How to End a Cover Letter: Closing Lines That Actually Get Responses

The closing paragraph of a cover letter is the last thing a hiring manager reads before deciding whether you get a callback. Most people write it like a formality — "Thank you for your time, I look forward to hearing from you" — and then wonder why nobody calls.

Here is how to end a cover letter: thank the reader in one sentence, restate why you are the right fit, and ask for the interview explicitly. Three sentences. That is the whole formula. Everything beyond that is either repetition or filler.

Here is how to do all three without sounding desperate, generic, or like you drafted this at 11 PM after your fourteenth application of the week. (No judgment. I have seen the timestamps.)

The Closing Paragraph Does One Job — Don't Give It Three

The closing paragraph has one function: signal what happens next. Not "summarize everything I just told you." Not "remind you how much I want this job." Signal what happens next.

The mistake most applicants make is using the closing paragraph to recap the cover letter — as if the hiring manager might have forgotten the previous three paragraphs by the time they reached the fourth. They have not. What they need is a clear next step, not a highlight reel of content they just read.

Recruiter attention is not uniformly distributed across a cover letter. The opening gets the most scrutiny — it has to earn the rest of the read. The middle sections are usually skimmed. The closing, by contrast, often gets a second look. It is the last thing a recruiter sees before they decide whether to click "schedule interview" or move on to the next application.

A job seeker spent three weeks sending the same cover letter to 40 companies. Every one ended with "Thank you for your consideration, I look forward to hearing from you." Zero responses. She rewrote the closing paragraph of a single application: thanked the hiring manager by name, restated one specific reason she was qualified for that particular role, and asked for a 20-minute call. Response the next day. Same qualifications. Different closing. Same principle behind most application problems: the content was fine; the signal was broken.

"I look forward to hearing from you" is the written equivalent of ending a job interview by staring at the ceiling and waiting for someone else to propose next steps. It places all momentum with the reader, requires no action from either party, and signals you are comfortable waiting indefinitely. (The algorithm and I have a complicated relationship, but at least it gives me a score. "I look forward to hearing from you" gives you nothing.)

Three Parts Every Strong Cover Letter Ending Needs

Strip the formula down to three components. This is not a template — it is a minimum.

1. A brief thank-you

One sentence. "Thank you for reviewing my application" is sufficient. "Thank you for taking the time to consider my application — I know your schedule is demanding and I truly appreciate the opportunity you have given me here" is six sentences of anxiety wearing a trench coat. The thank-you acknowledges that the reader spent time on your letter. Acknowledge it and move on.

2. A one-sentence fit statement

This is the bridge. It connects the strongest point from your cover letter body to what comes next. You are not re-explaining your experience — you are making the implied explicit: "Given my background in [specific skill], I believe I can contribute to [specific goal] from day one." One sentence. One bridge. Then move on.

The fit statement is where most cover letters go generic. "I am confident I would be a great asset to your team" contains no information. "My three years managing $2M annual ad budgets align directly with the performance marketing scope in the job description" contains specific, verifiable information. Write the second one.

3. An explicit call to action

This is where the closing either works or does not. "I look forward to hearing from you" is not a call to action — it is a passive hope. It places the entire burden of next steps on the reader and signals that you are comfortable waiting indefinitely while they manage 249 other applications.

An active CTA looks different: "I would welcome a 20-minute call to walk through how I approached [relevant situation] — please feel free to reach me at [contact]." Or: "I would love to discuss the role further — I am available any time next week." The difference is directional. Passive: the reader might do something. Active: you have asked for something specific, and the reader knows exactly what the next step is.

One optional addition: offer to follow up yourself. "I am happy to follow up next week if that is easier." Some hiring managers find this presumptuous; most do not. The ones who object were probably not going to call anyway. What it does is turn a floating request into something with a built-in expiration, which tends to get more responses than an indefinite open-ended ask.

