Real talk, friend: writing a cover letter is a bit of a pain in the ass.

Cover letters are long, they have to be written in a very specific way, and they take quite a bit of time to perfect.

Still, cover letters are critical touch points for every job seeker, and if written correctly, they will help you stand out from the myriad of other applications a hiring manager, recruiter, or potential employer will receive.

Writing a standard cover letter is a challenge in itself, but adapting one for a remote position makes the task even trickier:

You’ve got to declare your brilliance, align your career path with the company you’re applying for, and express a smidge of personality and pizzazz, all while making your intentions for securing remote work known.

And you have to modify each cover letter to fit each job you apply for.

Where your resume is a single page that gives a high-level overview of your career highlights—relevant work experience, skills, and education history—your cover letter adds depth and richness to your application by giving you the space to share your personal narrative and align it with the company you’re applying for.

This post gives you a simple format to follow when writing the cover letter for your remote job application.

What is a Cover Letter?

A cover letter is a personalized document included in your job application, along with your resume. It gives you the space to expand on aspects of your career that don’t necessarily fit into the resume’s tight one-page restriction.

While your resume gives a hiring manager, recruiter, or potential employer a high-level look into critical aspects of your career, the cover letter allows you to bridge the gap between your experience and the position you’re applying for.

In the cover letter, you have more leeway to introduce yourself, share your career aspirations, explain your interest in the company and the role you’re applying for, and motivate why you’re the best fit for the gig.

When applying for a remote job, your cover letter needs to be, as the kids of today say, hella on point. You’re likely competing with an extensive list of remote workers all vying for the same job placement, so you’ll need to differentiate yourself from the pack.

In the cover letter, you can:

• Expand on your personal characteristics and remote skills that make you a perfect fit for the remote working environment, such as being self-reliant, self-motivated, having great communication skills, and being able to work effectively without direct supervision.
• Showcase more of your personality. While your resume is pretty dry and straight to the point, your cover letter is where you can let more of your unique traits shine through.
• If you already have remote work experience, amazeballs. Your cover letter is where you expound upon scenarios that demonstrate your remote work expertise.
• If you don’t have existing remote work experience, you can use your cover letter to drill down on the soft skills you possess that will make you a desirable candidate for the job.

Sections to Include in Your Remote Job Cover Letter

Here’s a short summary of the sections to include in your cover letter:

1. A header including your contact details, the date, and the hiring manager’s details
2. An opening, greeting, or address to the hiring manager, recruiter, employer, or person reviewing your application
3. Introduction
4. Body section where you can expand on the salient points reflected in your resume and motivate why you’re the best person for the job
5. Closing paragraph, where you’ll share a final call to action

Let’s get cracking.

Section 1: The Header

The header is the first section that a hiring manager sees, so make sure it is clear and straightforward. This information should be left aligned and placed at the very top of the page. It includes:

1. Your contact details
2. The date
3. The hiring manager’s details

First, begin your cover letter with a header section that includes your contact information. Use the same information from your resume, including your:

• Full name
• Contact Number
• Email Address
• Location

Back in the day before remote work took the world by storm, declaring your exact location (not a physical address, merely city and state, or city and country) was the norm. Now, in the remote work renaissance, things look a little different.

For the location section, you can either state something like, “Remote, based in San Diego CA,” or (if you’re fully remote), “Location Independent,” or just “Remote.”

An optional addition here is to share a link to your professional website, portfolio site, and/or LinkedIn page.

Once you’ve shared your contact details, add a double line of spacing and share the current date.

Below this, you’ll enter the hiring manager’s details as:

• {Hiring Manager’s Name}
• {Company Name}
• {Company Address}

Now, it may not always be possible to locate the exact name of the hiring manager. If you don’t have this information, simply state the name of the company and the address.

Section 2: Greeting or Address

To begin the cover letter, you need to address the hiring manager directly. There are a couple of options here.

If you know the hiring manager’s name, address it to them directly, for example: Dear/Hello {{Hiring Manager’s Name}}.

If you don’t know the hiring manager’s name, use one of the following:

• Dear Hiring Manager
• Dear {{Company Name}} Team
• Hello {{Department Name}} Hiring Team

As an absolute last resort, you can fall back on ‘To Whom It May Concern,’ but this is old school, tired, and overly formal.

Section 3: Introduction

Time to get stuck in.

The introduction paragraph is like a mini-summary of your top highlights. This is where you grab the reader’s attention and entice them to continue reviewing your cover letter further.

