Start a cover letter with the most relevant thing you can prove: a result, the scale you work at, a specific link to the employer, or the name of the person who referred you. Put it in the first sentence, ahead of the job title and any mention that you are applying. Name the role in the second sentence and tie the two together.
Below are forty opening lines for invented people and jobs, sorted by what each one proves. After them come nine openings we would cut because they could begin anyone's letter, a three-step way to write your own, and two complete letters.
Key points
- Open with evidence. The first sentence should hold a number, a named thing or a fact about the employer.
- Choose the kind of opening by what you can prove: a result, scale, something that lasted, trust, a connection, a referral, a problem you have solved before.
- Leave out "I am writing to apply for". The role goes in the second sentence, where it can be tied to your evidence.
- Test the line. If it could open another person's letter, or your letter for a different job, choose a more specific fact.
- A referral, used with the person's permission, goes ahead of everything else.
In this guide
What the first sentence has to prove
By the time someone reads your first sentence they know which job you want and that you are applying for it: the application form, the email subject or the file name has told them. A first sentence that repeats this spends the top line of the letter on nothing new.
We suggest treating the opening as a piece of proof. Decide what it should prove, then pick the one fact that proves it. Every line in this guide contains a number, a named thing (a report, a ward, a product, a person) or a fact about the employer that you could only know by looking.
The people and employers in the lines are invented. Use each line as a pattern: keep the shape and put in your own facts. They sit under nine headings, so go straight to the kind you have evidence for. The greeting above the opening is a separate question, answered in Who to address a cover letter to.
Lines 1 to 17: openings that prove what you have done
A result (lines 1 to 6)
A result proves that you have already done what the listing asks for, and shows how well. It is the most reliable opening, so start here if you have one.
| # | Opening line | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Over the past year I brought first-reply time on the Kettleby Software support queue down from 9 hours to 2, with the same eight agents. | You have a before-and-after figure for the listing's first requirement. |
| 2 | Last summer 71 of my 84 GCSE maths pupils at Ashdown Park School reached grade 4 or above; the year before it was 52. | The result belongs to people you taught, coached or managed. |
| 3 | I closed $1.4m of new business for Yarrowby Packaging last year, 40% over target, including nine accounts that had never bought from us. | The job has a target and you beat yours. |
| 4 | In March I rewrote the checkout service at Pellow & Dunn, and a page that took 4.2 seconds to load now takes 1.1. | The work is technical. Use units anyone can read. |
| 5 | I led the move to bedside handover on Ward 7 at St Aldric's Hospital, and medication errors at shift change fell from 14 to 3 in a year. | The outcome is safety or quality, not money. |
| 6 | The spring appeal I wrote for Larkmoor Hospice raised £212,000 from 3,100 donors, its largest sum from a single mailing. | One named piece of work produced the result. |
Scale (lines 7 to 11)
Scale proves you can carry the load that comes with the job: its volume, its budget, its head count, its pace.
| # | Opening line | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| 7 | I run the pass at Quince & Ember on Friday and Saturday nights: 180 covers, a brigade of nine and a menu that changes every six weeks. | The job is busier than its title suggests. |
| 8 | I run the monthly payroll for 1,150 employees in four countries at Dunmere Group, and it has gone out on time 31 months running. | Reliability at volume is the requirement. |
| 9 | The night shift I supervise at the Calder Road distribution hub picks and ships 22,000 parcels before 6 am with a team of 34. | The listing gives its own numbers. Put yours beside them. |
| 10 | Last year I planned 46 events for Tessaly Events, from a board dinner for 12 to a three-day conference for 2,400 delegates in Lisbon. | Your range matters as much as your biggest job. |
| 11 | I manage a paid media budget of €900,000 a year for Vellacott Travel across search, social and six affiliate partners. | The role comes with a budget. State yours. |
Something that lasted (lines 12 to 14)
Something you made that is still in use proves that other people found your work worth keeping.
