Can Cover Letters Be Two Pages Long? [Explained]

Can Cover Letters Be Two Pages Long, and Will Recruiters Read Them?

You sit down to write a cover letter, and ideas come flooding in. Your experience is vast. You want to show off. As you start writing, you realize just how short one page is. Can cover letters be two pages long, or are they a big no-no in the world of fast-paced candidate assessments and even faster rejections?

In the era of Tweets and Instagram comments our attention span isn’t what it used to be. Asking someone to give your two-page cover letter undivided attention might be too much. What’s the ideal length of a cover letter? How can you shorten your letter without losing its gist? Are there situations in which recruiters prefer a two-page cover letter? Let’s dig in and find the answers to these questions.

What Is a Cover Letter, and Why Is It Important?

The job of your dreams won’t simply fall into your lap. While sending in your resume is a necessary start, it’s usually not enough. The competition is tough, and the fact that most people get jobs through referrals doesn’t help. You need to find a way to stand out. 

Writing a cover letter will help you do just that. It’s a formal and informative document that presents your qualifications and interests in more detail than a resume does. Its main role is to help you make a shiny first impression. Regardless of whether the company you are applying to insists on a cover letter or not, you should treat it as necessary. It’s the best way to hook the recruiters in and get an interview.

Can a Cover Letter Be Two Pages Long and Still Make Sense?

To be two pages long, or not to be—that is the question.

Being gifted with words and managing to capture a moment using highly stylized flowery language is great—if you have Shakesperian ambitions. In the world of cover letters, it can get thee to only one place—The U.S. Department of Labor’s unemployment insurance program.

Source: Tima Miroshnichenko

The content of your cover letter needs to be informative and to the point.

Results show that employers predominantly prefer shorter cover letters. A one-page cover letter is seen as the ideal one. Keep your cover letter short, and it will be:

1. Easy to read—Your strengths and skills are easier to spot in a shorter cover letter. Make sure to highlight them by using different formatting strategies, such as bolding and bulleted lists
2. Engaging—You’ll be less likely to write a dull letter if you keep the word count down. The worst thing that a recruiter could feel while reading a cover letter is boredom

How Do You Organize the Structure of Your Cover Letter?

To truly impress recruiters, your skills need to stand out—everything else is just background noise. The best way to achieve this is to write a well-structured cover letter.

Regardless of whether you end up going with a cover letter over one page long or with a shorter one, make sure to include these parts:

When Should You Use a Two-Page Cover Letter?

Under normal circumstances, you should always aim to write a one-page cover letter. Since most rules have exceptions, it’s only natural to wonder—can a cover letter be two pages long in some cases?

Source: olia danilevich

You should write a two-page cover letter if:

• You’re asked to answer specific questions—If you need to tackle more than a few requirements in the job description and provide the company with elaborate answers on some of their queries, use the space. Note that this only applies if the job ad specifically asks for detailed explanations
• The employer explicitly asks for a two-page cover letter—If the employer prefers the two-page format or has listed a word count you need to hit, you should respect that. The rule of thumb is to always place specific requests above the standard requirements
• The requested format contains two columns—If you should write the cover letter in a two-column format, know that it’ll usually take up two pages

How Do You Shorten Your Two-Page Cover Letter?

The one-page cover letter is the gold standard. Research shows that nearly 70% of employers appreciate the good, old “the shorter, the better” approach.

If you’re new to the job hunting scene, consider this good news since you don’t have much to go off anyway. Those with substantial experience will have to find a way to shorten their letter. So, how do you find a way to showcase all your qualities without cluttering your cover letter?

Making a list of mistakes that add to the word count is a solid strategy. This list could, for example, include:

1. Comparing the letter to your resume
2. Adding unnecessary adjectives
3. Writing long, fluffy paragraphs

You can come back to it once you have the first draft of your cover letter all finished.

Don’t Spin Your Resume

Although they have many similar traits, these are the core differences between a resume and a cover letter:

One of the worst approaches to writing a cover letter is merely rewriting your resume with a few alterations. It’s repetitive and a complete waste of time. The redundancy should be minimal and only present when completely necessary.

Cut the Fluff Out

Your cover letter can be creative (depending on the company you’re applying for) and original—but also professional.

Flaunting your out-of-this-world talents to the already overwhelmed recruiter using ostentatiously embellished language and an abundance of showy and repetitive adjectives in four-line sentences is almost always counterproductive (It totally works here, though, doesn’t it?).

Source: Thirdman

Once you’ve written the first draft, forget it for an hour or so. Go for a walk, have a cup of coffee, binge the third season of Friends for the fifth time this year. This way, when you go back to your cover letter, you’ll see it with fresh eyes. Remove all the useless clutter, and you’ll be left with an undoubtedly better version.

Keep Your Paragraphs Short

Think of it this way—if the equivalent of a resume is a room with bare walls, your cover letter should be the humble furnishing. Save the knick-knacks for the interview—the simple and on-the-spot aesthetics go a long way with the recruiter.

Limiting your paragraphs to two or three lines not only looks neat but will make you see if you’re overly decorating your cover letter.

Master the Art of Getting a Job

You’ve used all the tricks in the book and written a killer cover letter. All that’s left to do is to send it and wait for the calls to come pouring in. If only the reality of job hunting was that promising. Some visible improvements are happening in the unemployment area—the percentage dropped from 6.8 to 4.4 in a single year—but finding a job is still no picnic. The chances of getting an interview are slim—on average, employers interview only six people for each position. You could spend hours, or more likely days, endlessly scrolling through job boards and not finding anything that works for you.

What if the whole process was simpler? With Lensa, it can be. Lensa is an AI-powered tool that makes your job hunting experience easier. It analyzes a huge variety of job ads from numerous job boards and presents you with the best matches for you. Here are some of the perks you’ll get by signing up:

• Access to customized ads from various job boards that Lensa has teamed up with—from a single platform
• A chance to learn about your own professional strengths by playing the Workstyle Game
• An opportunity to be notified about the most recently posted job ads via SMS and email
• The possibility of filtering different variables (for example, remote positions)

Put a Stop to the Unemployment Streak With Lensa

Registration for our platform is a quick and straightforward process. Here’s all you need to do:

1. Visit the website
2. Type in your desired job title and location
3. Add your email address
4. Click on Submit

Featured image source: Cytonn Photography