These cover letter prompts help you write a specific, honest letter for each job: they decode what the posting asks for, match it to your real experience, draft the letter, handle career changes and gaps, cut it to length and check every claim. Each prompt tells the model to use only the facts you give it and to mark gaps instead of inventing them, because anything in the letter can come up in an interview.
How to use these prompts
Each prompt is ready to copy into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini. Replace the blanks in double braces, or keep the default after the colon: {{tone:warm and direct}} means warm and direct unless you change it.
Three habits make the difference:
- Paste the real job posting and your real experience. Anthropic's prompting best practices suggest treating the model like "a brilliant but new employee who lacks context on your norms and workflows." It doesn't know what you did unless you tell it.
- Ban invented facts. Anthropic's guide to reducing hallucinations recommends telling the model to use only the information you provide and allowing it to say when something is missing. Every drafting prompt below does both.
- Expect two or three rounds. OpenAI's ChatGPT prompting guide says: "You should expect to refine prompts over time." Draft, read it aloud, then ask for specific fixes.
If you apply to many jobs, keep your resume and a list of accomplishments in one place. In Claude, Projects let you add files to a knowledge base that chats in that project use, so you upload your resume once. For the resume itself, see the resume prompts.
Which prompts help you prepare before writing?
1. Decode the job posting
Most postings list twenty things. This finds the four that matter.
Here is a job posting for {{role:Product Designer}} at {{company:the company}}:
{{job_posting}}
1. List the 4 requirements that matter most to this employer, and the words in the posting that tell you so (repetition, placement, "must have").
2. Name the main problem this hire is expected to solve, in one sentence.
3. List any terms or tools I should use in my letter if they honestly describe my experience.
Don't write the letter yet.
2. Match your experience to the posting
The evidence table is the backbone of the letter. Gaps go on the table too, so you decide how to handle them.
Job posting:
{{job_posting}}
My resume and notes:
{{resume_and_notes}}
Make a table with columns: requirement, my strongest matching evidence (quote my resume or notes), strength of match (strong, partial, none). Use only what I wrote. Don't stretch a partial match into a strong one. Below the table, list the 2 accomplishments that best fit this job and why.
3. Why this company, from real material
"I admire your mission" says nothing. Specifics from the company's own words say a lot.
Here is material from {{company}} ({{material_type:their About page, a recent announcement and the job posting}}):
{{material}}
Suggest 3 specific, honest reasons someone with my background ({{background}}) would want to work there. Each reason must point to something in the material above. Don't use anything you know about the company from elsewhere, since it may be out of date.
Which prompts write the first draft?
4. Full draft from facts only
Run prompts 1 and 2 first and paste their output here.
Write a cover letter for {{role}} at {{company}}.
What the employer cares most about: {{priorities}}
My matching evidence: {{evidence}}
Why this company: {{why_company}}
Tone: {{tone:warm and direct}}
Length: {{length:under 300 words}}
Rules:
- Use only the facts above. Where a number or detail is missing, write [ADD: what's needed] instead of inventing it.
- Open with why I fit this role, not "I am writing to apply".
- One paragraph tells one accomplishment in specific terms.
- No clichés: "passionate", "proven track record", "team player", "I believe I would be a great fit".
- End with a short, confident closing line, not a plea.
5. Five opening lines
The first sentence decides whether the rest gets read.
Write 5 different opening sentences for my cover letter for {{role}} at {{company}}. My strongest fit for this role: {{strongest_fit}}.
Make each one a different approach: a specific result, a link to the company's problem, a referral ({{referral:none}}), a short statement of what I do, and a direct answer to what the posting asks for. Each under 35 words, no clichés, nothing I haven't told you.
6. One accomplishment, told well
For the middle paragraph that carries the letter.
Turn this accomplishment into a cover letter paragraph of {{length:4 to 5 sentences}}:
{{accomplishment}}
Structure: the situation in one sentence, what I did (my part, not the team's), the result with numbers if I gave any, and one sentence linking it to what {{company}} needs: {{company_need}}. Use only my facts and mark gaps as [ADD: ...].
Which prompts handle tricky situations?
7. Career change
Lead with transferable skills and the reason for the change, not an apology.