| # | Opening line | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| 12 | The onboarding checklist I wrote for Hallam & Voss in 2023 is still the first thing every new starter is handed in all five offices. | Other people depend on something you wrote. |
| 13 | The weekly stock report I built at Greenlow Garden Centres in 2022 now runs without me and opens every Monday buyers' meeting. | You built a tool or process that no longer needs you. |
| 14 | The torque-check sheet I drew up for the Aldgrave Rail depot in Crewe has since been adopted by the company's other four depots. | Your work spread beyond your own team or site. |
Trust (lines 15 to 17)
What you were trusted with proves the opinion of the people who watched you work. It suits early careers and jobs with little to count.
| # | Opening line | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| 15 | Eight months after I started on the tills at Brackwell Hardware, the owner gave me the keys, the safe code and the Saturday team of five. | You were given responsibility early. |
| 16 | At Solway Mutual I am the person the claims team passes a caller to when a complaint is about to become a solicitor's letter, about 15 times a month. | Colleagues bring you the hard cases. |
| 17 | For the past two years every new technician at Orrinvale Veterinary Labs has spent their first fortnight shadowing me. | You train the new starters. |
Lines 18 to 30: openings that prove why this employer
A connection to the company (lines 18 to 22)
A connection proves that the letter was written for this employer and that you know what it does. Praise cannot do this; a fact you could only have by looking can.
| # | Opening line | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| 18 | Your redesign of the Tolland Ferries timetable last spring replaced 14 pages with one fold-out map, and it is the reason I am applying. | One piece of their work is why you want the job. |
| 19 | I have paid for Ledgerleaf every month since 2021 and sent your support team 23 feature requests, six of which you shipped. | You are a long-standing customer or user. |
| 20 | Both of my children learned to read at Elm Row Primary, and I have listened to Year 2 readers there every Thursday morning for three years. | You know them as a parent, volunteer, patient or neighbour. |
| 21 | I have followed the Arrowstone engineering blog since your post on moving 400 services off one database; last year I ran the same migration at a tenth of the size. | They have written about how they work, and you have done similar. |
| 22 | Tin Heron opens its third café in Galway in May; since 2022 I have managed the morning shift at a 60-seat coffee shop two streets from the site. | They have announced a site, a product or a contract. |
A referral (lines 23 to 26)
A referral proves that someone the reader trusts thinks you can do the job. It goes first, ahead of any result. Ask the person before you use their name.
| # | Opening line | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| 23 | Ilse Verbeek, who leads your payments team, suggested I write to you; we worked together for two years at Mossgate Pay. | The referrer works there now. Say how you know each other. |
| 24 | Joaquim Barros, who catered your staff conference in June, told me you need a kitchen manager and thought I should send you this. | The referrer is a supplier, client or partner of theirs. |
| 25 | Dr Amara Nwosu supervised my final-year project on cold-chain storage and suggested your graduate scheme when she heard Kelder Foods was hiring for its Rotterdam depot. | The referrer is a lecturer or former manager. |
| 26 | We spoke after your talk on tenant repairs at the Dockside Housing Forum in September, and you suggested I apply when the tenancy officer post was advertised. | The reader invited you to apply. Say where and when. |
A problem you can solve (lines 27 to 30)
This kind proves you have read past the job title to the reason the job exists, and have met the same difficulty before. Take the problem from the listing or the employer's own announcements, never from a guess.
| # | Opening line | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| 27 | Your listing says weekend family visits to the Marrowby Canal Museum have fallen for two years; at Stonebeck Mill I raised them by a third with a trail that cost £900 to print. | The listing names a number going the wrong way. |
| 28 | Sunnmark Solar plans to hire 60 installers by next summer; last year I hired 48 electricians in nine months for Arbour Electrical without using an agency. | They have stated a target, and you have hit one like it. |
| 29 | Your listing mentions a month-end close that takes twelve working days; at Pargeter Foods I took ours from eleven days to five. | The listing admits to a difficulty. Quote it, then give your fix. |
| 30 | A second site, a new booking system and a waiting list of 200 families: I handled all three in one year at Little Rowan Nursery. | The employer is growing, and you have been through the same stage. |
Lines 31 to 40: openings for when your job titles do not match
A change of career (lines 31 to 35)
For a career changer, the opening proves that work done under another title is the work this job needs. Career change cover letter takes the rest of the letter from there.
