, making it easier for these programs to accurately rate your application.

      The PDF format is the ideal format choice because it retains your cover letter’s font, size and margins regardless of the operating system or word processing program that the hiring manager uses. For example, your copy of Microsoft Word may support the font Helvetica, but your recipients might not recognize the font and convert your letter to a standard font that changes your file’s formatting and layout.

      How do I find cover letter templates in Microsoft Word?

      If you’d like to find additional cover letter templates, Microsoft Word offers additional free and paid downloads on their site.

      • Visit the Microsoft Office templates website at https://templates.office.com/.
      • Click Resume and Cover Letter Templates under Popular Templates.
      • Browse either their Free or Premium Templates.

      Should I use a template for a cover letter?

      Yes, you should use a cover letter template. A template for a cover letter uses screen-friendly techniques, including the following design to help frame your professional message:

      • Screen-friendly font types
      • Pre-set font size
      • Standardized margin widths
      • Paragraph breaks
      • Borders

      Using a template helps simplify those decisions so you can focus on a tailored appeal to hiring managers.

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