A cover letter is the personalised part of a written job application. It answers why this specific candidate is applying for this specific role and what concrete skills they would bring. Unlike a resume, a cover letter is a flowing argumentative text – typically one page – not a tabular summary.
A solid cover letter contains the contact details, a clear reference to the vacancy, an opening paragraph, three or four paragraphs tying the candidate's experience to the role, optional salary expectations and earliest start date, and a polite closing. Whenever possible the letter should address a named contact – generic openings like "To whom it may concern" suggest the candidate did not research the company.
In modern hiring, the cover letter has lost some weight. Many employers explicitly waive it because applicant tracking systems rarely use its content for matching. When a cover letter is requested it must be tailored, not assembled from generic blocks – recruiters quickly recognise unedited ChatGPT output that lacks concrete reference to the role.
For Lunigi users, the cover letter remains valuable preparation work: candidates who maintain a clear profile and can articulate their motivation also fare better in semantic job matching, because the underlying competency descriptions become more precise.