| # | Opening line | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| 31 | In eleven years of teaching chemistry I have written about 900 lessons and rewritten most of them after watching a class of 30 lose the thread. | The old job contained the new one's main task (teaching into training design). |
| 32 | As an army logistics sergeant I ran the daily resupply of fuel, food and spare parts for 600 people at three sites, for seven months without a missed delivery. | Your field uses other words for the same work (military supply into operations). |
| 33 | In nine years as a reporter on the Halden Courier I filed about 2,000 stories to a daily deadline, most of them explaining something complicated in 400 words. | A habit carries over (journalism into content design). |
| 34 | Managing the bar at the Greywell Hotel taught me to sell: I raised the average spend per table from £38 to £51 by retraining nine staff on what to recommend. | The old field gave you a number the new one counts (hospitality into sales). |
| 35 | After six years as an auditor finding the one wrong figure in a 40-tab workbook, I taught myself SQL last year and now run the same checks across 3 million rows. | You have retrained (audit into data analysis). Pair old job and new skill. |
No experience yet (lines 36 to 40)
With no job history in the field, the opening proves you have already done a small version of the work: on a course, in a project, for a club or in a part-time job. There are full letters in Cover letter with no experience and Internship cover letter.
| # | Opening line | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| 36 | For my final-year project I ran a four-week campaign for a real client, the Old Sluice Bakery, and its online orders rose from 60 a week to 95. | A course project had a real client or result. |
| 37 | Over two winters I rebuilt the engine of a 1998 hatchback in my uncle's garage, and in March it passed its roadworthiness test at the first attempt. | You want a trade and have made or mended something. |
| 38 | In three years of Saturdays at Rowanbank Pharmacy I have served about 150 customers a shift, and the till has balanced at the end of every one. | A part-time job is your only job so far. |
| 39 | The bus-times app I built in my second year is used by 1,300 students a week, and I have rewritten it twice to keep it running. | You built something people use. |
| 40 | Since I was 19 I have kept the books for the Tanners Yard Community Garden, a £28,000 annual budget, and they have passed independent examination every year. | Voluntary work gave you a real responsibility. |
Nine openings that read as machine-written
Some openings read as if nobody in particular wrote them. We call them machine-written for short, but a person in a hurry writes them just as easily. The fault is in the sentence, whoever wrote it: it carries no information, and it could open any letter for any job.
This is our judgement of the sentences themselves, not a claim about how recruiters sort letters or what detection software does. That question has its own guide: Can recruiters tell a cover letter was written by AI?.
| Opening | What gives it away |
|---|---|
| I am writing to express my keen interest in the Marketing Manager position at your esteemed company. | Everything in it is already on the application. "Esteemed" stands in for a company name the writer did not use. |
| As a highly motivated, results-driven professional with a proven track record of success, I am confident I would be a valuable asset to your team. | Five claims about character and no fact. Remove the adjectives and no job, result or employer is left. |
| In today's fast-paced digital landscape, businesses need adaptable thinkers more than ever. | It is about the state of the world, so it suits every job in every industry. |
| I was thrilled to come across your posting for the Data Analyst role, as it aligns perfectly with my skills, experience and passion. | It reports a feeling and asserts a fit. Which skill and which experience are left out. |
| With over five years of experience in customer service, I have honed a diverse skill set that makes me an ideal candidate. | The years are the only fact, and they are on the resume. "A diverse skill set" names no skill. |
| Your company's reputation for innovation, quality and customer focus is what drew me to this opportunity. | Three virtues every company claims. Swap in a competitor's name and nothing changes. |
| Are you looking for a dynamic, detail-oriented team player who thrives under pressure? Look no further. | A question the reader did not ask, answered with adjectives in place of evidence. |
| I am excited to leverage my unique blend of creativity and analytical thinking to drive impactful results at Brennick Group. | Nothing in it was made, sold, fixed or counted. Only the company name would change between applications. |
| From a young age, I have always been passionate about helping people. | A life story started at the beginning. It fits nursing, teaching, sales and law equally. |
Two tests catch all nine. The swap test: change the company name and the job title. If the sentence still makes sense, it was never about this job. The deletion test: cross out every adjective and every word about how you feel. If nothing is left, there was no evidence in it.
