Resume vs. Cover Letter: What Are the Differences?

You’ve spent hours refining your resume, filling it with impressive achievements, and aligning with the job requirements. Then, as you’re ready to hit submit, you see it — the dreaded optional cover letter. Cue the sigh. Do you really need another document that could potentially just be a repeat of your resume?

Short answer: Yes. Sure, a cover letter is extra effort, but that’s what hiring managers want to see. It lets you show enthusiasm, address any gaps, and explain how you can bring value to the company. And you can do all of that without simply rewording your resume.

Let’s break it down. Here’s what you’ll learn:

• What’s the purpose of a cover letter vs. a resume?
• What is the difference between a cover letter and a resume?
• How does a cover letter complement your resume?

What’s the Difference Between a Cover Letter and a Resume?

Finding a job isn’t easy. It’s not like you can just knock at the hiring manager’s door and lay on the charm. Instead, your resume and cover letter have to do the talking. Knowing how to maximize these tools will get you closer to landing that job.

Before we dive into the details, here’s a quick overview of the key differences between a cover letter and a resume. 

What Is a Resume?

A resume is a formal document that gives employers a quick look at your work experience, education, and skills. It’s your chance to show why you’re a strong candidate by focusing on the most relevant and impressive parts of your background.

One of job seekers’ biggest mistakes is treating their resume like an autobiography. Hiring managers don’t need a play-by-play of everything you’ve ever done — they want to see the most relevant details. Focus on the skills, experiences, and achievements that align with the job you’re applying for. Show what sets you apart, and make every word count.

Here’s what a professional resume looks like:

Check out more in-depth resume guides:

• 12 Steps to Edit a Resume
• How to Make a US Resume
• How to Write a Resume Guaranteed to Win a Job Interview

What’s Included in a Resume?

Here’s an overview of what sections to include in your resume: 

• Contact details: This includes your full name, address, email, phone number, and an optional LinkedIn or portfolio link. Ensure your contact details are professional and updated, so employers can easily reach you. 
• Summary or objective: A brief 2–3 sentence highlighting your strengths, experience, and career goals. A resume summary is best for those with experience, focusing on key achievements and skills. A resume objective is better for entry-level candidates or career changers, emphasizing your career aspirations. 
• Work experience: Your work experience section details your job history in reverse chronological order. Include your job title, company name, location, and employment dates. Under each role, provide a few bullet points describing your duties and accomplishments with quantifiable achievements. 
• Education: List your degrees and academic qualifications, including the institution’s name and location, and graduation date. If you’ve been out of school for more than ten years, you can ditch the graduation year to avoid potential age bias. Recent graduates can also expand their education section with relevant coursework, honors, or projects. 
• Skills: Highlight the job-specific and technical skills that make you a strong candidate. Avoid listing generic soft skills like “teamwork” unless the job description calls for them (you can give examples of these in your work experience). If you have a wide skill set, you can group them into categories.
• Extra sections: If you have more experiences or accomplishments that strengthen your resume, consider adding extra sections like certifications, projects, publications, awards, or volunteer experience. Just ensure everything adds value and is relevant to the role. 

Here’s a professional resume example with all the tried-and-tested sections: 

What Is a Cover Letter?

A cover letter lets you go beyond the basics of your resume and explains why you’d be a great fit. You can use it to share more about your professional journey, highlight accomplishments, and show how your skills align with what the company is looking for.

The purpose of a cover letter is to explain career changes, highlight experiences that don’t fit into a resume, or share specific examples of how you’ve made an impact in past roles.

But a strong cover letter isn’t just about adding more details. Employers want to see that you’ve done your research and understand their mission, values, and goals. By tailoring your letter to the company and role, you show genuine enthusiasm and boost your chances of getting an interview.

Check out this example cover letter:

Learn more about writing a cover letter:

• Cover Letter Tips & Examples
• What Should a Cover Letter Include?
• How to Write a Cover Letter for a Job

What’s Included in a Cover Letter?