Here is the formula assembled:

"Thank you for reviewing my application. My three years managing [relevant function] at [Previous Company] have prepared me directly for the challenges outlined in this role. I would welcome a conversation — please feel free to reach me at [email] or I am happy to follow up next week."

Fifty-three words. Three sentences. No repetition. Clear ask. That is the whole thing.

Closing Paragraph Examples for Different Situations

The formula stays the same across situations. The specific details change.

Standard application:

"Thank you for considering my application. Based on my five years in account management and a track record of exceeding client retention targets by 22%, I am confident I can contribute to your customer success goals from day one. I would welcome a brief call — you can reach me at [email] or I am happy to follow up next week."

Career change:

"Thank you for reviewing my background. Although I am transitioning from operations to product, the cross-functional project management skills I developed running $1.5M initiatives translate directly to what this role requires. I would love to schedule a 20-minute call to discuss how that experience applies here — please feel free to reach me at [email]."

Referral application:

"Thank you for your time. [Name] suggested I reach out, and after learning more about the team's direction, the fit is clear from my end. I would welcome a brief call to confirm it from yours — I am available any time next week."

Internal application:

"Thank you for considering me for this role. Having worked alongside the [team name] for two years, I understand the priorities from the inside and am ready to take on additional responsibility. I would welcome a conversation at your convenience."

Email cover letter (no separate attachment):

"Thanks for reading this. Given my background in [X], I believe I can [specific contribution] for [Company] from day one. Happy to connect — reach me at [email] or I will follow up next week if that is easier."

Every example above: one thank-you sentence, one specific bridge, one direct ask. None runs longer than three sentences. None says "I look forward to hearing from you." None describes how much the candidate "loves" the company without giving a reason.

If you are tailoring your resume to match the job description — which you should be — the same logic applies to the fit statement in your closing. Mirror the language of the posting. According to Jobscan's analysis of one million resume and cover letter scans, job seekers who use exact phrases from the job description are significantly more likely to advance past initial screening. The closing paragraph is not exempt from that principle. (For a deeper look at this, see our guide on keywords for your resume — the same matching logic applies to cover letter language.)

Which Sign-Off to Use (and Which to Skip)

After the closing paragraph, you need a complimentary close — the word or phrase above your name. This is where people either overthink it or make a choice that undercuts an otherwise professional letter.

The options that work:

• Sincerely — formal, traditional, always appropriate. If you are unsure what to use, use this. It has never caused a problem.
• Best regards — professional without being stiff. Appropriate for most corporate contexts.
• Kind regards — slightly warmer than "best regards." Common in client-facing industries.
• Best — informal but acceptable in tech, creative fields, and most modern workplaces. Skip it for legal, government, or finance roles where formality signals competence.
• Thank you — warm and collaborative. Works especially well for service-oriented or team-focused roles where relationship is part of the job description.
• Respectfully — formal, skews legal, government, or military. Use it if the role and company culture call for that register.

Options to skip:

• Cheers — unless you are applying to a British company for a role based in the UK.
• Thanks! — the exclamation mark makes it read like a text message. Drop the exclamation mark and "Thanks" is fine.
• Warmly — too familiar for a first-contact letter.
• With enthusiasm — sounds like a press release closing.
• Your fan — apparently some people write this. Please do not.

Format it like this:

[Closing paragraph]

Best regards,
[Your full name]
[Phone number]
[Email address]
[LinkedIn URL — optional]

One blank line between the paragraph and the sign-off. A comma after the close. Your full name, not a nickname. Contact information below so the reader does not have to scroll back up to find it.

If you are submitting the cover letter as the body of an email rather than an attachment, your email signature handles the contact block — but you still need the complimentary close before the signature. One does not replace the other.

The Phrases That Sink a Cover Letter Closing

Now that the formula is clear, here is what breaks it.

"I look forward to hearing from you."

This is the most common cover letter closing in existence and also the least effective. It is passive, it asks for nothing, and it appears in the majority of cover letters the hiring manager has read this week. It signals that you are happy to wait indefinitely with no follow-through. Replace it.

