How to write a great covering letter (UK guide for 2026)

Why cover letters still matter in 2026

A covering letter is a short, focused document, usually one side of A4, that introduces you to a hiring manager, explains why you’re applying for a particular role, and persuades them that you’re worth interviewing. It sits alongside your CV, and answers questions your CV can’t: why this role, why this company, and why now. In a market where any senior opening attracts dozens, sometimes hundreds, of online applications, the covering letter is often the first thing that decides whether a CV gets read carefully, or skimmed and set aside.

Online application systems have made it easier than ever to apply for jobs, which means hiring managers are reading more applications than they used to, often with far less time to give each one, and often without the careful attention they’d have given the same applications a decade ago. That’s exactly why writing a covering letter that’s tailored, well written, and to the point still matters, and why a generic, recycled letter, full of phrases the reader has seen a hundred times before, is worse than no letter at all. A bad covering letter doesn’t just fail to help you, it actively hurts you, by giving the reader a reason to put your application aside before they’ve even glanced at your experience.

This covering letter guide covers everything you need to know to write a great one, from how long it should be, to what to include, to the small mistakes that quietly cost candidates interviews. It’s written for UK candidates, with the UK job market in mind, and it draws on what we see day to day as a headhunting practice, reading covering letters on behalf of clients across UK industry, and watching how decisions get made on which candidates get the call, and which don’t.

Do you still need to write a cover letter?

In almost every case, yes, even when the online application system doesn’t ask for one, and even when a friend has told you that nobody reads them anymore. A good covering letter, sent as a follow-up email, or attached as a PDF alongside your CV, gives you a chance to stand out from the rest of the applications that the form itself rarely allows you, and that small advantage is often all it takes to land an interview. The exceptions are genuinely rare, and tend to involve very high-volume entry-level roles where letters aren’t read at all, or specialist sectors where a portfolio, a technical task, or a written test carries the weight instead.

For professional and senior roles, a covering letter is still expected, and a missing letter is very often read as a lack of effort, or a lack of genuine interest in the role. We see this play out regularly: two candidates with similar CVs, one with a sharp, specific letter that’s clearly been written for this particular role, the other with no letter, or a generic one that could have been sent to anyone, and the first candidate gets the call almost every time, even when the second candidate’s CV is, on paper, slightly stronger.

If a job advert specifically says no covering letter is required, take that at face value, and don’t bother with one. If it doesn’t say so, write one, and write it as if it’s the part of the application the reader will spend the most time on, because in our experience, very often it is.

How long should a covering letter be?

A great covering letter is between 250 and 400 words, which works out at roughly half to three quarters of a page of A4 in standard formatting. That’s normally three or four short paragraphs, plus an opening line and a sign-off. Hiring managers read most of what arrives on screen, and a letter that runs onto a second page is, more often than not, the letter that gets skimmed, or set aside for later, which usually means never.

The reason for keeping it tight isn’t only about respecting the reader’s time, although that does matter, particularly when you consider that a senior hiring manager might be reading thirty or forty applications in an evening, and is making decisions quickly about which ones deserve a closer look. It’s also that a shorter letter forces you to make real decisions about what’s actually important, and what isn’t, instead of hedging by including everything you’ve ever done, and hoping that the reader will work out which bits are the relevant ones. The candidates who write 600-word letters are rarely the ones with the most to say, in our experience, but rather the ones who haven’t worked out what’s most relevant for the role they’re applying for, and who’ve ended up overcompensating with volume.

If you’re applying for a senior or executive role, you can stretch slightly longer, up to around 500 words, but the same principle holds: edit ruthlessly, cut anything that repeats your CV, and aim for clarity rather than comprehensiveness, even when it feels uncomfortable to leave things out.

Tip: Once you’ve written a draft, read it aloud, slowly. Anything that feels long-winded out loud will feel even longer on the page, and is almost always worth cutting, even if you’ve grown attached to the phrasing.

What a great covering letter includes

Strong covering letters tend to share a small number of features, regardless of sector or seniority. They’re addressed to a named individual, not “Dear Sir or Madam”. They open with a clear reason for applying, not a recap of who you are. They include two or three concrete examples of relevant experience, not a list of adjectives. And they close with a specific note about next steps, rather than a vague “I look forward to hearing from you”.

The five elements every good cover letter should include are:

1. A named greeting. Take the time to find the hiring manager’s name, through LinkedIn, the company website, or a quick phone call to reception. Addressing your letter to a real person, rather than a generic salutation, signals effort, and is one of the easiest wins available.