I'm moving from {{from_field:teaching}} to {{to_field:instructional design}}. Job posting:
{{job_posting}}
My experience:
{{experience}}
1. List the skills from my past work that transfer directly, with the evidence for each.
2. Write a 2 to 3 sentence explanation of why I'm changing careers that sounds forward-looking, not defensive.
3. Write a full cover letter draft using these, under {{length:300 words}}. Use only my facts and mark gaps as [ADD: ...].
8. Employment gap
Brief and honest beats long and vague. You don't owe private details.
I have a gap in my work history from {{gap_dates}} because {{reason:caring for a family member}}. I'm applying for {{role}}.
Write one or two sentences for my cover letter that mention the gap plainly, don't over-explain or apologise, and turn to what I'm ready to do now. Give 3 versions: one that names the reason, one that doesn't, and one that mentions anything I did during the gap: {{gap_activities:none}}.
9. Little or no work experience
For students, graduates and internship applications.
I'm a {{status:final-year student}} applying for {{role:a marketing internship}}.
Relevant things I've done: {{experience:coursework, projects, clubs, volunteering, part-time jobs}}
Job posting:
{{job_posting}}
Pick the 2 experiences that best show what this employer wants and write a cover letter under {{length:250 words}} around them. Be specific about what I did and learned. Don't apologise for lacking experience and don't inflate anything. Mark gaps as [ADD: ...].
10. Short version for an email or application box
When there's no letter upload, just a message field or an email to a recruiter.
Turn this cover letter into a {{format:short email to a recruiter}} of {{length:under 120 words}}:
{{cover_letter}}
Keep the single strongest piece of evidence and the reason for this company. Include a subject line if it's an email. No attachments mentioned unless I say so: {{attachments:resume attached}}.
Which prompts edit and check the letter?
11. Cut to a target length
Character limits on application forms are strict. This cuts filler first.
Cut this cover letter to {{limit:200 words}}.
{{cover_letter}}
Cut in this order: filler and clichés, repeated points, background the employer doesn't need, then weaker evidence. Keep the strongest accomplishment and the company-specific reason. Don't add new claims. Show the word count at the end.
12. Make it sound like me
Paste something you wrote yourself so the model can match your voice.
Here is a cover letter draft and a sample of my own writing. Edit the draft so it sounds like the sample: similar sentence length, word choice and level of formality.
Draft:
{{draft}}
My writing sample:
{{writing_sample}}
Don't change any facts. Replace stiff or generic phrases. List the 5 biggest changes you made so I can check them.
13. Fact-check against my resume
Run this last, on the final version.
Compare this cover letter against my resume and notes, line by line.
Cover letter:
{{cover_letter}}
Resume and notes:
{{resume_and_notes}}
List every claim in the letter (titles, dates, numbers, skills, results, tools). For each, quote the line in my resume or notes that supports it, or mark it "NOT SUPPORTED". List any [ADD: ...] placeholders still in the letter. Don't rewrite anything.
14. Read it as the hiring manager
A last pass from the reader's side of the desk.
Read this cover letter as the hiring manager for {{role}} at {{company}} would, with 50 other applications to get through.
Job posting:
{{job_posting}}
Cover letter:
{{cover_letter}}
Tell me: what you remember after one read, the strongest sentence, the weakest sentence, whether it answers why this company, and anything that sounds generic or hard to believe. Suggest the 3 changes that would help most. Don't rewrite the letter.
What should you never let AI put in a cover letter?
Anything you can't back up. A number you didn't achieve, a tool you've never used or a title you didn't hold can come up in the first interview, and some employers check.
Watch for these in every draft:
- Numbers that weren't in your notes. Check every figure against what you supplied.
- Skills copied from the posting into the letter as if you have them.
- Claims about the company from the model's memory, which may be out of date or wrong.
- Leftover placeholders like [ADD: number] in the version you send.
Also remove personal details the model doesn't need, such as your home address and phone number, before pasting your resume, and check your chat app's data settings.
Keep your best prompts ready for the next application
Job searches run for weeks, so save the prompts that worked with your role and tone as defaults. Pair this page with the technical interview prompts once the letters start getting replies.
Kipt keeps prompts like these as Markdown files in a private GitHub repo you own. Blanks like {{company}} stay fillable, tags keep job search prompts together, and ⌘K finds the fact-check prompt before you hit send.