Bhinish Dhiman
How to write a cover letter that matches your resume
Copy your resume’s header, fonts, accent colour and margins into the letter, so the two read as one application. Then write four short paragraphs: the job and one strong reason, two or three results with figures, why this employer, and a request for a conversation. Keep it to one page, about 250 to 400 words; on US Letter with a large centred name, a page holds only about 320 words.
A cover letter that matches your resume uses the same letterhead, typefaces, colour and margins, so a recruiter who opens both sees one application rather than two documents from two different people. The writing still has to be your own. The design part can be done exactly, and the cover letter builder does it from the resume you saved in the resume builder.
Match the letterhead first
A matching letterhead is the resume’s own header — your name, job title and contact line, in the same position, size and colour — placed at the top of the letter. It is the single strongest visual cue that two pages belong together, because it is the first thing on both.
In the builder:
- Open Start and choose your resume under Match a resume. Its name, contact details and whole design are copied: template, accent, both fonts, text size, line spacing, margins, header style, date format and page size.
- If you have no saved resume, pick your field instead. The letter opens as a complete example in that field’s recommended template.
- Go to Write and replace the example, paragraph by paragraph.
The header is not a lookalike. It is drawn by the same layout code as the resume header, and a test compares the two mark by mark for each of the 16 templates at A4 and at US Letter: 32 pairs, each identical. A template with a sidebar becomes its one-column header, because a letter has no sidebar.
Four paragraphs, one job each
Most letters follow the same short order. The builder labels each box with its job and shows your field’s example beside it.
| Paragraph | Its job | A typical length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Opening | Name the role and give one reason to keep reading | 2–3 sentences |
| 2. Why you | Two or three results from your resume that answer the advert, with figures | 4–5 sentences |
| 3. Why them | Something specific about this employer: a product, a plan, a stated value | 2–3 sentences |
| 4. Close | Ask for the conversation, say when you are free, thank them | 2–3 sentences |
The second paragraph is where matching the resume pays off in the writing too. Pick results the reader can find again on the resume — “cut onboarding from six weeks to nine days” — so the letter points into the resume rather than repeating it.
How many words fit on one page, measured
A letter belongs on a single page, and about 250 to 400 words of body is the usual range. How much fits depends heavily on the design you match. These figures come from the builder’s own layout engine: the example sender block, date, a three-line recipient, a subject line, then body text added in 21-word steps until a second page started.
| Template (default settings) | Body words on one A4 page | On one US Letter page |
|---|---|---|
| Compact (9.5 pt, 1.3 cm margins) | about 782 | about 740 |
| Meridian (10 pt) | about 467 | about 404 |
| Ledger (11 pt serif) | about 530 | about 446 |
| Quill (large centred name) | about 383 | about 341 |
| Academic (10.5 pt, 1.9 cm margins) | about 383 | about 320 |
Two things stand out. US Letter is 792 points tall against A4’s 842, so it loses roughly 40 to 60 words of body. And a big centred name eats space: Quill and Academic leave room for barely 320 to 383 words, the bottom of the usual range. If a matched letter spills over, cut a sentence before you shrink the type; the builder’s checks flag a second page, and Design lets you tighten spacing or margins if you must.
The checks worth running before you send
The Download step lists suggestions with their reasons rather than a score:
- Over one page — trim, or tighten the design.
- Under 200 or over 450 words — the edges of the range where a letter reads as thin or as padded.
- A generic greeting when you know the name — “Dear Hiring Manager” after typing the manager’s name.
- The employer never named in the body — the line a reader looks for to see the letter was written for them.
- Sentence after sentence starting with “I” — lead some with the result or the employer instead.
- A slot left unfilled, such as [Company] from an example paragraph.
- Characters the PDF fonts cannot set — the Word download takes any script.
Other ways to keep the two in step
In Word or Google Docs, open your resume, delete everything below the header, and save it as a new document: the letterhead is then the resume’s, and the body inherits its styles. The risk is drift later — change the resume’s font and the letter keeps the old one — so redo the copy whenever the resume changes. Whatever you use, export both to PDF and open them side by side before sending.
Checking nothing was uploaded
Open your browser’s developer tools, choose the Network tab and download the letter: no request carries your text, because the PDF and the Word file are made on your device. Letters are saved in this browser only, so download a copy of anything you want to keep.
Start with the cover letter builder, or read how to write a resume if the resume itself still needs work.