What to say in a video cover letter, and when to skip one

A video cover letter is a short recording, usually about a minute, in which you say why you want a particular job and what you would bring to it. It sits beside the written application rather than replacing it.

I have watched people agonise over whether to send one. I decide by the role first, then by whether there is something to say that a page of text would flatten.

When a video cover letter helps

It helps when the job is about talking to people: sales, account management, customer support, teaching, recruiting, anything with "lead" in the title. The recruiter needs to know how you come across, and a video answers that in thirty seconds where a letter can only describe it.

It helps when the posting invites it. Some companies ask for a short video outright, and others say "tell us about yourself in whatever format you like," which counts as an invitation too.

It helps when your reason for applying reads strangely on paper. "I used your product every day for two years and kept a list of things I would fix" sounds pushy in a letter and sounds like enthusiasm on camera.

It also helps when the applicant pool is large and you are not the obvious choice on paper. A career changer with the right instincts and the wrong job titles has more to gain from being seen than someone whose CV already matches the ad line for line.

When it hurts

It hurts when it repeats the CV. If the video is you reading your employment history, the recruiter will stop it and go back to the document, which was faster.

Long ones hurt too. Past ninety seconds you are asking a stranger for more attention than your application has earned yet.

It hurts when the posting says "documents only" or routes everything through an applicant tracking system that strips links. Fighting the process makes you look like you did not read the instructions.

It hurts when it is generic. A video that opens with "Hello, my name is" and never says the company's name could have gone to anyone, and the recruiter will assume it did.

And it usually hurts when the job is judged on a portfolio or a coding test. A developer's video cover letter tends to distract from the work samples that decide the outcome.

What to say, in order

A video cover letter has four parts.

1. Who you are and which job, with the recruiter's name if you have it. Ten seconds.
2. Why this job rather than any job. Something specific about the company or the role that a template could not contain. Fifteen seconds.
3. One piece of work that shows you can do it. A single example with one detail. Twenty-five seconds.
4. A small ask. A call, or a look at the portfolio. Ten seconds.

That adds up to a minute. If you have more to say, the written letter is the place for it.

A 60-second video cover letter script

This script is for someone applying to a customer success role at a software company. Replace the specifics with yours and keep the proportions.

Hi Marcus, I'm Tom. I'm applying for the customer success manager role you posted last week, and I wanted you to hear why in my own voice.

I have used your scheduling product since my last company switched to it, and I was the person on our team who answered everyone else's questions about it. That is partly why I am applying. I already know the product well enough to teach it.

At my current job I look after about forty accounts, mostly small clinics. The thing I would point to is a quarterly check-in format I wrote, which replaced an open-ended "how is it going" call with a short review of what each clinic was using. Renewal calls got shorter because we were both looking at the same numbers.

My CV and two references are attached to the application. If the role is still open, I would value twenty minutes with you or whoever runs the team. Thank you, Marcus.

Read it aloud before recording. If a line makes you wince, it was written to be read. Rewrite it to be said.

How to record it

Sit with daylight in front of you, put the camera at eye level and keep the script out of sight once you know it. Talk to the lens as if Marcus were across the table.

Record in one go. If you stumble, start over rather than cutting a stutter out. A clean take sounds like a person and a stitched one sounds like a presentation.

You can record your first hi on hi.video in the browser, with your camera or your screen plus camera, and retake until you are happy. New accounts do a quick camera check first, which catches the "why is it so dark" problem before you have recorded three takes in the gloom.

The free plan allows five published videos a month of up to a minute each, with no credit card, and a minute is the right length for a cover letter anyway. The longer limits on Pro are on the pricing page.

There is more on setup in how to look good on camera with a laptop.

Send a link rather than an attachment

This is where many video cover letters stall. A minute of laptop camera footage can run to many megabytes. Attach that to an email and either the mail server bounces it or the recruiter sees the file size and decides to watch it later, which usually means never.

A link weighs nothing. The recruiter taps it on their phone between meetings, watches, and replies from the same screen.

With hi.video, the link opens a page that shows the recruiter's name, your note, the video and the button you chose, which for a job application is usually your email address. The recruiter does not need an account or an app.

The link is unlisted, so only people who have it can watch, and search engines are told not to index it. You get a view notification when it is opened, which can help you decide whether a follow-up is worth sending, though a view does not prove who watched. There is more on this in who can see my video link.

hi.video has no uploads and no AI avatars, and the "Recorded in hi.video" label tells the recruiter the video was made with our recorder. It does not prove who is on camera, and the trust page explains what it does and does not mean.

Put the link in the written cover letter, one line, near the top.

I recorded a one-minute introduction for you, which you can watch at [link]. The rest of this letter stands on its own if you prefer to read.

That second sentence tells the recruiter the video is optional, which can make them more willing to open it.

A short checklist before you send

• The recruiter's name is in the first sentence.
• The company's name comes up in the first twenty seconds.
• There is one example of work, with one detail.
• It runs under ninety seconds.
• It goes out as a link, and the written application is complete without it.
• You have watched it once, on a phone.

If any of those fail, record again. If they all pass, send it and stop rewatching.

For the etiquette of contacting a hiring manager directly rather than a recruiter, read send a video to a hiring manager. For script templates with timings for different situations, see 60 second introduction video scripts.