To end a cover letter in 2026, write one short final sentence that confirms your fit for the role, then use a standard sign-off—Sincerely, Best regards, or Kind regards—followed by your full typed name. Email applications get the same formal close without a handwritten signature; printed packets may include a pen signature only when the employer expects mail.
This guide covers the last one or two sentences before the sign-off, how to choose between Sincerely and alternatives, and what changes when you upload through Workday, Greenhouse, or send a cover letter as an email body. For closing-paragraph strategy (recap, call to action, enthusiasm), see our separate guide on how to close a cover letter .
Key Takeaways
- One confident final sentence, then a formal sign-off and your full name
- Sincerely for formal roles; Best regards for most corporate and tech jobs
- No handwritten signature on ATS uploads—typed name only
- Match sign-off tone to the posting; avoid desperate or vague last lines
What belongs in the last lines before the sign-off
The line immediately above Sincerely or Best regards is not a summary of your whole letter—it is a single forward-looking statement. Recruiters who read cover letters at all often jump to the end first to see whether you sound confident or apologetic. Your job is to leave them with one clear reason to open your resume attachment.
Strong final sentences connect a specific skill or outcome to the role you are applying for. Weak endings repeat generic enthusiasm or ask the reader for a favor. Think of this as the last spoken sentence in an elevator pitch, not a second introduction paragraph.
Before: I hope you will consider my application and I look forward to hearing from you soon.
After: I am ready to apply three years of B2B pipeline reporting to your enterprise sales team starting this quarter.
Before: Thank you so much for your time and consideration of my candidacy.
After: My Greenhouse implementation work at two Series B startups maps directly to the RevOps scope in your posting.
You can mention availability for an interview in the final sentence if the posting asks for immediate starts or relocation. Keep it factual: I am available for interviews the week of March 10 and can relocate to Austin by May 1 beats I would love to chat anytime.
Internal referrals change the math slightly. If someone at the company forwarded the role, your final line can name them once: I would welcome the chance to discuss how my supply chain analytics background supports the goals Alex described. Do not turn the close into a name-drop paragraph—that belongs earlier when you explain why you applied.
Career changers should use the last sentence to bridge industries, not apologize. Instead of Though my background is in teaching, I hope you will give me a chance, write I translate complex topics for non-expert audiences—a skill your customer success team lists as essential for enterprise onboarding.
Key Takeaway: the sentence above your sign-off should state fit, not beg for a reply.
Sign-off phrases: Sincerely vs Best regards and alternatives
The sign-off is the word or phrase on its own line before your name. It sets tone but rarely changes hiring decisions on its own. Still, a mismatched close—Warm regards on a federal contract application, or Yours faithfully on a casual startup role—signals you did not read the room.
| Sign-off | Best for | Avoid when |
|---|---|---|
| Sincerely | Finance, law, government, healthcare, formal corporate | Very casual creative roles where the posting uses slang |
| Best regards | Most US corporate, tech, marketing, operations roles | Rarely wrong—safe default when unsure |
| Kind regards | UK-influenced firms, international HQs, consulting | US-only SMBs that expect plain American business tone |
| Respectfully | Senior executives, academic, military transition letters | Peer-level individual contributor roles |
Do not use Thank you as the sign-off line itself—that belongs in the body text one sentence earlier if you use it at all. Cheers, Thanks, and Best work for internal Slack messages, not first-contact cover letters unless the hiring manager invited informal tone in writing.
British English sign-offs differ slightly: Yours sincerely when you named the recipient (Dear Ms. Patel), Yours faithfully when you used Dear Hiring Manager. US applicants rarely need this distinction unless applying to a UK headquarters. When the posting lists a European office, Kind regards or Yours sincerely both read as professional.
Credentials after your name—MBA, PMP, RN—belong on the same line or the line below only when the license is required for the role. Listing every certificate you ever earned under the sign-off clutters the close and duplicates what belongs on your resume header.
Before: Thanks!!! / Jordan
After: Best regards, / Jordan Lee
Key Takeaway: when in doubt, use Best regards for tech and corporate; Sincerely for regulated or highly formal employers.
Email cover letters vs printed sign-offs
Email and portal uploads treat the sign-off block differently than printed mail. When you paste a cover letter into a Greenhouse text field, the system stores plain text—fancy fonts, colored signature banners, and embedded images often strip out or break parsing.
For email, structure the close like a business letter: final sentence, blank line, sign-off, blank line, full name. If your email client auto-appends a signature with phone and LinkedIn, you do not need to duplicate those lines in the letter body. Recruiters forwarding your email to an ATS prefer one clean block without nested HTML tables.
For printed applications—some law firms, academic departments, and government offices still request mail—you may sign in pen above your typed name. Scan to PDF only if the employer asks for a uploaded copy; otherwise mail the original. Never scan a handwritten signature into a Workday upload unless you enjoy blurry parser output.
Portal-specific tip: Lever and iCIMS sometimes show a preview of your cover letter after upload. Scroll to the bottom and confirm your sign-off and name appear on separate lines, not run together. If they merge, add an extra line break in your source document before re-exporting.
Mobile email clients cause their own problems. Signing off on a phone often auto-inserts Sent from my iPhone or a marketing footer from your employer if you applied from a work device. Send test emails to yourself, scroll to the bottom, and remove anything below your name before you reply to a recruiter thread.
When a posting asks you to email both a recruiter and a hiring manager, use the same sign-off block in both messages but customize the final sentence for each audience. The recruiter cares about process fit; the hiring manager cares about team impact. The sign-off phrase can stay identical.
Key Takeaway: digital applications need typed sign-offs; reserve pen signatures for employers who explicitly want physical mail.
