Cover Letter Examples & Motivation Letter Guide

A great cover letter (motivation letter) doesn't repeat your CV — it explains why you're the right fit. Below you'll find cover letter examples for different scenarios that you can copy and adapt, plus structure tips.

Sections of a cover letter

Greeting

Address the hiring manager by name where you can ('Dear Ms Emily Carter'). If no name is available, use 'Dear Hiring Manager'; avoid cold, dated openings like 'To Whom It May Concern'.

Opening paragraph

In the first sentence, state which role you're applying for and where you saw it. Name a standout achievement, or say in one line why this company specifically; don't open with generic filler.

Body (why me)

Match the 2-3 key competencies the posting asks for to concrete results from your past. Not 'I was responsible for', but measurable proof like 'increased it by 18% / saved 40 hours'.

Closing and CTA

Briefly summarise how you'll add value to the company and end with a clear call to talk. Add an action-oriented line such as 'I'd welcome the chance to discuss this at a time that suits you'.

Sign-off

A respectful close ('Yours sincerely' or 'Kind regards'), your full name and contact details (phone, email, LinkedIn). If you're sending by email, a signature block is enough.

Cover letter examples

Experienced Software Engineer

For software developers with a few years of experience who want to move into a senior role.

Dear Emily Carter, I saw your Senior Software Engineer advert for the Ocado Backend Team on LinkedIn and wanted to apply. For the last 4 years I've worked on the payments infrastructure team at Deliveroo; high-traffic systems where financial accuracy is critical are my area of expertise. At Deliveroo I took part in re-architecting a payments service handling more than 2 million transactions a day. On the project where we gradually broke the monolith into microservices, we brought average API response times down from 480 ms to 120 ms and cut the peak-hour error rate from 2.3% to 0.4%. The idempotent payment flow I built with Java and Spring Boot reduced refund requests caused by duplicate charges from around 900 a month to under 60. The 'distributed systems at scale' and 'in-team technical mentoring' points you highlight in the advert describe exactly what I've been doing for the past two years. I mentored 3 junior developers who joined our team and established a code-review culture; as a result we now catch most production-bound bugs at the review stage. Contributing to technical problems at Ocado's scale is exciting to me. I'd be glad to go into more detail in an interview about how my experience could be put to use. Yours sincerely, Mark Bennett +44 7700 900123 · [email protected] · linkedin.com/in/markbennett

Why is this cover letter effective?

✓The first paragraph states the role, the source and the candidate's area of expertise in three sentences; it avoids the cliché opening.
✓Every claim is backed by a measurable result (480 ms → 120 ms, 2.3% → 0.4%, 900 → 60 refunds), turning assertions into concrete proof.
✓The body paragraph maps the two key points in the advert (distributed systems + mentoring) directly onto the candidate's experience.

Recent Graduate (no experience)

For recent graduates with no work history who need to prove themselves through placements and university projects.

Dear Hiring Manager, I graduated this year in Industrial Engineering from the University of Manchester and would like to apply for the Production Planning Assistant role at Dyson. Although I don't yet have a long work history, I've worked hands-on with production-efficiency problems in my university projects and placement. For my final-year project I studied the assembly line of a mid-sized furniture manufacturer. I carried out a time study, identified the bottleneck station, and with my line-balancing proposal increased theoretical capacity by 14%; the work placed in the top three at our department showcase. On this project I ran scenario analyses using Excel and a simple simulation tool. During my 30-day summer placement at Jaguar Land Rover I supported the planning team. I automated a manually tracked stock report with formulas; a task that took the team 4-5 hours a week came down to a few minutes. That experience showed me how much value data-driven decisions create in production. I'm a fast learner, work well within a team and am keen on data. I believe I can contribute to Dyson's culture of production excellence, and I'd be delighted to have an interview to prove myself. Yours sincerely, Sophie Turner +44 7700 900456 · [email protected]

Why is this cover letter effective?

✓It acknowledges the lack of experience without being defensive and immediately redirects to university-project and placement examples.
✓Even a candidate with no experience can give concrete numbers (14% capacity increase, 4-5 hours saved per week); figures work at every level.
✓The closing emphasis on eagerness to learn and cultural fit matches exactly what employers really look for in a junior candidate.

Career Changer

For candidates moving into a new field from a different industry or profession, who need to highlight transferable skills.

Dear James Morgan, I'm applying for the Customer Success Manager position you've advertised at Hootsuite. I spent the first 6 years of my career in banking, as a corporate portfolio manager at Barclays; now I want to bring that experience into the technology sector. My work in banking actually overlapped surprisingly well with a SaaS customer-success role: I managed a portfolio of 45 corporate clients, held regular needs reviews, and guided clients to the right products. With this approach I brought annual client churn in my portfolio down from 11% to 4% and grew revenue from existing clients by 27% over two years through cross-selling. To show I'm serious about the move into tech, over the past 8 months I've taught myself the basics of SQL and how to use the HubSpot CRM, and completed a course on SaaS metrics (MRR, churn, NPS). My skills in building trust with clients, handling objections and growing long-term relationships are directly transferable; those are about people, not the industry. I believe I can contribute to Hootsuite's customer-focused growth culture with both my strong relationship-management background and my openness to learning. I'd be happy to share in an interview how my experience fits this role. Kind regards, Daniel Hughes +44 7700 900789 · [email protected] · linkedin.com/in/danielhughes

Why is this cover letter effective?

