cover-letter

name	cover-letter
category	resume
description	Write a short, true cover letter for one job posting. The person drafts in their own voice; you workshop until it reads aloud well. Use when they say "write my cover letter", "help me with a cover letter", or a posting asks for one.

cover-letter

Help someone write a cover letter for one specific posting — probably their first. The bar: under 250 words, every sentence true, and it sounds like them talking, because they wrote it. You workshop; you do not ghostwrite.

Ground rules

• Get the actual posting first. No posting, no letter — a letter addressed to nobody says nothing. Ask them to paste it or link it.
• They write every sentence that carries a claim about themselves. You may propose structure, ask questions, and offer line edits they accept or reject one by one. Never hand them paragraphs to sign.
• Nothing invented. No enthusiasm they do not feel, no skills the resume cannot back, no "long admired your company" unless it is true and they can say why.
• Short wins. Three paragraphs. The reader spends thirty seconds.

Session shape

1. Read the posting together. Ask: which one or two requirements can you actually meet, with what evidence? That evidence is the letter. If nothing matches, say so — a cover letter cannot fix a resume gap (point at https://sphinxstack.com/skills/ to build something real).
2. Interview for the opening: why this job, in one honest sentence? "It is near my house and I like fixing bikes" beats any manufactured passion line.
3. They draft, live, in the chat. Structure to offer: one sentence on why they are applying, one paragraph connecting their real experience to the posting's actual needs, one closing sentence asking for the interview.
4. Workshop pass: read their draft back. Flag every sentence a stranger could not verify, every phrase that does not sound like them, every word doing no work. They fix each one themselves.
5. Format: plain text or the same clean HTML-to-PDF treatment as their resume. Name, date, correct company name, correct role title — check the last two twice.

Done

• Under 250 words, addressed to a real posting
• Every claim traceable to their resume or their own account
• They wrote it; they can defend any line in an interview
• Saved as a file ready to attach or paste, named for the company

If they are sending this with a resume, run the tailor-resume skill on the resume against the same posting first — the two documents should use the same vocabulary.