TTYL, XOXO & Yours Truly? Learn How To End a Cover Letter Right and What To Avoid
You’ve spent who knows how many days browsing through job boards looking for a suitable opening when you spot an opening for a role that doesn’t demand three PhDs and a dragon-riding license. It still demands a cover letter, so you write until you come to the last paragraph—and that’s when you realize you have no idea how to end a cover letter!
The job looked like a life-saver, but now you’re afraid that it’ll slip through your fingers as even more doubts start assailing your mind. Did I write the introduction properly? What if there was a better way to present my skills? How do I close my cover letter? Will recruiters even read it?
This is where your troubles end.
Whether you’re a master of your trade or a novice, an expertly crafted cover letter can go a long way in helping you make a killer impression on a possible future employer. This article helps you do that by explaining:
- Why a cover letter is important
- How to arrange cover letter parts
- How to close a cover letter and end it on a positive note
- What formatting tactics to employ
Don’t Underestimate the Importance of a Cover Letter
You might have read somewhere online (LinkedIn, probably) that the cover letter is dead. This is not true. Studies have shown that more than half of all employers in the U.S. still prefer that a candidate submits a cover letter along with their resume. The cover letter is still an integral part of the application process at most companies.
The job market today is hectic—candidates are constantly phasing in and out using various hiring channels. In such a fast-paced environment, you could easily assume that—even if it’s required—your cover letter won’t matter much. This is also false.
A cover letter provides you with an opportunity to display what makes your abilities and competencies stand out from those of other candidates. You can use it to complement your resume by:
- Expressing interest in a company’s particular brand
- Showing how determined and eager you are to contribute to their business
- Elaborating on role-related skills and competencies that fit the job description
- Explaining which accomplishments and qualifications make you stand out from other candidates
- Persuading them that you would be an indispensable asset to their business
How To End a Cover Letter for a Job Vacancy
Most job seekers spend all their energy on the core of the text and toss off the cover letter closing as an unimportant formality.
Such a mindset can get you into trouble. Some recruiters might outright reject you if the conclusion of your cover letter isn’t to their liking. To compose a great cover letter ending, you need to know how to structure it.
The conclusion consists of two parts:
- Closing paragraph
- Departing phrase and signature
What the Final Paragraph of a Cover Letter Should Include
You should use the last paragraph of a cover letter to summarize everything you’ve stated up until that point. Keep the tone professional and serious. Don’t joke around, as most recruiters have a distaste for cover letters that end on a frivolous note. Your cover letter ending should include a poignant call to action. Display confidence in your abilities. Restate your eagerness to join their organization. Ask them for an interview.
You can also briefly recapitulate on why you’ve chosen to apply for the position—and follow this up by remarking on your determination to uphold the company’s vision and ideals. Don’t behave as if you’ve already got the job—displaying confidence is great, but don’t let it turn into plain arrogance. It’s better to be crafty and subtly intrigue them.
Make them interested in getting to know you even more, but acknowledge that the decision is up to them.
Signing Off a Cover Letter
After you have concluded the final paragraph, you should sign off in a suitable manner. You can rely on a conventional phrase here, such as:
- Sincerely,
- Kind regards,
- Best regards,
- With best/kind regards,
- Respectfully,
Once you take your pick, add a comma and put your signature below the closing phrase. You can also include your contact details after this section. In case a recruiter just scans the cover letter, your information should be easily available to them in both the intro and the closing.
Signing Off—The Wrong Way
When you send a cover letter, you engage in formal correspondence with a company, so you need to avoid overly friendly or casual farewells, including:
- Goodbye
- Warmest wishes
- With love
- Looking forward to hearing from you
- Have a pleasant day
- Have a great evening
- Smiley faces
- Waiting for your feedback
- XOXO
- Abbreviations such as thx, TTYL, bb, cya, etc.
- Anything with “yours”
Don’t sign off with a nickname—always use your full name in the HTML email signature. You’re engaging a company for a job offer, not chatting with a friend.
