You found a federal job announcement on USAJOBS. You tailored your resume. You answered the occupational questionnaire. And now you are staring at the "Additional Documents" section wondering: do I actually need a cover letter for this?

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Short answer: USAJOBS does not require a cover letter for the vast majority of federal job announcements. The system will let you submit without one, and your application will still be considered. But "not required" and "not worth doing" are two different things. Some announcements specifically ask for one. And even when they do not, there are situations where attaching a cover letter can give you an edge over other applicants with identical qualifications.

I spent 1.5 years applying for federal jobs after separating from the Navy with zero callbacks. During that stretch I tried every combination — cover letter, no cover letter, long cover letter, short cover letter. After getting hired into six different federal career fields, I have a pretty clear picture of when a cover letter actually moves the needle and when you are wasting time writing one nobody will read.

What USAJOBS Actually Requires for a Complete Application

Every USAJOBS announcement has a "Required Documents" section at the bottom. This is the only list that matters. If a cover letter is not on that list, it is not required. Period.

The standard required documents for most federal applications include your resume, the occupational questionnaire answers, and any supporting documentation for hiring authorities like VEOA or veterans preference (DD-214, SF-15, VA letter). That is the baseline. Everything else — cover letters, transcripts, professional references — depends on the specific announcement.

USAJOBS does have an "Additional Documents" upload section where you can attach files beyond what is required. This is where cover letters go when they are optional. But uploading something here does not automatically mean anyone will read it. HR specialists are processing hundreds of applications per announcement. They are checking required documents and scoring resumes against the qualification standards. Optional attachments get looked at if someone has time — and that is a big "if."

When Does a Federal Job Announcement Actually Require a Cover Letter?

Some federal announcements explicitly list "cover letter" or "letter of interest" in the Required Documents section. When that happens, you must include one or your application may be marked incomplete. HR specialists can screen out applications that are missing required documents before they even get scored.

You will see cover letters required most often in these situations:

• Senior Executive Service (SES) positions — These almost always require an executive narrative or cover letter explaining your leadership philosophy and major accomplishments.
• Excepted service positions — Some agencies with excepted service hiring authority (intelligence community, certain DOD components) use cover letters as part of their screening process.
• Positions with "KSA narratives" in the announcement — Some agencies still ask for Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities statements as separate documents or rolled into a cover letter format.
• Direct Hire Authority announcements at certain agencies — The VA, DHS, and a handful of other agencies occasionally require cover letters even for GS-7 through GS-12 positions.

If the announcement says "cover letter required" or "letter of interest required," treat it the same way you treat the DD-214 requirement. Missing it could mean automatic disqualification before a human ever reads your resume.

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How to Tell if a Cover Letter Will Actually Help Your Application

For the 80-plus percent of USAJOBS announcements where a cover letter is optional, the question becomes: is it worth your time? That depends on a few factors.

A cover letter adds value when there is something important about your application that your resume cannot fully explain. If you are changing career fields — say, moving from military logistics into IT management — a cover letter gives you space to connect the dots for the hiring manager. Your resume shows what you did. The cover letter explains why those experiences make you the right fit for a different field.

It also helps when you have a gap in your employment history, when you are relocating and need to explain availability, or when the announcement says something like "describe your interest in this position" without giving you a formal text box to do it.

Where a cover letter wastes your time: when you are applying to a high-volume announcement at the GS-5 through GS-9 level where HR is processing 400+ applications. Nobody is reading optional attachments on those. Your resume and questionnaire answers are doing all the work. Spending 45 minutes on a cover letter for a position where it will not be read is 45 minutes you could have spent applying to another announcement that actually fits your background.

What Happens to Your Cover Letter After You Upload It

Understanding the federal hiring process helps you decide how much effort to put into a cover letter. Here is what actually happens behind the scenes at most agencies.

First, USA Staffing (the ATS that powers USAJOBS) processes your application. It checks that you submitted all required documents. It scores your occupational questionnaire responses. It compares your resume against the qualification standards for the position — specialized experience, time-in-grade if applicable, education requirements. Your cover letter plays zero role in this automated scoring. USA Staffing does not parse cover letters for keywords or qualifications.

After the automated scoring, an HR specialist reviews the top-ranked applications to verify that self-assessed questionnaire ratings match what is actually in the resume. This is the "qualification review" step. Again, cover letters are not part of this process. The HR specialist is comparing your resume content to OPM qualification standards.

Your cover letter becomes relevant at the third stage: when the hiring manager receives the certificate of eligibles (the referral list). The hiring manager gets your resume and any additional documents you uploaded. This is where a strong cover letter can differentiate you from other qualified candidates — but only if the hiring manager actually reads it, which depends on the manager, the number of referrals, and agency culture.

How to Write a Federal Cover Letter That Actually Gets Read

If you have decided a cover letter is worth including, do not write it like a private-sector cover letter. Federal hiring managers are reading differently than a corporate recruiter. They are looking for specific things, and a generic "I am excited to apply for this opportunity" opening will get skimmed in about two seconds.

After reviewing thousands of federal applications across multiple career fields, I can tell you what separates a cover letter that gets read from one that gets ignored.

Lead With the Announcement Number and Position Title

First line: the announcement number, position title, grade, and location. Federal hiring managers may be reviewing candidates for multiple vacancies simultaneously. Make it easy for them to know exactly which position you are applying for. This is not the place to be creative with your opening.

Address the Specialized Experience Directly

Your second paragraph should map your strongest qualifications directly to the specialized experience requirements from the announcement. If the announcement says "one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-11 level including budget formulation and execution," your cover letter should reference your specific budget experience with dollar amounts and scope. Do not repeat your resume word-for-word — highlight the most relevant qualifications and add context that your federal resume format might not fully capture.

