A guide to creating a high‐quality cover letter

INTRODUCTION

Opportunities for advancement within academic medicine often focus on curricula vitae (CV) and external endorsements, such as promotion and tenure letters or targeted requests for letters of support. ¹ , ² , ³ An often overlooked, yet critical component of application materials is the cover letter, which serves a unique and distinct role. Cover letters are commonly requested for a variety of opportunities, including new career positions, leadership roles within the institution or professional organizations, and even self‐nominations for awards. While traditionally included as an accompaniment to mailed applications, cover letters continue to play a key role in the digital era, where applicants apply via email or job portals.

The cover letter is an opportunity to provide a narrative to your story, creating a more expanded and personal component to your application. The cover letter can also focus your interests on the specific role and highlight salient areas within your CV that particularly align with the desired position. This is especially beneficial for those with a lengthy CV. Moreover, the cover letter provides an opportunity to explain important roles, experiences, and outcomes of relevance to the proffered position that are not typically included in a CV.

Despite the important role of a cover letter in academic and career advancement, we have seen variations in the quality and format of cover letters and, in some cases, the absence of a cover letter altogether. Based on our combined leadership experience in emergency department, medical school, residency, fellowship, and professional medical organizations, we have identified this as an unmet need. To address this, we have created this streamlined summary to share both our experience and our insights combined with those represented in the literature to serve as a resource for residents and attending physicians when creating or refining their cover letters.

GENERAL FEATURES OF A COVER LETTER

The cover letter should serve as a succinct summary of your background and interests relevant to the specific position or opportunity you are seeking. As such, most experts recommend that this be kept to one single‐spaced page. ⁴

Similar to an elevator pitch, the cover letter should seek to capture and maintain the reader's attention. Use a professional, warm, and genuine writing style to demonstrate your writing skills and create a narrative to convey why you are the ideal candidate for this position. ⁵ Avoid simply reiterating your CV. Focus instead on the key elements you want to portray, such as relevant skills or interest in a specific practice setting (e.g., environment, geographic region). Discuss your vision, including what you want to do and how you are going to accomplish it. ⁶ Be confident and positive and avoid any negative sentiments or issues with current or prior roles. ⁴ , ⁶

Research the opportunity and tailor the letter to the position to which you are applying, emphasizing the unique features and alignment with your interests. As a general rule, if you could replace the program with a separate institution and no one would notice, then the cover letter is not sufficiently tailored.

Finally, make sure that the letter has been thoroughly reviewed for errors, including spelling and grammatical errors, unnecessary redundancy, and incorrect institutions or contacts. Use a reasonably sized font (10‐ to 12‐point) with an easy‐to‐read typeface (e.g., Times New Roman, Arial, Cambria) to reduce cognitive burden on the reader. Prior to submitting, convert the file to a PDF to avoid issues with formatting during download of an editable file. Sample cover letters are included in Appendix S1.

SPECIFIC ELEMENTS WITHIN A COVER LETTER

In this section, we will discuss the core elements of a cover letter. While the exact number of paragraphs and focus may vary slightly based on the applicant's experiences and intended position, the following are consistently important features.

Header and salutation

The cover letter should be written on institutional stationery, with your contact information listed at the top. If institutional stationery is not available or well‐suited for this letter, include your information in the top‐most region on a blank word document. In the top left, include the name, title, role, and institution for the primary contact of the letter. This is generally the department chair or organizational leader, though it may be a recruiter in select cases. Address the letter to the same person, using their name and the correct professional salutation and title (e.g., Dr. X) and avoid misgendering or assuming the gender for the contact. When the contact is unknown, consider a more personal generic greeting (e.g., “Dear members of the selection committee”) as opposed to a more general one (e.g., “To whom it may concern”).

Introductory paragraph

The first paragraph should include a strong opener and frame the subsequent paragraph(s). ⁶ Introduce yourself and state what you are applying for and why you are interested. Consider stating up front your overarching skills that are perfect for the job (e.g., “I have been an associate program director for a well‐established residency program and would like to combine this experience with my innovative thinking skills to establish and lead the X residency program”.) Relate your relevant skills to the particular opportunity to demonstrate that you have researched the details of the desired traits of the ideal candidate. In the next paragraph, you can be more specific as to how your skills can benefit the new position and how you learned of this position. List any connection you may have (e.g., current or former employee, former graduate of the program, institutional contact or connection), particularly if that role or person is already a part of the area you are attempting to join (e.g., “Dr. Johanna Doh alerted me to this position. We have worked together for the past two years on the XYZ project, which is related to the present job”).

Middle paragraph(s)

The middle section will generally range from one to three paragraphs, depending on the role and number of requisite skill sets you wish to highlight. Quality supersedes quantity here, so it is better to share more depth of experience than sheer numbers alone. Discuss the key skills that make you competitive for this position. Each time you discuss a skill, support this with specific experiences or examples. Relate the skills to how they might be beneficial to the new role. Emphasize tangible accomplishments or outcomes directly linked to your efforts and that have a clear benefit to the prior employer (or are translatable to the new employer). Make sure to read the elements listed in the job description and consider incorporating the same language or keywords that they used in their ad in your self‐descriptions. For residents applying to their first job or those switching career focus, it may also be beneficial to briefly describe relevant training experiences.

Last paragraph

In the final paragraph, thank the reader for their time and consideration. Include your preferred contact information (typically email and/or phone number) and a statement regarding the next steps (e.g., “I look forward to discussing this position further”).

ChatGPT AND THE ROLE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Large language models (e.g., ChatGPT, Google Bard) present a unique avenue to aid researchers and academicians across a variety of arenas. ⁷ Prior research has demonstrated that using programs such as ChatGPT to develop promotion letters and journal cover letters produced similar quality to those written by humans. ⁸ , ⁹ However, these programs can lead to generic and unoriginal letters, which can sound identical to those written by others (or even risk the appearance of plagiarism). ¹⁰ Therefore, we do not advise using these programs to draft cover letters. A better use of these large language models is to use them to review and provide feedback on a proposed cover letter. The program can identify spelling or grammatical errors, logical inconsistencies, or gaps in supporting information. Moreover, by providing a copy of the job description or departmental mission statement and vision to the artificial intelligence platform, its program could identify key areas for alignment and call attention to aspects that might be most relevant to highlight in the cover letter.

CONCLUSIONS

Cover letters serve as a critical tool to highlight key elements in a curricula vitae and provide a personal narrative to tailor these elements to the proposed position. This article highlights the key features and an organizational framework for creating or refining a cover letter that can serve as a valuable resource for those at any career stage.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Supporting information

Appendix S1. Supporting Information.

Gottlieb M, Coates WC. A guide to creating a high‐quality cover letter. AEM Educ Train. 2024;8:e10988. doi: 10.1002/aet2.10988