Mistakes that weaken your cover letter ending
The most common failure is stacking three weak phrases: thank you, looking forward, and please contact me. Each adds length without new information. Another mistake is introducing new skills in the last line—if you mention Python for the first time in sentence four of four, it feels tacked on.
P.S. lines rarely help in job applications. They can work in sales outreach; for cover letters they often read as gimmicky unless you reference a mutual connection or a specific talk the team gave. Emoji, GIF signatures, and inspirational quotes belong nowhere near a professional close.
Filename and upload errors also sabotage an otherwise strong ending. Uploading CoverLetterFinal_v7_REAL.pdf while your resume uses a different naming pattern makes recruiters question attention to detail. Follow consistent file naming conventions so your sign-off is the last thing they notice—not a messy attachment label.
Passive voice at the end sounds uncertain: It is hoped that my experience will be found suitable. Active voice lands harder: My audit experience aligns with the compliance scope you outlined. Run a quick find for hope, would, and could in your last three sentences and rewrite any that hedge without adding new facts.
Copy-paste errors show up at the bottom more than anywhere else. Leaving another company's name in the sign-off block—or worse, another hiring manager's name—ends the process immediately. Read the last five lines out loud before every submit.
Key Takeaway: cut redundant thanks and last-minute skill drops; end with one clear fit statement and a standard sign-off.
Before you submit: ending checklist
Run this list after you draft the full letter and before you upload to any ATS. Pair it with a resume check so both documents tell the same story.
- Final body sentence states role fit with a specific skill or outcome—not generic hope.
- Sign-off matches employer formality (Sincerely vs Best regards).
- Full name appears on the line below the sign-off; credentials only if relevant (CPA, RN).
- No handwritten signature image in PDF uploads to Workday, Taleo, or iCIMS.
- Contact details are in the header or application form, not repeated three times at the end.
- Preview the uploaded file—sign-off and name are on separate lines.
- Cover letter file name matches your resume naming pattern.
Draft faster with HireFlow's cover letter generator , then run your resume through the free ATS checker so keywords in your closing paragraph align with the job description.
Key Takeaway: treat the sign-off block as a formatting and tone check, not a place to sell harder.
How ATS portals handle cover letter endings
Applicant tracking systems store cover letters as unstructured text alongside your resume parse. The sign-off line is not keyword-scored the way skills sections are, but the entire file still needs to extract cleanly. Workday's cover letter field accepts pasted text and file uploads; complex Word footers can append your sign-off twice or drop the last line.
Greenhouse and Lever recruiters often read cover letters in-browser after your profile surfaces from resume matching. A clean ending helps humans who skim; it does not replace resume keyword alignment. If optional cover letters are skipped by most applicants, a tight close plus a strong resume still wins—see our guide on what cover letters are for to decide when writing one is worth the time.
Taleo and older enterprise portals sometimes truncate long uploads. Keep the full letter under one page so your sign-off is not cut off. Plain DOCX or text-selectable PDF beats design-heavy exports from Canva—same rules as PDF vs DOCX for ATS .
Some companies use cover letters only after a recruiter shortlists you—the initial screen is resume-only. That does not make the ending less important; it means the human who opens your letter later may read it in full. A sloppy sign-off after a strong body still signals carelessness. Treat every optional field as required when you choose to fill it.
Combined PDF uploads—resume and cover letter merged into one file—push your sign-off to page two. Recruiters scanning page one may never see it. When the portal offers separate upload slots, always use them. When forced to merge, put the cover letter first only if the instructions say so; otherwise resume first is the safer default.
Key Takeaway: ATS stores the whole letter—use simple formatting so your sign-off survives upload intact.
Ending a cover letter well means one specific fit sentence, a standard sign-off, and your full name—nothing more. Match email and ATS uploads with typed closings, keep formatting plain, and pair your letter with a resume that passes the same portal.
Draft your letter with the free cover letter generator , then verify your resume on HireFlow's ATS checker before your next Workday or Greenhouse application.
Frequently asked questions
Write one confident final sentence that restates your fit for the role, then add a standard sign-off (Sincerely or Best regards) followed by your full name. For email applications, keep the sign-off on its own line above your typed name. Avoid thanking the reader excessively or asking them to do you a favor in the last line.
Yes. Sincerely remains the safest default for formal applications, especially in finance, law, government, and healthcare. Best regards and Kind regards work well for most corporate and tech roles. Match the tone of the job posting—startup listings with casual language can tolerate a warmer close like Warm regards.
Only if it is not already in the header or application form. Workday and Greenhouse often pull contact details from separate fields, so repeating your phone number in the sign-off block is optional. For email cover letters pasted into the body, include phone and LinkedIn URL under your name so a recruiter can reach you without opening attachments.
Use the same professional sign-off as a printed letter, but skip a handwritten signature. Type your name, then add contact lines below if they are not in your email signature. Keep the subject line specific (Role Title — Your Name). Paste plain text or attach a PDF—avoid fancy HTML signatures that break when forwarded to an ATS.
You can, but it is overused and adds little value. A stronger final sentence explains what you bring to the role, then you sign off formally. If you use a thank-you phrase, place it in the sentence before the sign-off, not as the sign-off itself.
Most applicant tracking systems store the full cover letter text as one field. The sign-off itself is rarely scored for keywords, but garbled formatting—images, tables, or signature blocks—can corrupt the entire upload. Use simple text for closings when applying through Workday, iCIMS, or Taleo.
No for digital uploads. A scanned signature image can confuse parsers and looks odd on screen. Save handwritten signatures for printed packets mailed to employers who request physical documents. For PDF uploads, a typed name is standard.
Two to four sentences: one that ties your experience to the role, one optional line about enthusiasm or availability, then the sign-off. The final paragraph is not a second introduction—recruiters skim it last, so brevity wins. For closing-paragraph strategy (CTA, recap), see our guide on how to close a cover letter.
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