Cover Letter Guru writes from two things: your resume and the job listing. It uses only what is in the resume and does not invent experience or figures.
Write from my resumeWrite your own opening in three steps
Your own line comes from your resume and the listing in front of you. The example follows line 1 from first note to finished sentence. Its writer is Anjali Menon, a senior support agent at Kettleby Software, applying for a Support Team Lead role whose listing asks first for someone to "get first replies under four hours".
Step 1: Choose the evidence
Take the listing's first requirement and write down everything you have done that touches it. Then pick the item with the most specific detail. This step is a choice, not writing: you are selecting one line of your resume.
Weak
I have six years of experience in customer support and have worked on several projects to improve response times.
Strong
Last year first-reply time on our queue went from 9 hours to 2.
Both are true of the same person. The first describes a career. The second is one event from it, and it is the event the listing asks about.
Step 2: Make it yours
Make yourself the subject of the sentence. Then add the details that tie it to one person in one place: the employer, the period, and the thing a reader would ask about next.
Weak
Last year first-reply time on our queue went from 9 hours to 2.
Strong
Over the past year I brought first-reply time on the Kettleby Software support queue down from 9 hours to 2, with the same eight agents.
The sentence now says who did it and where. "With the same eight agents" answers the obvious question (did the team simply get bigger?) before it is asked.
Step 3: Cut the run-up
Drafts tend to approach the evidence slowly and then comment on it. Delete every word in front of the fact, and every word after it that only says how you feel about it.
Weak
I am writing to apply for the Support Team Lead position, and I believe my background makes me a strong fit, as over the past year I brought first-reply time on the Kettleby Software support queue down from 9 hours to 2, with the same eight agents, which shows my passion for customer service.
Strong
Over the past year I brought first-reply time on the Kettleby Software support queue down from 9 hours to 2, with the same eight agents.
Twenty-two words came off the front and seven off the end, and none of them told the reader anything. The role moves to the second sentence, where it has work to do.
Finish with the swap test. If the line could open another person's letter, or your own letter for a different job, go back to step 1 and choose a more specific fact.
81%
of the hiring professionals surveyed valued tailored cover letters significantly over generic ones.
The swap test tells you which kind your opening is.
Cover Letter Guru writes the opening from your resume and the job listing. If it is not the one you would have chosen, press Regenerate for a different version of the letter with a new opening. There is an Undo if you preferred the first.
Write my opening lineWhat the second sentence must do
The opening line leaves two things unsaid: which job this is, and what the line has to do with it. The second sentence says both. Between them, the first two sentences should hold three things: your evidence, the role, and the link between the two.
What goes where depends on the opening. If the first sentence was about you (a result, scale, a change of career), the second names the role and ties your evidence to what the listing asks for. If it was about them (a connection, a referral, their problem), the second names the role and brings your evidence, because the reader has not seen any yet.
Weak
I believe this experience makes me an ideal candidate for the Support Team Lead role.
Strong
Your listing for a Support Team Lead asks for someone to get first replies under four hours, and I would like to do it again with a team twice the size.
The weak version names the role and asserts a fit. The strong one names the role, repeats the requirement the opening answered, and says what the writer wants next.
Two more, for lines from the lists above:
| After | Second sentence |
|---|---|
| Line 23 (a referral) | I am applying for the Senior Engineer role on her team; at Mossgate Pay I built the refunds service, which handles 30,000 transactions a day. |
| Line 35 (a change of career) | Your listing for a Junior Data Analyst at Hartwell Transit asks for SQL and a habit of checking, and those checks are what I would like to run on your passenger data. |
The second sentence should not start an unrelated piece of evidence or thank the reader for their time. Your second and third pieces of evidence belong to the body, which How to write a cover letter sets out step by step.
Two openings at work in full letters
An opening is a promise about the rest of the letter. Here are two of the forty in place: line 29, which answers a problem stated in the listing, and line 38, written for a first full-time job. Watch what the paragraph after the opening does in each.
