How do I write a cover letter that actually gets read?
Write the opening last. Almost every weak letter fails in its first sentence, which defaults to admin: your name, the job title, where you saw the ad — none of it new to the person holding the posting. Open with the most relevant thing you have done instead.
Then take two or three requirements from the posting — not the whole list — and answer them with evidence. One answered with a specific example does more than all of them answered with adjectives. Then name what you want: "I would welcome the opportunity to discuss" is filler; "I'd like to talk through how I'd approach the first ninety days" is a reason to reply.
Fix these first
- It never names the company. Add the company name and one specific thing about the role — both are in the posting you have open.
- It restates the resume. The letter should explain the resume, not repeat it — why the gap, why the pivot, why this employer.
- Vocabulary drift. You wrote "stakeholder reporting"; the posting says "executive reporting". Use theirs.
- The wrong company name. Reused letters are where this happens. Check it last, every time.
Does a cover letter go through the ATS?
Sometimes. Applicant tracking systems handle letters inconsistently — some parse yours into the same candidate record as the resume and index every word, some store it as an attachment nobody opens, some forms drop the file for a plain-text box. Write it so it survives either way: plain paragraphs, real text, a text-based PDF, the posting's own terminology.
The filtering happens on the resume — around 75% are screened out before a person sees them. If you have not checked yours against this posting, run it through the ATS resume scanner first. A strong letter attached to a resume nobody parses does nothing.
Write the letter, then check the resume
Your first cover letter is free, and so is your first resume scan. Pro is $9.99 CAD a month or $79.99 a year.
Scan my resume →Cover letter conventions in Canada
Canadian applications carry a few conventions of their own. Leave out a photograph, a date of birth, marital status and your SIN — none of it belongs in front of a hiring decision. Keep the contact line to city and province, "Toronto, ON" or "Calgary, AB". And pick one spelling and hold it: labour or labor, centre or center, but not both in the same letter.
We build this in Canada, and the contact field here is set up that way. The Canadian resume rules cover the document itself; how to write a cover letter that isn't generic works through a real example.