Keep It to One Page

Federal cover letters should be one page. Not two pages. Not three paragraphs stuffed onto two pages with small margins. One page, standard margins, readable font size. Hiring managers who read cover letters at all are spending maybe 30 seconds on them. Give them something scannable.

Close With Availability and Contact Information

End with your availability for interviews, your preferred contact method, and a straightforward statement that you look forward to discussing your qualifications. Skip the "I would be honored to serve" language that reads like a form letter. For a deeper look at federal cover letter formatting and examples, we have a full guide on that.

Common Cover Letter Mistakes Veterans Make on Federal Applications

After helping 17,500+ veterans through BMR, I see the same cover letter mistakes come through on federal applications repeatedly. These are not minor style preferences — they are errors that can hurt your chances.

Writing a Private-Sector Cover Letter for a Federal Job

Federal hiring managers are not looking for personality or "culture fit" storytelling in a cover letter. They want to see that you understand the position requirements, that your experience maps to the specialized experience criteria, and that you can articulate how your background qualifies you. The conversational, story-driven cover letter that works at a tech startup will fall flat at a federal agency.

Repeating Your Resume in Paragraph Form

If your cover letter is just your resume rewritten as prose, you have wasted everyone's time — including your own. The cover letter should add context that the resume cannot. Why are you interested in this specific agency? What about your experience is not obvious from reading your resume? If you cannot answer those questions, skip the cover letter and spend that time making sure your resume is within the current length limits and properly tailored.

Using Military Jargon Without Translation

Your cover letter is a chance to translate your military experience into federal civilian terms. If you write "supervised 42 Sailors in a dynamic operational environment" without explaining what that means in terms of HR management, budget oversight, or program coordination, you are leaving the translation work to the hiring manager. Some will make the connection. Many will not, especially if they do not have a military background themselves.

Sending the Same Cover Letter to Every Announcement

A generic cover letter is worse than no cover letter. If a hiring manager reads "I am highly qualified for this position" but the letter does not reference anything specific about the announcement, the agency, or the specialized experience requirements, it signals that you are mass-applying without doing the work. Each cover letter should reference the specific announcement and map to the specific qualifications listed.

Should Veterans Use Their Preference Status in a Cover Letter?

This comes up constantly, and the answer is straightforward: no, do not use your cover letter to claim or explain veterans preference. Your preference status is documented through your DD-214, SF-15, and any VA disability letters. HR specialists verify preference through those documents, not through your cover letter.

What you can do is mention your military service briefly as context for your experience. Something like "During eight years of active duty service in the Army, I managed a $4.2M equipment account supporting a 600-person battalion" is appropriate. That provides context while demonstrating relevant experience. But do not write "As a disabled veteran with 10-point preference, I should receive priority consideration." That is handled administratively and putting it in your cover letter does not help — it just takes up space you could use for qualifications.

If you are applying using a specific hiring authority like VRA or Schedule A, you can reference it briefly in your cover letter, but the documentation itself (the VA letter, the Schedule A letter) is what HR needs. The cover letter is not a substitute for the actual paperwork.

Cover Letter vs. Resume: Where to Focus Your Energy

If you have limited time — and every veteran applying for federal jobs has limited time because the application process is painfully long — your resume should always come first. It is not close.

Your federal resume is what gets scored against the qualification standards. It is what determines whether you make the referral list. It is what the hiring manager spends the most time reviewing. A great cover letter attached to a weak resume will not save you. But a strong resume with no cover letter will still get you referred and interviewed.

I built BMR specifically because my own federal resume was the bottleneck during my transition. Spending hours on cover letters for jobs where my resume was not competitive was wasted effort. Once I figured out how to build a federal resume that actually matched OPM qualification standards — every field filled in correctly, specialized experience clearly documented, hours per week and supervisor contact info included — I started getting referrals consistently. The cover letter became a secondary tool, not the main effort.

Here is my honest breakdown of where to spend your time when applying for federal positions:

If you want to cut the resume-tailoring time significantly, the BMR Federal Resume Builder handles the translation and formatting for you. Paste in the job announcement, and it builds a federal resume that matches the specialized experience requirements and OPM format standards. That gives you time back to write a cover letter when it actually matters.

What About Cover Letters for Agency-Specific Application Portals?

Not every federal job is posted on USAJOBS. Some agencies use their own application systems — the intelligence community, certain DOD components, the Postal Service, and congressional offices all have separate portals. Cover letter expectations vary widely across these systems.

CIA, NSA, and DIA positions often have their own application requirements that may include a cover letter or personal statement. These agencies evaluate candidates differently than standard competitive service positions, and a cover letter can carry more weight in their process.

The Postal Service does not use USAJOBS at all and has its own process through usps.com/careers. Cover letters are generally not part of the USPS application process.

For positions posted on USAJOBS but managed by agencies with unique hiring cultures (like the VA or certain DOD commands), read the full job announcement carefully. The "How to Apply" and "Required Documents" sections will tell you exactly what they want.

What to Do Next

Stop guessing whether you need a cover letter and start reading the announcements more carefully. The Required Documents section tells you everything. If a cover letter is listed, write one. If it is not, focus your energy on building the strongest possible resume.

For the announcements where you do need a cover letter, keep it to one page, lead with the announcement number, map your experience to the specialized experience requirements, and do not repeat your resume.

If your resume is the weak link — and for many veterans applying to federal positions, it is — fix that first. A cover letter cannot compensate for a resume that does not demonstrate your qualifications in the format federal hiring managers expect. The BMR Federal Resume Builder was built to solve exactly that problem. Two free tailored resumes, built to OPM standards, ready to upload to USAJOBS. Start there, and add a cover letter when the announcement calls for one.