Craft this section with sentiments that directly reference the job you’re applying for, your intentions for the application, and why your career plans perfectly align with what the company needs.

Mention your interest in the job role and your excitement about the company, and highlight your work experience to establish your relevance from the start. Only include information that mirrors the job description so that everything you present is relevant.

Here’s an example:

“I’m excited to apply for [job title] at [company name]. I’ve worked as a [current position] in [relevant industry] for [x] years developing [skill] and [skill]. I am a good fit for the role of [advertised position] because I have [insert relevant experience or reference accomplishment/achievement]”.

Note: You’ll expand on your experience points in the body section.

Some points to ponder:

• If you were referred by someone (particularly if this is someone the hiring manager knows), include this, or mention how you found the job.
• Within the intro section, share your interest in the remote nature of the job by either tailoring your previous work experience to echo your remote work history or mentioning remote skills skills you possess.
• When sharing your skills, mention only specific skills that align with the job description. Recruiters and hiring managers look for evidence of your strengths in a remote position so as soon as possible, make your remote work abilities known. For example, state that you have experience with software or platforms used for team and project management or asynchronous communication (for example “managed the global marketing team of over 40 employees using Slack and Monday.com”).
• The intro section should clearly note your ability and enthusiasm for the role. If possible, give a brief example (short sentence) of an achievement relevant to the job position and description. Use an example or reference a scenario where you accomplished something or solved a complex problem while working remotely.

Section 4. Body

In the body section, you’ll share more information about your previous work experience, skills, and value.

Work Experience

When discussing your work experience, mention your previous or current role and how the experience you gained there will add to the position you’re applying for.

Include high-level tasks that you were responsible for and share specific examples of success stories or scenarios where your work had a positive impact. Make sure the information you supply aligns with the requirements outlined in the job description.

You could refer to a project you took the lead on or worked within. If possible, include data or figures that quickly denote the success of your input.

If you have past experience working remotely, this will carry a lot of weight here, so use examples and language that reflect that.

Here’s an example

“In my previous role as a Software Developer at [Company Name]—a mobile application development agency specifically focused on building finance apps—I was integral in the design and implementation of a user-friendly mobile banking app. My strong knowledge of security measures and encryption protocols, together with my expertise in Java and SQL, helped enhance the app’s security features, resulting in a 50% reduction in vulnerability reports.”

Skills

Next, add a paragraph that talks to your skills.

When reviewing applications for remote roles, hiring managers look at applicants’ hard and soft skills.

• Hard skills are technical proficiencies or skills acquired from education, expertise, and hands-on experience. You’ll find these mentioned in the job description, so read that document like a hawk with an A-type personality and reflect them in your cover letter.
• Soft skills are more personality traits and characteristics that denote how well you work in general and how you work with others. These are super duper important when applying for a remote position as hiring managers and remote employers will look for evidence that you’d be a good company addition and can successfully work in a dispersed team.

Be sure to note both your hard and soft skills, including:

• Include technical knowledge in your relevant field such as strong understanding for Python, Ruby on Rails.
• Programs, software, tools, or platforms you’ve used. Name them explicitly and explain how you used them. Also, state that you’re open to learning new tools (for example, in the case of a customer service representative, they’d state something like, “… using leading customer service platforms such as Zendesk and LiveChat to achieve customer satisfaction…”)
• Weave in examples of your soft skills in action, such as your ability to work independently, time-management, asynchronous communication, self-reliability and your ability to work across time zones.
• If you don’t have previous remote work experience, motivate yourself that you’re a self-starter and can work without strict supervision.

Want a deeper explanation of the difference between hard and soft skills? We share more about them in this post.

Value

Hiring managers are looking for the best candidates who can get the job done and be a great, valuable asset to the company.

Round off the body section of your cover letter with a paragraph that speaks to what you can bring to the table and the benefits this will have for the company.

Here, look closely at the job description and extract the problems they’ve outlined. Then, draw the connection between this and what you can offer as their next remote hire.

Here’s an example:

“Together with my sales copywriting skills and experience working in remote teams, I am confident that I am a strong candidate for the role of senior eCommerce copywriter. I am excited to bring my detail-oriented approach to work and my sales writing acumen to the marketing team at [Company Name]. I am confident that I can increase customer retention and sales for any client within the [Company Name] portfolio. “

Section 5. Call to Action

The closing paragraph of the cover letter is your final chance to make a lasting impression. Use it to reiterate the main points from the sections above, gently reflecting on your expertise, experience, and the main remote work skills you possess.