Here’s a breakdown of the basic structure of a cover letter: 

• Formal greeting: Start with a personalized and professional cover letter greeting. If you know the hiring manager’s name, address them using “Mr,” “Ms,” or “Dr.” followed by their last name. If you’re unsure about their pronouns or can’t find their name, “Dear Hiring Manager” is a safe alternative.
• Opening paragraph: Your opening cover letter paragraph should express genuine enthusiasm for the role and company. Show you’ve done your research by mentioning something specific about the organization, such as its mission, values, or recent accomplishments. 
• Main body: This is where you connect your work experience, skills, and achievements to the job requirements. Instead of repeating your resume, use this space to give examples of how you’ve successfully tackled challenges or contributed to past successes. Focus on results, using metrics where possible. 
• Closing paragraph: Your closing cover letter paragraph should end with confidence and enthusiasm. Reinforce how your background aligns with the role and the value you’d bring to the company. If possible, tie your career goals to the company’s mission, showing that you’re not just looking for any job, but this job.
• Formal sign-off: End your letter by thanking the hiring manager for their time and consideration. Include a polite call to action, such as “I look forward to the opportunity to speak with you further”. Sign off with a professional closing, such as “Sincerely,” “Best regards,” or “Thank you.”

Here’s what a cover letter looks like with this structure:

Cover Letter vs. Resume: Differences

Your resume and cover letter might go hand in hand, but they serve different purposes. Your resume gives a rundown of your experience, skills, and qualifications — basically, the hard facts. Cover letters are a little more personal. It’s your chance to explain why you’re excited about the job and how your background makes you a great fit.

Let’s break it down.

Format and structure

Resumes follow one of three formats: functional, hybrid, or reverse chronological. The reverse chronological order is by far the most popular. It’s what recruiters and Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are most familiar with, making it the safest choice.

Here are some common formatting features you’ll find in a resume:

• Headings: Add section headings in a size 12–14 font to separate your sections. You can also break up sections with line dividers or white space. 
• Bullet points: Avoid long paragraphs — recruiters skim, they don’t read every word. Use resume bullet points in your work experience and education sections to highlight key details.
• Single-column: Not all ATS systems can properly read two-column resumes, so a single-column layout is the best bet. If you choose a two-column format, make sure it’s ATS-friendly and no critical information gets lost.
• Consistency: Keep everything consistent and simple, with the same font style and no more than one color. 

Learn more about the right resume formatting: The Best Resume Format

A cover letter, on the other hand, is written as a formal letter in full paragraphs. It follows a traditional business letter format with the following structure: 

• Greeting
• Introductory paragraph 
• Main body 
• Closing and sign-off 

Unlike a resume, which is all about being concise, a cover letter gives you more flexibility to tell a story about your background and why you’re excited about the job.

Content

Your resume should cover the essentials: contact information, a professional summary, work experience, education, and skills. Of these, your work experience section should be the star of the show. 

List each role with bullet points that start with strong action verbs, emphasizing what you achieved rather than a list of vague duties. Since a resume is primarily about your background, you should write most of it in the past tense, focusing on previous jobs, resume achievements, and skills you’ve developed.

With your cover letter, don’t fall into the trap of simply rewriting your resume. Explain why you’re excited about the job and how your experience makes you a great fit. A cover letter gives you more room to expand on points that might not fit neatly into a resume, like career changes, personal motivation, or a connection to the company.

Unlike a resume, which focuses on the past, a cover letter is written in the present and future tense because it’s all about where you are now and what you want to accomplish. It’s your chance to show personality and enthusiasm — all things a bullet-pointed resume can’t fully capture.

Tone

A resume is strictly professional and to the point. Its tone is neutral, factual, and objective. The goal is to present your qualifications clearly, so employers can quickly determine if you meet the job requirements.

Here’s how to give your resume a professional tone: 

While still professional, a cover letter lets you show some personality. You want to come across as enthusiastic and engaged, not just qualified. This is your chance to help the employer see you as a real person who would bring value to their team. Just don’t go overboard with the eagerness — you want to sound authentic, not desperate. 

Here’s how to balance professionalism with personality in a cover letter:

Purpose

A resume covers your professional background and qualifications, packed into one or two pages. The purpose? To let hiring managers quickly scan your skills, experience, and education to see if you meet their requirements. Since it’s a standard requirement for job applications, your resume lays the foundation for your candidacy.

A cover letter bridges the gap between your resume and the job. It lets you explain how your experience aligns with the role and why you’re excited about the opportunity. While your resume shows what you’ve done, your cover letter tells the story behind it — why you’re the right fit and why this job matters to you. 

Cover Letter vs. Resume: Similarities 

While resumes and cover letters have different formats and purposes, they share one major goal: to get you hired. Both should be professional, well-structured, and tailored to the job. They should also be easy to read, using clear fonts and simple formatting that won’t confuse hiring managers or ATS systems. 

Let’s take a closer look at what they have in common.