✓It names the career change openly rather than hiding it, and clearly draws the parallel between the old role and the new one.
✓It translates transferable skills (portfolio management, churn reduction, cross-selling) into the language of the target role and proves them with numbers.
✓By listing concrete steps taken to show commitment (SQL, HubSpot, a SaaS course), it heads off any 'keen but unprepared' impression.

Sales / Marketing

For candidates in sales or marketing who are results-driven and need to let their track record of hitting targets speak in numbers.

Dear Charlotte Evans, I saw your Digital Marketing Specialist advert on ASOS's careers page and I'm applying with great enthusiasm. For the last 3 years I've run performance marketing at an e-commerce brand, managing a monthly ad budget of £35,000 across Google and Meta channels. The work I'm proudest of in this time was growing volume while bringing down cost per acquisition (CPA). By rebuilding the campaign structure and moving to conversion-focused targeting, I cut CPA from £8.40 to £5.20 in 6 months; over the same period I raised return on ad spend (ROAS) from 3.1 to 4.8. I also set up an abandoned-cart email flow that created an extra £21,000 in monthly revenue. The 'data-driven decision-making' and 'cross-channel campaign management' your advert highlights are my daily work. I build my own reporting dashboards with Google Analytics 4 and Looker Studio and continuously improve ad copy and creative with weekly A/B tests; last quarter the new creative set we tested increased click-through rate by 31%. Applying this experience to a much larger audience on a platform at ASOS's scale is exciting to me. I'd love to go into detail in an interview about my results and how I achieved them. Kind regards, Hannah Price +44 7700 900321 · [email protected] · linkedin.com/in/hannahprice

Why is this cover letter effective?

✓As befits a sales/marketing role, almost every sentence carries a metric (CPA, ROAS, budget, revenue) — in this field, figures are the first thing an employer looks at.
✓It explains not just the 'result' but the 'how' (campaign restructuring, cart flow, A/B testing), so the results read as competence rather than luck.
✓The two key phrases from the advert are taken verbatim and matched to the candidate's daily practice; a strong match signal for both ATS and reader.

Cover letter writing tips

•Note the 2-3 key competencies in the job advert and address each one with examples in your cover letter; both applicant tracking systems (ATS) and the recruiter reading it look for this match.
•Write every cover letter for that specific company. Even a single sentence about the company's latest product, a recent funding round or a value it holds breaks the copy-and-paste impression.
•Tell your achievements with numbers: instead of 'I led the team', write 'I delivered the project 20% ahead of schedule in 3 months with a team of 5'. If you have no figure, use concrete measures like 'in the first 6 months' or '12 clients'.
•Never go over one page; 250-350 words is ideal. A recruiter scans on average for 20-30 seconds, and long text is skipped unread.
•Don't repeat your CV. A cover letter should tell the 'why' and 'how' behind the bullet points on your CV; it's there to give context, not to list experiences.
•Don't state salary expectations in the cover letter unless the advert asks for them. If it does, give a clear range in a single sentence and leave the door open to negotiate.
•Put care into the first sentence; instead of the cliché 'I was thrilled when I saw this advert', open with a standout achievement or a clear motivation.
•Before sending, double-check the company name, the job title and the hiring manager's name twice. A wrong company name will bin even the best cover letter instantly.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is a cover letter (motivation letter)?

A cover letter is a short introduction you send alongside your CV when applying for a job. Its purpose is to explain why you're applying for this role and this company, tell the story behind the experience on your CV, and set out how you'll add value to the company. The terms 'motivation letter' and 'covering letter' are used to mean the same thing.

How many words should a cover letter be?

The ideal length is 250-350 words, i.e. one page at most. Because recruiters spend very little time on each application, long text gets skipped unread. 3-4 short paragraphs are enough to give your strongest 2-3 examples without losing focus.

What is the difference between a cover letter and a CV?

A CV is a document that summarises your experience, education and skills in bullet points — it shows 'what you did'. A cover letter, on the other hand, is a text written specifically for that company, telling the 'why' and 'how' behind those bullet points. It shouldn't repeat the CV; it should add context and story to it.

What should I write in a cover letter if I have no work experience at all?

Make up for the lack of experience with placements, university/school projects, volunteering, personal projects and student-society responsibilities. Try to draw a measurable result out of these experiences ('increased capacity by 14% on the project', 'saved the team 4 hours a week'). Eagerness to learn, adaptability and genuine interest in the role are what employers look for most in junior candidates.

Should I send the cover letter by email or as a separate file?

Unless the advert gives a specific instruction: if you're applying by email, the most practical way is to write the cover letter directly in the body of the email and attach your CV. If you're applying through a job portal that asks for a separate field, attach the cover letter as a PDF. In both cases, don't forget to put the job title in the email subject line.