Line 29 in a full letter
Management accountant applying for Finance Manager at an outdoor retailer · Professional tone · 217 words
Dear Ms Eklund,
Your listing mentions a month-end close that takes twelve working days; at Pargeter Foods I took ours from eleven days to five1. I am applying for the Finance Manager role at Skerry Outdoor2 because shortening that close is the first thing your listing asks for.
Most of the six days came from two changes. Stock counts from our three warehouses arrived on different days, so I moved all three to the last Friday of the month. Supplier invoices were matched by hand, so I set up automatic matching for the 40 suppliers who send most of them. Nobody was hired and no software was bought.3
The listing also asks for someone who can explain the numbers outside finance. Each month I present the management accounts to our eight department heads, and I rewrote the pack so that every page opens with one sentence on what changed and why.
Skerry opened its fourth shop in Inverness this spring. Each new site adds a stock count and a set of invoices to the close, which is how ours grew to eleven days in the first place.
I would be glad to talk through where your twelve days might be going4. I am free for a call on any weekday after 3 pm.
Yours sincerely, Dragan Petrovic
Why this works
- 1The opening sets the writer's number beside the listing's own, before the role is named.
- 2The second sentence names the role and says why the opening belongs in this letter.
- 3The paragraph explains how the result was reached, and this sentence answers the next question: what it cost. The first sentence made a promise; this is where it is kept.
- 4The close returns to the number in the first sentence, so the letter ends on the subject it began with.
Line 38 in a full letter
School leaver with a Saturday job applying for a first full-time role at an insurer · Friendly tone · 230 words
Dear Mr Tamihana,
In three years of Saturdays at Rowanbank Pharmacy I have served about 150 customers a shift1, and the till has balanced at the end of every one. I am applying for the Customer Service Representative role at Kauri Mutual, where your listing asks for someone who is accurate, patient on the phone and quick to learn new systems2.
Accuracy first. I take payments, check the name and address on every prescription bag before it leaves the counter, and count the till with the pharmacist at closing. When the pharmacy changed its till system in March I learned it in my first shift on it, and I was asked to show the two other counter staff3 how to use it.
I learned patience at the counter and on the pharmacy phone. People collecting medicine are often worried or unwell. Saying what I am doing while I do it settles most conversations, and I know when to fetch the pharmacist.
Your listing says new starters spend their first month on the claims line beside a senior adviser. That is how I learned the pharmacy counter. I finished school in December and can start on any date that suits you.
I would be glad to tell you how I handle a worried caller on the pharmacy phone, and I am free for an interview any weekday.
Kind regards, Mele Fonoti
Why this works
- 1A part-time job, counted like any other job. The opening gives the volume and a clean record.
- 2The second sentence names the role and takes three requirements from the listing. The paragraphs that follow answer them.
- 3Trust as evidence. Being chosen to teach colleagues does the work that "I am a fast learner" cannot.
In both letters the second paragraph explains the first sentence. If yours cannot, choose evidence you can say more about. There are more finished letters in Cover letter examples.
Common questions
- Should I start a cover letter with "I am writing to apply for"?
- We suggest not. The reader knows which job the letter is for from the subject line or the application itself, so the sentence tells them nothing new. Put your evidence first and name the role in the second sentence.
- How do I start a cover letter without a name to address it to?
- Write "Dear Hiring Manager," or address the team, as in "Dear Finance Team,". Then open exactly as you would otherwise: the greeting changes and the first sentence does not. See Who to address a cover letter to.
- Should I introduce myself by name in the first line?
- No. Your name is in the header, under the sign-off and on the application. Introduce yourself by what you have done, and let the name follow at the end.
- Can I start a cover letter with a question or a joke?
- We would not. A question makes the reader wait for an answer you could have given at once, and a joke depends on knowing a reader you have not met. If the employer's own writing is playful, let that show in your choice of words and keep the evidence in the first sentence.
- Can I use the same opening line for every application?
- You can reuse the evidence when it answers the main requirement of each listing. Check that it does, because your strongest result for one job may be beside the point for the next. The second sentence has to be rewritten every time, since it names the role and the employer.
Sources
- ResumeGo, 2020. Survey of 236 hiring professionals, published with ResumeGo's 2019 to 2020 experiment.
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