2. A specific opening line. Don’t waste your first sentence introducing yourself, your reader can see your name. Use the opening to say why you’re applying for this particular role, and why now. A good opening might reference something specific about the company, a recent piece of news, or a particular aspect of the role that drew you in.

3. Two or three concrete examples. Pick two or three things you’ve done that map directly onto the role, and explain them in plain language, with numbers where you can. “I led a team of six through a system migration that saved £400,000 over two years” lands harder than “I have strong project management skills”.

4. A reason this company, not just any company. Show you’ve understood what the company actually does, what it values, and where it’s heading. This is where your research pays off, and it’s also the part most candidates skip, which is exactly why it works when you don’t.

5. A clear close. Finish with a specific next step, not a generic sign-off. “I’m available for a call next week and can be reached on [number]” is more useful than “I look forward to hearing from you”.

Five tips for writing a great cover letter

These five covering letter tips consistently separate great covering letters from average ones, and they’re drawn from our experience of reading them on behalf of clients across UK industry.

1. Research the company before you write

Before you put fingers to keyboard, find out everything you can about the company that’s hiring, and the specifics of the role you’re applying for. Read the job description carefully, look over the company’s website, check their LinkedIn page, and read any recent news coverage. The point isn’t to recite their history back at them, it’s to give you the context you need to write something that feels like it was written for them, rather than for any company in their sector.

This research will also help you tweak your covering letter to be specific, rather than generic, and to show that you’re so keen on the role that you’ve spent more time than the next person immersing yourself in it. That alone puts you ahead of most of the field.

2. Get the tone of voice right

Researching the company will help you achieve the right tone for your letter, by giving you a sense of how they speak about themselves, and what kind of person tends to thrive there. Are they friendly, and informal? Or more formal, and corporate? Striking the right tone shows that you’d be a good cultural fit, which is something hiring managers care about even when they don’t say so explicitly.

If you’re applying to a creative agency, you can be more playful than you would be when applying to a bank. If you’re applying for a senior role at a regulated business, restraint and precision matter more than personality. Read the company’s own writing, and let that guide yours.

3. Talk to a real person before you apply

If you can find a way to speak to the hiring manager, or anyone at the company, before sending your application, take it. A short conversation, even a five-minute call, gives you context that no amount of desk research will, and it lets you reference the conversation in your letter, which immediately distinguishes you from candidates who haven’t done it.

A simple line like “thanks for the conversation last week, that confirmed for me that this role would be a strong fit” lands far better than “I am writing to apply for the position of…”.

4. Focus on the future, not the past

Your CV covers the past. Your covering letter should be about the future, what you want to do next, and why this role is the right place to do it. Think of it as a bridge between where you’ve been, and where you’re going.

This matters particularly if you’re changing sector, function, or seniority. The letter is where you explain the move, frame the transferable skills, and pre-empt the question every reader will be asking, which is “why is this person applying for our role?”. If you don’t answer that question in the letter, the reader will answer it for themselves, and they may answer it in a way that doesn’t help you.

5. Open strong, and don’t waste words

Instead of opening with a generic statement of interest, open with the strongest specific reason you can give for applying. That might be a connection to the company, a particular aspect of the role, a piece of recent company news, or a relevant achievement that maps onto what they need. Whatever it is, make the first sentence the one the reader can’t skim past.

A line like “I led the digital transformation of a £200m subsidiary at [previous employer], and I see a similar challenge in the role you’ve advertised” is doing far more work than “I am writing to apply for the role of Operations Director, as advertised on your website”.

Common cover letter mistakes to avoid

Most weak covering letters share a small number of recurring problems, and most of those problems are easy to fix once you know to look for them, but candidates make the same ones again and again, often without realising what’s letting them down. These are the ones we see most often, in roughly the order they cost candidates interviews.

Recycling the same letter for multiple applications. This is the most common mistake of all, and unfortunately, it’s also the easiest one for hiring managers to spot, often within the first sentence. The phrasing is generic, the company name is the only thing that’s been changed, and sometimes, embarrassingly, even that’s been left wrong, with last week’s company still appearing somewhere in the body. A letter that could have been sent to anyone will be treated, by the reader, as if it was sent to anyone, and you’ll lose the small advantage you might otherwise have had.

Repeating your CV. Your CV already lists your jobs, your achievements, and the dates you held each role, and the covering letter shouldn’t duplicate any of that. It should, instead, select two or three things from your CV that matter most for this specific role, and explain them in a way that adds context, that draws out what’s relevant, and that helps the reader see the connection between your experience and the role you’re applying for. The cover letter is your chance to do the work the reader doesn’t have time to do themselves.