Source: SHVETS production
Some Additional Tips and Tricks for Signing Off a Cover Letter
You can make your cover letter ending even more effective. Adding links to sources that recruiters can check out is the way to do it:
| Link | Description |
| LinkedIn profile | To better understand the details about your education and prior work experience, a recruiter may want to look at your LinkedIn profile. If they like what they see, they may even connect with you. In some job applications, this link is even a requirement |
| Professional blog | A blog related to a particular industry or niche you worked in can give the company an in-depth view into occupational details that you didn’t elaborate on in the cover letter |
| Portfolio | A portfolio provides recruiters with extensive information about projects that would be too long to list in a cover letter |
| Project examples | You can also provide links to completed projects that you’re proud of. This way, a recruiter can ascertain the true extent of your capabilities |
| Biography page | A link to your biography page on the website of your current or previous employer can give hiring managers access to performance reviews along with additional info about your professional qualities |
Source: Andrea Piacquadio
How To End a Cover Letter—Examples You Can Use for Reference
Now that you know how to structure the closing part of your cover letter, you can check out some cover letter closing examples. You’ll also see how they can vary depending on your prior work experience or lack of it. For comparison, you can also check out a sample of a poorly composed cover letter closing.
Closing an Entry-Level Cover Letter
Check out this professional cover letter ending that works for any entry-level position:
To conclude, I am eager to share your company’s vision and look forward to any prospect of potential collaboration in the future. Should you find my qualifications suitable for the role you are offering, I am ready to answer any additional questions you may have.
Sincerely,
John Smith,
24/1/2022
Writing a Cover Letter Closing for a Senior Position
Candidates with years (or months) of experience in a certain role should emphasize that quality in their cover letter. This goes for the ending as well:
I believe my four years of experience as a Content Editor in [Company Name] and the expertise acquired by editing articles in various content niches are suitable for the recent opening in your agency. If you have further inquiries, I would be delighted to answer them at any time you deem fit. I look forward to any prospect of future engagement with your business.
Best regards,
Jane Doe,
24/1/2022
A Cover Letter Ending You Should Avoid
Even if you go with a less formal style in your cover letter, you should tone it down in the closing. Make sure you’re respectful, clear, and concise. Make sure you don’t write anything resembling this:
With that being said, I think that I would make the ideal candidate for your company. Let me know what you think.
Waiting for your feedback,
Johnny,
24/1/2022
Source: Anna Shvets
How To Dazzle the Recruiters With Your Whole Cover Letter—Not Just the Ending!
Once you have reached that last paragraph, you should revisit the rest of your cover letter. After all, the gist of your cover letter comes before the closing—and you need to make sure that recruiters stay interested enough to get to the ending. Each section of your cover letter needs to be on point, not just the last paragraph. This means you should give just as much attention to the sections that come before it. These are:
- Header
- Introductory sentence
- Opening paragraph
- Body paragraph
These four parts and the closing section will be the outline for your document. Learn how to master each one.
Adding Your Contact Details
The upper part of your cover letter is reserved for the header. It needs to contain vital personal information, including:
- First, last, and middle name
- Telephone number
- Email address
- Date
- Company details
Here are some additional tips for filling in your details in the header:
- Email address—Use a professional email address. If you provide something inappropriate like [email protected], a company will not even consider hiring you
- Date—Make sure you write the current date before sending your application. Having a last month’s date in your header can signal the hiring manager that you’re mass-applying for jobs
- Home phone number—If you add your home number, be sure that you can always answer it
- Details of the company—State only the essentials that are available online. Don’t bother their HR team with questions about insignificant details as they probably have their hands full with tons of inquiring emails
Choosing a Salutation
You should set the formal tone of your cover letter with a short lead-in phrase. The sentence doesn’t need to be anything extravagant or super-unique. On the contrary, it’s better to be conventional and courteous. If you’re too informal or conspicuously laid-back, the hiring manager will not take your cover letter seriously. If you know the name of the recruiter, address them directly. It’s best to use both their first and last name.
You shouldn’t assume the recruiter’s marital status, so don’t use the terms Miss and Mrs. Instead, use neutral titles, such as Mr. and Ms. Alternatively, you could opt for a generic introduction, such as:
- Dear Recruiter,
- Dear Hiring Manager,
- Dear all,
- To Whom It May Concern,
The main advantage of these unspecific introductory phrases is that you can use them for your template when applying for several positions simultaneously. After the salutation, don’t forget to add a comma.