Simplicity 

Your resume and cover letter should both use modern and professional resume fonts to make life easier for ATS scanners and recruiters. Stick to the same one or two fonts throughout your job application — it doesn’t make any difference with ATS, but there’s no harm in keeping things consistent. 

Here are some font styles guaranteed to make a good impression:

• Calibri
• Helvetica
• Georgia
• Garamond
• Verdana
• Arial 
• Merriweather 

Opt for font sizes between 10 and 12 points — big enough to be readable, but not so large that it takes up unnecessary space. 

When it comes to design, less is more. Avoid cluttering your documents with graphics, tables, or images that might confuse an ATS or distract from your content. If you want to add a little personality, a hint of color, or a subtle design element can help your application stand out without going overboard.

Length

Hiring managers are busy; they won’t dig through pages of information to find what they need. If your resume or cover letter is too long, you risk them skimming or simply skipping key details. Keeping things concise ensures they actually read the important parts.

Here’s how to keep your job application short and effective:

• Resume: Aim for a single resume page. If you have over ten years of relevant experience, stretching it to two pages is acceptable — but only if everything on it adds value.
• Cover letter: Stick to 300–500 words across three to four paragraphs — ideally onto one page. That gives you enough space to express enthusiasm and connect your experience to the role without losing the reader’s interest.

Find out more: How Long Should a Cover Letter Be?

Personalization

Employers want to hire people who are genuinely excited about the job. After all, someone who doesn’t care is more likely to put in minimal effort and leave after a few months. Luckily, showing enthusiasm doesn’t take much — just a little personalization for each application.

Here’s how to tweak your job application to get noticed:

• You can tailor your resume by highlighting the most relevant experience, skills, and achievements that align with the job description. Hiring managers notice when you’ve made the effort to connect your background to the role.
• Customize your cover letter by explaining why this specific company and position excites you. Mention something about their mission, values, or recent projects to show you’ve done your research.
• Ditch the clichés. Avoid generic phrases like “hard worker” or “great team player”. They don’t tell recruiters anything useful, and it’s a tell-tale sign that you’re sending out one-size-fits-all job applications. Instead, use concrete examples that prove your skills.
• Use resume keywords to get past ATS scanners and impress recruiters. Sprinkling in key phrases from the job description naturally (not forced) can improve your chances of getting noticed and showing you’re qualified.

Try our Resume Keyword Scanner to see how well your resume matches the key criteria set by hiring managers and ATS. 

Resume vs. Cover Letter Tips

Your resume and cover letter should work together, but each has their own role. Your resume lays out your most impressive qualifications, while your cover letter goes into more depth. And in both cases, sending a generic document will only take you to the bottom of the pile. 

Here are some expert cover letter and resume tips to get you closer to landing that interview:

Resume tips

• Show impact, not just responsibilities. Listing job duties won’t give you an edge — recruiters already know what someone in your role does. Instead, focus on how you made a difference. Did you improve a process, boost sales, or gain more clients? Hiring managers want to see the value you bring.
• Tailor it to the job. A generic resume will only blend into the crowd. Study the job description and adjust your resume to highlight the key skills and experiences that match what employees are looking for. This helps you stand out and makes it past the ATS. 
• Use numbers to prove your achievements. Numbers catch the eye and make your accomplishments feel more concrete. Instead of saying, “Managed a team,” try, “Led a team of ten to complete a project five days ahead of schedule.” Even if you don’t have exact figures, estimate where you can (just don’t exaggerate).
• Keep it concise. Your resume should be one page unless you have over ten years of relevant experience (then two pages is okay). If a job from 12 years ago isn’t adding anything valuable, it’s just taking up space. Keep only what strengthens your application.
• Don’t worry about a lack of experience. You don’t need a long job history to prove you’re qualified. Highlight internships, volunteer work, or personal projects that show relevant skills. Employers care about what you can do, not just where you’ve worked.

Cover letter tips

• Don’t just repeat your resume. Your cover letter should add context, not just summarize what’s already listed. Use it to explain career changes, gaps, or why you’re excited about this job in particular. Hiring managers already have your resume — they don’t need to read it twice.
  
  
• Show enthusiasm. Employers don’t just want someone who can do the job, they want someone who wants to do the job. If you sound like you’re applying just to apply, they’ll move on. A little genuine excitement goes a long way.
  
  
• Focus on what you can offer. Every company hires to solve a problem. What is that problem, and how do you fit into the solution? Maybe they need better customer engagement or stronger leadership? Connect your skills to their needs, and show how you can help.
  