Generic adjectives instead of evidence. Telling the reader that you’re “passionate”, “driven”, “results-oriented”, and “a great communicator” tells them, in practice, nothing at all, because anyone can write those words about themselves, and most candidates do. Replace them, every time, with concrete examples that demonstrate the same qualities, with numbers attached where you have them, and your letter will land harder than ninety per cent of the others on the same desk.

Getting the tone wrong. Writing a casual, chatty letter to a corporate law firm, or a stiff, formal one to an early-stage tech business, signals very clearly that you haven’t read the room, and that you haven’t done the work to understand what kind of organisation you’re applying to. The tone should feel like it belongs in the company you’re applying to, not in any company, and the only way to get there is to read what they write about themselves, and let that guide your own register.

Spelling and grammar errors. A typo in a covering letter is a small thing, in absolute terms, but it’s also the easiest reason in the world for a hiring manager to put your application aside, particularly when they’ve got a stack of others still to read, and they’re looking for ways to thin the pile. Read your letter aloud, run it through a spellchecker, and if you need extra covering letter help, ask a colleague or friend whose judgement you trust to read it before you send it. A second pair of eyes will catch things yours won’t.

Warning: Never refer to the wrong company by name, and always check the file name of the document you attach before sending. We’ve seen senior candidates lose opportunities, more than once, because the PDF they sent was titled something like “Cover Letter - Other Company.pdf”, and the reader noticed before they’d even opened the file. It’s the kind of error that’s almost impossible to recover from, and it’s entirely avoidable.

What if you can’t send a cover letter?

Many companies now use online application systems that don’t have a field for a covering letter, or that limit you to a short personal statement instead, and if that’s the case, you’ll need to do the best you can within the format you’ve been given. But don’t give up on the letter entirely, and don’t assume that the absence of a field means the absence of an opportunity. Send a brief follow-up email to the hiring manager, with the covering letter attached, or with two or three of its strongest paragraphs in the body of the email itself, addressed politely but confidently to the person making the decision.

The follow-up doesn’t need to be long, and it shouldn’t apologise for being sent, or hedge about whether it’s appropriate. A confident, well-written email, with a couple of specific reasons you’re a strong fit for the role, will reach a hiring manager who would never have seen the same content if you’d let it sit inside the application portal, and that small extra effort, in our experience, is one of the highest-yield things a candidate can do once the formal application has been submitted.

A note on cover letters for senior and executive roles

For senior and executive appointments, the covering letter does more work, not less, and the reasons for that come into focus when you think about how decisions actually get made at that level. Hiring decisions for senior roles are rarely made on credentials alone, because by the time you’re on a shortlist for an executive position, most of the other shortlisted candidates will have the credentials, the years of experience, and the technical depth, and you can take that as a given. The decision is, instead, usually made on judgement, on fit, on the way the candidate frames their thinking, and on the kind of person they appear to be in writing, and the covering letter is one of the very few places where the reader gets to see those things directly, before the first interview.

A great executive cover letter doesn’t recite the CV, and it doesn’t repeat what the recruiter has already said about the candidate to the client. It frames the candidate’s view of the role, the challenges they expect to face in it, and the experience they’d bring to bear on those challenges, and it does so in a tone that gives the reader a sense of the candidate’s perspective, their priorities, and their way of thinking about the kind of business they’d be joining.

If you’re applying for a senior role through a headhunter rather than directly, remember that the letter is often what the consultant uses to brief the client before the first conversation, and that means it’s read by an audience of two, not one. Write it with both readers in mind, the named hiring manager who’ll see it eventually, and the headhunter who’ll see it first, and who’ll decide whether you’re worth putting forward in the way you’d want to be put forward.

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Related articles

• The Major Cause of Hiring Mistakes (And How to Avoid It) - what hiring managers look for beyond the CV, and why first-impression documents like cover letters carry more weight than candidates often realise.
• Top 10 Pitfalls to Avoid When Writing Your CV - the companion piece on getting your CV right, with the same level of practical UK detail.
• Interview Preparation: Fail to Prepare, Prepare to Fail - what to do once your covering letter has done its job, and the call from the hiring manager comes through.

If you’re applying for a senior or executive role and would like to discuss your search confidentially, our team works with candidates across UK industry on board, executive, and senior management appointments. You can submit your CV or get in touch through our executive opportunities page.