The cover letter, also often called a cover letter, is with your CV, the first impression you will give to a recruiter who reads you. Indeed, it must strike quickly to capture the attention of human resources so that they decide to receive you during a first interview.

It must reflect your background and express why your application is the right one for the position in question if you are applying for a specific job offer. The tips listed and explained below in the article are however also valid for a spontaneous cover letter.

Beyond having to think about the quality of the content, the spelling, and grammar mistakes to Avoid, the font to use, or the general presentation of this famous letter, you must also think about the length of this one. Therefore, to make things easier for you, we want to help you in writing a resume and that is why you will find below all our valuable tips to get the perfect length for a cover letter.

What is the content of a cover letter?

A complete and effective cover letter must contain various essential elements that you will find below.

Your personal details must appear first in the cover letter, top left, before entering the contact details of the company you are applying for, top right. Moreover, when entering this information, do not forget to specify the name of the person to whom you are addressing your application file. If you do not have this person’s name because it is not mentioned in the ad, consider phone the company to get their name to personalize your cover letter.

Below the contact details, next comes the date. A little advice in passing, make sure to always modify it before sending so as not to make an error that can be easily avoided.

The subject of the letter, or “concerns”, is written in bold and sometimes in bold and underlined. It should use the job title that appears in the advertisement so the recruiter will know firsthand what it is. If you are spontaneously applying, mention the department and the position you would like to obtain within it.

The body of the letter is the essential part of your cover letter. It should contain several paragraphs, usually 4, that answer important questions such as:

Next to famous polite expressions, your signature as well as the mention of the appendices.

All this information to mention already takes up a fair amount of space on your cover letter, depending on your experiences, your key skills, or your studies, the body of the letter will be more or less long. Indeed, if you have a student CV or without experience, the content of your letter will surely be less extensive than that of a professional CV.

So what’s the right length for a cover letter?

Too short, too long, too vague, too precise… It is difficult to know where and when to stop writing. To be able to get your bearings as well as possible, know that a cover letter should not exceed one page if you write using a text editor such as Word for example.

If however a handwritten letter is requested, which by the way is becoming increasingly rare, it is possible that your writing takes up much more space on the paper and that you manage to easily write 2 A4 pages. Don’t panic, this is completely normal.

Note that according to research, a recruiter does not spend more than 2.5 minutes reading a candidate’s cover letter. It is therefore rather obvious that it is necessary to get straight to the point and not to go four ways to sell yourself the best and capture the attention of your reader.

Discover our 6 tips to keep a length of ideal cover letter

By following the 6 points listed below, you should easily succeed in getting a cover letter with the correct length.

• Be as concise as possible, without ignoring essential information about your professional career. Consider whether the information written down is a real plus in getting the job you want or not.
• Avoid endless listings that don’t make sense. Indeed, it is not useful to display all your skills and your qualities, but it is advisable to put the most relevant only, those which will offer you the chance to be received for a first job interview.
• Do not repeat the content of your CV. It is not necessary to rewrite your resume in your letter. Indeed, the cover letter must be an added value, must bring new elements, but must not be a simple copy of the CV.
• Respect the maximum length of an A4 page and if necessary, do not hesitate to try to play with the fonts, the margins, or even the size of the text to stay within the standards. As a general rule, the font size should be between 10 and 12 for easy reading of the document.
• Has your letter been proofread? This is valid not only to check the length of it but also to ensure a logical letter and without spelling or grammatical errors which are often eliminatory.
• Use a writing style direct. Don’t get into endless sentence structures and get straight to the point without sounding too abrupt.