"I am extremely passionate about this opportunity."

Passion is demonstrated, not declared. If the body of your cover letter shows genuine knowledge of the role and company, the interest is clear. Declaring it again in the closing reads as filler — something to say when there is nothing left to say.

"I know I am the perfect candidate for this role."

You do not know that. The hiring manager knows you do not know that. Confidence is appropriate; claiming certainty about outcomes you cannot predict is not. "I believe I can contribute X from day one" is confident. "I know I am perfect" is something else.

A second summary of your experience.

The closing paragraph is not a conclusion in the five-paragraph-essay sense. Do not summarize. Do not recap. If the body of your cover letter made the case, the closing just needs to close. Thank, bridge, ask.

More than four sentences.

If your closing paragraph runs long, it is doing the body's job. Cut it. Reader attention decreases with every additional sentence. Three sentences is optimal. Four is acceptable. Five means you are stalling.

Generic phrases that could appear in any letter.

"I would be thrilled to contribute to your dynamic team" contains no information specific to the company, the role, or you. Replace any phrase that could appear, unchanged, in a letter to a completely different employer. If it could apply to everyone, it applies to no one.

The underlying failure mode for all of these is the same: the phrase exists to fill space rather than to communicate. A closing paragraph that says nothing specific asks for nothing specific — and that is exactly what it gets.

When the Closing Matters More — and When It Barely Does

Here is the part most cover letter guides skip.

When the closing carries significant weight:

At small companies — typically under 50 employees, where most roles are filled without an applicant tracking system — the hiring manager reads the cover letter themselves. Your closing is the last impression before they decide whether to reach out. Specificity matters. Passivity gets noticed. If you are applying to a startup or independent business, write the closing as if someone is going to read every word of it, because they will.

At companies that ask specifically for a cover letter (rather than making it optional), the entire document carries more weight. They requested it because they plan to use it.

At any company where you have a referral: the cover letter is often read first, not after an ATS screen. The closing is what the reader remembers.

When the closing matters less:

At large companies using applicant tracking systems like Workday, Greenhouse, or Taleo, the ATS score determines whether you reach the human stage at all. According to Jobscan, 75% of resumes are rejected before a recruiter reads them. In those environments, the cover letter — including the closing — may not be read until after the algorithm has already screened you. The resume does the heavy lifting. The cover letter is reviewed later, if at all.

For a full picture of how that filtering process works, see our guide on how ATS systems work. The short version: optimizing your resume keyword coverage matters more for the ATS pass than polishing your cover letter closing.

There is, however, one situation where the cover letter closing still matters even in high-volume ATS environments: when the platform parses cover letter text for keyword data. Some ATS systems — particularly for emailed applications — index the entire submitted document, including the cover letter. Using a phrase from the job description in your closing ("I am eager to contribute to [Company]'s approach to [specific initiative]") gives the algorithm an additional keyword match signal. It is not a major factor, but it costs nothing and occasionally helps. The same keyword principles that apply to your resume apply to any parseable text you submit — for more on that, see our breakdown of how keywords work across your application.

The honest view:

If your cover letter body is strong — specific, concise, keyword-matched to the role — the closing will not save or kill your application on its own. What it does is set the tone for everything that follows. A passive close signals you are comfortable waiting. An active close signals you are ready to engage. Over 40 applications, that cumulative signal matters.

The closing is also where your cover letter either sounds like it was written by a person who wants this specific job or by software generating generic content at scale. Hiring managers who read cover letters regularly can tell the difference. A three-sentence closing that names a specific contribution, uses language from the posting, and asks for a specific next step sounds like the former. "I look forward to hearing from you" sounds like the latter.

Run your cover letter through ATSFixer alongside your resume to make sure the full application — keywords, structure, and fit — is working together before you submit. The closing is the final element. Make sure everything before it earns the right to ask for the meeting.

You made it to the end of a guide about cover letter closings. You have considerably more patience than the average hiring manager. That already puts you one paragraph ahead.

Frequently Asked Questions