Express your passion for the role you’re applying for and emphasize your ability to deliver the position within a remote work environment. Share your excitement for the opportunity to contribute toward the company’s growing goals.

Thank the hiring manager for taking the time to review your application, and share your eagerness to hear from them soon and that you’re looking forward to answering further questions during the interview process.

And that, future remote worker, is how you write a cover letter.

Writing and Formatting Tips for an Effective Cover Letter

Want to make sure your cover letter gets read all the way through? Take these tips into account when writing yours:

1. Stick to standard formatting principles. Use an easy-to-read font like Arial or Helvetica for the body of your cover letter. Also, use the same font for your resume. Select a font size of around 12 points and set a line height of around 1.2 or 1.5. Use a standard margin of around 1 inch all around. Aim to limit your cover letter to one page only, and share the file as a PDF or .word file.
2. Use strong and powerful statements in your writing to command attention, declare your confidence, and hint at the impact you could bring. For example, “My passion for [aspect of job role]…” or “I am drawn to [aspect of company] because…” or “My ability to [skill/strength in action] resulted in [achievement]” and “I am confident that my [skills/experience] make me a strong candidate for this role.”
3. Only share hard facts. Sure, you need to mold your cover letter around the job description but only share valid and truthful statements. Don’t lean into unethical practices like overembellishing work experience and responsibilities, claiming you have experience with certain platforms or programs when you don’t, or stating that you have remote experience when this isn’t the case.
4. Don’t repeat the same information as your resume. Your resume offers your entire education and work history, detailing your qualifications and previous roles. Use the cover letter to share deeper insights into your expertise and credibility by shedding light on more specific situations and accomplishments relevant to the job you’re applying for.
5. Make your cover letter easy to read. Hiring managers get countless applications for jobs, and they’re likely only skim-reading what you submit. Help make their job easier by only including the most relevant information and keeping your cover letter concise. Take the time to make sure your cover letter is easily skimmable so that they can extract the pertinent points: use bullet point lists, bold certain words or phrases, don’t add graphics or visuals, and keep formatting standard.
6. When writing your cover letter, refer back to the job description and use keywords and the same language. Hiring managers are looking for specific verbiage, so make sure you reflect what’s requested in the job description.
7. As best as possible, address the cover letter to the hiring manager directly. It’s not a deal breaker if you can’t, in which case, address it to the company name or department head/lead. Try to avoid beginning with “To whom it may concern” or “Hi there.”
8. Showcase your personality. By this, I don’t mean be overly colloquial, use slang, mention your love for Taylor Swift, or make dad jokes throughout the cover letter. Rather, let aspects of your personality shine through—particularly those that bolster your remote worker appeal. Share your passions for the industry you’re in and give them insight into your traits and characteristics so that they have an idea of who they’ll be interviewing next.
9. Proofread and edit your cover letter. Don’t rush and send off the first draft. Instead, take some time and review what you’ve written. Check for spelling and grammar errors, and if you have someone who is willing, ask them to review your cover letter.
10. Be professional. Always keep your cover letter tone a bit more on the stern side, and rather let your funky, hip, and cool personality shine through during the interview.

You’ll need to rewrite each cover letter for every job that you apply for. This can be time-consuming and tedious, but there are ways that you can speed this process up further.

Create a Google or Word Document (possibly two to three variations for different job titles) and use these as templates. Highlight job-specific text in a different color (the exact role or title, the company name, and specific needs as extracted from the job description), and edit these for a later application.

Streamlining the cover letter writing process is a great idea, but remember, the key thing about writing a good cover letter is that you continually reflect the job description and company needs within your writing. Doing this shows that you’ve read the company’s requests as outlined in the job spec and that you have researched the company and what it requires.

Even with a template, approach each cover letter you write with fresh eyes and spend a decent amount of time reviewing each job description.

Ending Thoughts on Writing a Cover Letter for a Remote Position

Writing a good cover letter is indeed a process, but if it helps you land your dream remote job, then all the hard work you’ve put in will absolutely be worth it.

Remember, the goal of your cover letter is to land the interview. It’s not the place where you answer every question under the sun, so keep it short, sweet, set on one page only, and let it be a fantastic asset for your first impression as their next remote employee.

Once you’ve written your rockstar resume, you can start applying for remote jobs that align with your career trajectory and nomadic lifestyle dreams.

Start your remote job search, create your cover letter, hit send, and get ready for the most expensive and extraordinary adventure of your career.