Opening Your Cover Letter
The introductory and closing paragraphs of the cover letter are two sides of the same coin.
Both have to be formal, informative, and convincing. The opening paragraph is the first one a reader will see—it should be captivating enough to intrigue a hiring manager from the get-go. You can accomplish this by stating how you found out about their company and what aspects of the role made you interested in applying for the job.
Read the job specifications carefully and present yourself with tact. Mention something role-related that might intrigue them. Convince them right away that you meet the company’s standards and more—that you have something special to offer that other candidates don’t. Also, name the exact role you’re applying for. This will assure them that they’re not reading a generic cover letter.
Making Your Qualifications Matter—Be Persuasive, Not Abrasive
After you’ve finished the introduction, show the recruiter why your education, experience, and skills make you a suitable candidate.
List out your qualifications and give specific examples of how certain skills have helped you achieve success in your previous workplace. Don’t forget that you should state only skills that are relevant to the position you are applying for. The main paragraph should be tailored to the role you want to get. A seasoned recruiter won’t bother reading generic lists of soft skills.
You could also mention specific projects you’ve worked on. Elaborate a bit on what abilities you’ve acquired and how you can transfer them to your new job—make the company see that you can bring real value to their business. Dazzle them with your passion for the role, especially if you’re applying for an entry-level position. Focus on how their company culture suits your character and preferences. But don’t make the cover letter about yourself—emphasize how your qualifications will help the company achieve its goals.
You should also make use of bulleted lists and the bold option to emphasize key points that a recruiter needs to notice.
Source: Mart Production
How To Use Formatting To Make Your Cover Letter More Effective
Having a convincing cover letter closing is awesome, but you need more than that. You need to make sure that the document as a whole hits the mark.
Formatting tips and tricks provided in the table below can help achieve that:
| Format Element | Tips |
| Spacing | Always double-space your paragraphs, as this will make them easier to read. Use single-space to separate individual sentences |
| Bolding | Bold key parts of your cover letter (such as specific skills) to draw attention to them, but don’t bold entire sentences |
| Font | Use neutral-looking fonts that are easy to read, such as Arial, Times New Roman, or Tahoma. Don’t use overly stylized Serif fonts. You might find them interesting, but they will make the text difficult to follow. Keep the font size between 10.5–12 pt |
| Margin | Set the margin to one inch from all sides. You can reduce its size slightly if your cover letter is somewhat lengthy |
| Alignment | Stick to the left-side alignment. Justified texts are hard to read |
Job Hunting Doesn’t Have To Be a Struggle
No matter how convincingly you end your cover letter, job hunting will still be a long, hard grind that you’ll be anxious to finish as quickly as possible. But the sad reality is that most job seekers remain unemployed for months before finally getting hired. Although the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics states that the employment rate is getting better—from 15% in 2020 down to 6%—these percentages alone are not encouraging to the millions who have been out of a job for more than 27 weeks.
Another disheartening fact is that 80% of resumes don’t even make the shortlist for a job vacancy. So how can you increase your odds of getting a job in such dismal circumstances? The answer is—by signing up for Lensa! Lensa is an AI-powered application that can help define the trajectory of your career and make job-seeking a much less troublesome process. It provides:
- Access to a variety of job ads from a range of different hiring websites
- Ability to adjust job recommendations according to your location
- Email and SMS alerts about recent job openings
- Chance to try out the Workstyle Game, which will give you a glimpse into your professional strengths
Source: Tima Miroshnichenko
Sign Up for Lensa in a Few Easy Steps
You can set up your Lensa account in a few minutes. All you have to do is follow these steps:
- Visit Lensa
- State your desired role and click on Search
- Enter your email address
- Select the Submit option
Upon completion, you can play the Workstyle Game or develop your profile further by:
- Uploading your resume
- Stating your preferred salary
- Entering your education degree and job qualifications
- Adding your telephone number
After you build up a full-fledged candidate account, Lensa will start sending you job recommendations tailored to your vocation, education, and individual preferences.
Featured image source: Monstera