  
• Personalize. If your cover letter could work for any job, it’s not strong enough. Mention something specific about the company, like their mission, a recent project, or why you admire them. It shows you’ve done your homework and actually care.
  
  
• Get a second opinion. After writing your cover letter, ask someone you trust to read it. Sometimes, we’re too close to our own writing to spot what needs tweaking. A fresh perspective can help make your letter even stronger.

Get more expert cover letter advice: Basic Cover Letter Tips and Examples

Do You Need a Cover Letter for a Resume?

Cover letters are often optional, but including one (even when it’s not required) proves you’re willing to go the extra mile. When hiring managers see a cover letter attached to an application that didn’t necessarily ask for one, it signals that you’re genuinely interested and not just mass-applying to anything that pops up.

Here’s what a Redditor said about the importance of including a cover letter:

That said, there are situations where a cover letter might not be necessary. For highly technical roles, employers often prioritize skills and qualifications, meaning a strong resume is usually enough. The same goes for some entry-level positions, where the hiring process is more straightforward.

There’s also an obvious exception: if the job posting specifically says not to include a cover letter, don’t send one. Ignoring instructions just seems like you don’t pay attention to details.

If you’re ever unsure whether to include a cover letter, the safest bet is to send one. A well-written cover letter can only help your application, and in competitive job markets, every advantage counts.

Still on the fence? Take a look: Are Cover Letters Necessary?

Summary 

Here’s a quick comparison of the differences between a resume and a cover letter: 

• Your resume is a structured summary of your experience, skills, and education, while your cover letter is a personalized pitch that explains why you’re the right fit for the job.
• Resumes use bullet points, section headings, and concise phrases to present information. Cover letters follow a business letter format with full paragraphs and a professional greeting/sign-off.
• A resume should typically be one page (or two if you have extensive experience). A cover letter should be 300–500 words, ideally fitting on a single page.
• Resumes are factual and direct, listing out accomplishments without fluff. Cover letters allow more personality, letting you express enthusiasm and connect with the company’s mission.
• A resume highlights past work experience, achievements, and quantifiable results. A cover letter explains why you’re interested in the job and how your skills align with the role.
• Both should be tailored for each job, but a cover letter goes deeper by mentioning the company’s values, goals, or projects to show you’ve done your research.
• A resume is almost always required when applying for jobs. A cover letter is often optional, but submitting one when not required can set you apart (unless the employer specifically says not to include one).
• A resume uses action verbs, concise statements, and measurable results. A cover letter has a more natural flow, allowing you to explain transitions, career goals, and your excitement for the role.
• Employers scan resumes quickly to check qualifications. Cover letters help them understand your motivations and whether you’d be a good culture fit.

FAQ

Should your cover letter match your resume?

Yes, your cover letter and resume should have a consistent look and feel, such as the same font, formatting, and contact details. It’s not a requirement, but it helps to create a more cohesive application. 

More importantly, they should complement each other in content. However, don’t just repeat what’s on your resume. Your resume lays out the facts, while your cover letter adds context. 

Is a CV a cover letter?

No, a CV (curriculum vitae) and a cover letter are different documents. A CV in the US is an academic CV, a detailed document that outlines your full educational and professional history, often used for research or teaching applications. Internationally, a CV is almost identical to a US resume. 

A cover letter, on the other hand, is usually an optional document that introduces you, explains why you’re a good fit for the job, and adds personality to your application. 

Find out more: CV (Curriculum Vitae) vs. Resume

What goes first, cover letter or resume?

When submitting online, your resume usually comes first since it’s the main document hiring managers review. Some applications let you upload multiple files, while others provide space for a cover letter within the form. If you’re emailing your application, attach both, but mention your cover letter in the email body. 

What should a cover letter not do?

A cover letter should never be a reworded version of your resume. Hiring managers don’t need to read the same information twice. Avoid making it too generic by tailoring it to the job and company. Also, steer clear of clichés like “hard worker” or “great team player” without backing them up with examples. And never forget to proofread. Typos and grammatical errors can make you seem careless and unprofessional. 

Is a resume or a cover letter more important?

Your resume is usually the most important because it lists your experience, skills, and qualifications. Hiring managers scan resumes first to decide if you’re a good fit. 

However, a cover letter can give you an edge when the competition is tight. It helps you stand out, show enthusiasm, and explain why you’re the right candidate. If an employer requires a cover letter, skipping it could cost you the job.