How To End Your Cover Letter That Lands an Interview (With Examples)

If you're wondering how to end a cover letter, you're far from alone. A cover letter can be one of the most important parts of your entire resume, helping you stand out as a potential candidate to any company that reads your letter. While AI may scan the entire piece for keywords, a human resources employee or interviewer will remember a strong final paragraph more than nearly any other aspect of your application.

So, what are some tips to maintain a good cover letter, last paragraph tricks to make your application memorable, and ways you can ensure the entire piece stands out? Below, the DARCARS Careers team goes through some examples of what to do – and not do.

Why Does Your Cover Letter Ending Matter?

Before we begin, why does knowing how to end a cover letter even matter? Well, in many cases, your cover letter should be brief and snappy: The final paragraph may be as much as a third or even half of what you send to a prospective interviewer. Ensuring the entire cover letter is of high quality is very important – AI will scan everything, after all.

But, more importantly, when a human puts their eyes on your cover letter, they will statistically be more likely to remember the beginning and end more than the middle of your piece. As the beginning is your introduction, the end should mention your accolades, how your skills connect to the job, and your enthusiasm. When done correctly, a proper conclusion can make your cover letter exceptionally clear: Here's who you are, and here's why you deserve the position.

The End of a Cover Letter

Okay, the last paragraph of a cover letter is important. But, when should you know how to close a cover letter in the larger context of your writing? Ideally, the ending of your cover letter should be after around 200 to 300 words of introduction and midsection content. Your note should never exceed a page, so you may want to wrap up a little faster than you expect.

You should plan for your conclusion to be two to three sentences long while also saving room for a complimentary close ("Sincerely," and your name on a separate line) without requiring the interviewer to flip the page.

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How to End a Cover Letter for a Job: Key Points

Now that we have an understanding as to why the end of your cover letter should be a focal point, let's talk about how we can make it shine.

Tie Your Experience to the Position

Your resume is where a lot of your accolades, achievements, and experience lie, and there those elements will stay. The cover letter shouldn't just regurgitate your resume. The conclusion of your letter is instead the perfect area to bring your resume to the job. Here is where you can quickly explain why what you've done in the past makes you perfect for the role.

For example, say you're applying for a sales associate position, and on your resume, you decided to include how you led a charitable foundation for three years. In your cover letter, you can discuss how your work in charity and fundraising has given you a friendly, trustworthy tone and attitude, which are ideal for guiding customers to the right vehicle.

Don't Rely on Genericisms

While using a template as the baseline for your letter is not necessarily a problem, overreliance on templated cover letters is obvious to both AI and human readers. Personalization is critical to making your letters stick out. A few elements of the personal touch include:

• The interviewer's name, if applicable.
• Properly and uniquely connecting your skills to the role.
• Rewriting to match the tone of the company.

Bring in a Piece of Research

Another way to personalize your letter is to do a bit of behind-the-scenes research. Find a cool fact about the company's history or the current dealership scene that stands out. You can even concoct a way to connect it to your skillset!

For instance, say you're applying for a dealership that has an on-site gym. You could talk about how impressed you are that the location offers such an amenity, and that you plan on bringing a similar level of dedication to the customer.

Keywords

Keywords should be scattered throughout your cover letter to get picked up by AI, but they shouldn't be so overwhelming that your letter trips any alarms. It should also not be so much that, when a human gets their hands on your resume, the letter seems confusing and jumbled.

We cannot provide a list of keywords because these are job-specific. Our best advice is for you to closely examine the job posting and consider this question: How would you instruct an AI to scan applications for this role? Try to use some of the same language found in the job posting, without going overboard and copying every adjective it uses.

Stay Professional, Personable, and Enthusiastic

The cover letter is where a human gets to look at more than a resume. It's the way you (re-)introduce yourself to a prospective employer, grabbing their attention and showing how your personality will perfectly meld with the organization. The conclusion should perfectly represent the job you want: be professional, curt, and honest.

However, professionalism isn't the only element you want to master. Depending on your organization, you'll want the conclusion to highlight your personality and enthusiasm. If the company seems more relaxed and family-friendly, allow your conclusion to emphasize how excited you are to work with the company, or talk a bit more about how you think your personality will mesh well with the team.

Set Goals

A cover letter is not the place to talk about salary, but it is a place to talk about your career goals. Say why this position is either the perfect place to grow, or talk about how you hope to continue climbing the ladder of the location to greater and greater heights.

