Builds a short letter around one specific thing about the company and one specific thing you've done, then strips every sentence that would survive a find-and-replace of the company name.
Write a cover letter for this role. Under 200 words. POSTING: {{JOB_AD}} WHAT I'VE ACTUALLY DONE: {{MY_EVIDENCE}} WHY THIS COMPANY: {{WHY_THEM}} Structure: - One opening sentence that is about them, not about me, and that could not have been written by someone who hadn't looked. - One paragraph on the single most relevant thing I have done, with the outcome, not the responsibility. - One sentence acknowledging the biggest gap between me and the posting, and what I would do about it. Do not spin this. - One closing line proposing a concrete next step. Then run this check and show it: **would any sentence here survive if you swapped in a different company name?** List every sentence that would, because those are the ones to cut or rewrite. Rules: - Do not open with "I am writing to apply for". Do not use "passionate", "excited", "thrilled", "dynamic", or "fast-paced". - Do not restate the résumé. - Do not flatter the company beyond the one specific thing I gave you. - If WHY THIS COMPANY is thin, say so rather than inventing enthusiasm.
A prompt is a skill with the serial numbers filed off. Install it once and your agent reaches for it on its own.
Paste this into ChatGPT, Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, or whatever you use:
Install the cover-letter-that-isnt-generic skill globally from https://promptsbuddy.com/prompts/cover-letter-that-isnt-generic/skill.md.claude/skills/cover-letter-that-isnt-generic/SKILL.md
---
name: cover-letter-that-isnt-generic
description: "Builds a short letter around one specific thing about the company and one specific thing you've done, then strips every sentence that would survive a find-and-replace of the company name. Use when the user asks for help with career tasks like cover-letter, job-search, career."
license: CC-BY-4.0
metadata:
source: https://promptsbuddy.com/prompts/cover-letter-that-isnt-generic
author: "Lena Fischer"
version: "1.0"
---
# A cover letter that couldn't be sent to anyone else
Builds a short letter around one specific thing about the company and one specific thing you've done, then strips every sentence that would survive a find-and-replace of the company name.
## Inputs to collect first
Ask the user for anything below that they have not already given you. Do not
invent values for these.
- `JOB_AD` — The posting. (e.g. Paste the posting.)
- `MY_EVIDENCE` — Two or three things you have actually done that relate. Rough notes are fine. (e.g. Rebuilt onboarding at a 12-person startup; cut time-to-first-value from 9 days to 2.)
- `WHY_THEM` — One genuine, specific reason this company — something you noticed, used, or read. (e.g. I've used their API since 2024 and their changelog is the only one I actually read.)
## Instructions
Write a cover letter for this role. Under 200 words.
POSTING:
{{JOB_AD}}
WHAT I'VE ACTUALLY DONE:
{{MY_EVIDENCE}}
WHY THIS COMPANY:
{{WHY_THEM}}
Structure:
- One opening sentence that is about them, not about me, and that could not
have been written by someone who hadn't looked.
- One paragraph on the single most relevant thing I have done, with the
outcome, not the responsibility.
- One sentence acknowledging the biggest gap between me and the posting, and
what I would do about it. Do not spin this.
- One closing line proposing a concrete next step.
Then run this check and show it: **would any sentence here survive if you
swapped in a different company name?** List every sentence that would, because
those are the ones to cut or rewrite.
Rules:
- Do not open with "I am writing to apply for". Do not use "passionate",
"excited", "thrilled", "dynamic", or "fast-paced".
- Do not restate the résumé.
- Do not flatter the company beyond the one specific thing I gave you.
- If WHY THIS COMPANY is thin, say so rather than inventing enthusiasm.
## Notes from people who use this
- The swap test is the whole prompt. Anything that survives it is filler.
- Under 200 words is not a stylistic preference — long letters get skimmed to the first specific noun.
- If you can't fill WHY_THEM honestly, that's information about whether to apply.
---
A cover letter that couldn't be sent to anyone else · by Lena Fischer · v1.0
From PromptsBuddy — https://promptsbuddy.com/prompts/cover-letter-that-isnt-generic
Licensed CC BY 4.0.
Every prompt is also available at /prompts/cover-letter-that-isnt-generic/skill.md — see all install options.
Almost every bad cover letter is bad in the same way: it would work, unchanged, for any employer in the category. The find-and-replace check turns that vague intuition into a concrete list of sentences to delete, and it is the part people report actually changing their writing.
Volunteering your weakest point feels wrong and reads as confidence. It also pre-empts the reader's own objection, which they were going to have anyway. One sentence, no spin, then move on.
Maps your real experience against a single job ad, rewrites the bullets that match, and tells you plainly which requirements you don't meet instead of papering over them.
RonyA diagnostic-then-edit pass that names the specific tells in a draft — the tricolons, the hedges, the empty transitions — and fixes them without flattening your voice.
Rony