You can also use this to state how much you plan on excelling in your position itself. For example, if you're applying for a mechanic's shop that has a stated quota for vehicles, you can talk about how you plan on hitting 125% of that quota within the first year. This highlights your ambition without necessarily locking you into a position you might want to grow out of quickly.

Complimentary Closers

End it off with a respectful, personable, and professional closer. This refers to the brief line of text before your name, and can look great for your formatting. However, you should avoid informal options unless you're very comfortable with the company's or interviewer's tone. Some popular choices for cover letters include:

• Regards,
• Best,
• Sincerely,
• Respectfully,
• Thanks,

Find a Proofreader When Possible

You should always read your cover letter after you write it to make sure it's ready for human eyes and not confusing to AI. However, if you can, find a second opinion. We all get tired after writing a cover letter and can miss mistakes, which can make or break the piece.

After you re-read it, see if a friend or family member wouldn't mind taking five minutes to do the same. They'll often discover an error that you may have missed. Alternatively, consider automated software like Grammarly. Those programs can't always detect tone the way a human can, but they do a good job of catching misspellings and grammatical errors compared to simpler writing apps.

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How to End a Cover Letter: Examples

Now that we know the basics of how to sign off a cover letter, let's go through some examples that highlight these points.

• Thanks to my years of work as a manager at Macy's – where I earned an award for employee excellence – I'm exceptionally comfortable with helping my coworkers handle any issue. As a new HR Leader, I plan on accelerating team response time by 25% in the first six months. I look forward to working at your location, as your team is already well-known for its excellent employee benefits, and I can't wait to make their lives even more comfortable.
• Taking on the mechanic lifestyle has been a lifelong dream of mine. As a UTI graduate with ASE and Jeep certification, I've been known to work quickly and learn faster. Whether I'm at the Express Lane station or heading to our customers' garages to perform mobile work, I'm eager to raise the bar for the dealership as an Automotive Technician.
• With a 94% lead conversion rate at my previous position, I am confident in my ability to thrive as a sales manager. I've worked tirelessly to hone my leadership skills as a supervisor at Sephora and Olive Garden, and as a teacher, demonstrating my dedication to my fellow employees. I'm thrilled to take the next steps on the DARCARS Volvo Cars show floor and hope to quickly demonstrate my potential as a store manager.
• Given my accolades as a consistent Employee of the Month for my work at Shaw's, you can rely on me to bring the same level of dedication to my role as a junior sales representative. Not only do I have impressive experience in customer relations, but I am also familiar with all aspects of the showroom floor. From aligning my tone to specific brand values to elevating customers' understanding of our products, you'll see how my strong work ethic and ability to learn meld seamlessly with your expectations.
• Exploring a dealership's backend has been a dream of mine ever since I went into the accounting business with Charles & Jeffery Law firm. As a head accountant in the business, I'm excited to bring my financial experience to my hobby of car maintenance. As I've been personally responsible for reducing expenditures at Charles & Jeffery by 33%, I am confident I will be able to replicate my performance at DARCARS Jeep Rockville.

Take the Next Step in Your Career With DARCARS Automotive Careers

Now that you have an idea of how to end a cover letter, it's time to take the next steps with a capable, confident team. Browse our DARCARS Automotive Careers to explore a variety of positions in sales, technical work, IT, and more. We're on the lookout for talented employees at every step of their employment journey; you can find the start, middle, or end of your path with us.

Once you see our DARCARS Benefits, you'll have plenty to talk about at the end of your cover letter. Be sure to do extra research on the specific dealership you're applying for!

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it okay to ask for an interview at the end of a cover letter?

While it is not necessarily a faux pas to ask about an interview at the end of a cover letter, you should strive to sound confident, conversational, and enthusiastic, rather than desperate or arrogant. "Please schedule me for an interview" may come off as unserious or underqualified, while "I'm looking forward to talking with you in person" feels professional – while pushing the same goal.

What is the best sign-off to use at the end of a cover letter?

There are several sign-offs you can use at the end of a cover letter, though it's always best to try to match your closer with the company's mood and tone. A few options you should consider include:

• Regards,
• Best,
• Sincerely,
• Respectfully,
• Thanks,
• Looking Forward to Next Steps,

While you can pursue less formal options, keep the tone professional and in line with the company's expectations.

What should you avoid saying when ending a cover letter?

The end of your cover letter is what your interviewer is most likely to remember, so it should be a summary of your experience in a concise yet readable paragraph. You should avoid:

• Rambling
• Desperate, arrogant, or self-defeating language
• Trying to be too conversational or informal
• Talking about your last position and why you're looking
• Your salary expectations
• Copy-pasting your resume
• Anything disqualifying, like a lack of experience