Issue 151 · June 29, 2026
Do cover letters even matter anymore? Yes — but not for the reason you think.
This Week's Job Board
58 open roles
across 21 companies hiring in women's health right now
Browse every open role →Coming Soon for IWH Pro
A live jobs dashboard — filter by function, salary, and location, save the roles you want, and get first look before anyone else.
Get early access with IWH Pro →From Jodi · Career Advancement
Do Cover Letters Even Matter Anymore?
Yes — but not where you think, and not for the reason you think.
I get this question all the time. From women in our Mastermind, from people reaching out on LinkedIn, from candidates trying to figure out where to spend the limited time they have between applications and interviews. Do cover letters even matter anymore?
The short answer is yes. But the longer answer is the one that actually helps, because the cover letter doesn't do what most candidates think it does — which means most candidates write the wrong thing.
Put yourself in a founder or hiring manager's shoes. You have 20+ roles open and your team is tiny. You don't have time to read all 3,000+ applications per role, so you have to find screening mechanisms — and the cover letter is one of them.
Here's what women's health founders actually tell us about cover letters.
1. They're a screening tool — earlier than you'd guess
Not in the way you'd assume, where someone reads top to bottom and decides if you're strong. The real screen is much earlier than that. The question is: did you submit one at all? In a lot of pipelines, the cover letter is the first screening layer — a check-the-box signal that you took the role seriously enough to write something for it. Skip it, and you've answered a question you didn't realize was being asked. Your application is likely tossed in the first round.
2. They signal how serious you are
Different from the box-check. Taking the time to personalize is the next-level signal hiring teams use to weed out serious candidates. It's the difference between a generic opener — "I am writing to apply for the position of…" — and a letter that actually engages with this company, this role, this mission. A serious cover letter says: "I'm not blasting this to every posting in my function. I want this one."
3. They communicate your connection to the mission
In women's health this matters more than most people realize. Founders and hiring teams here are working on something they care about deeply, and they're trying to figure out if you care too — or if you're just looking for a paycheck. Your resume can't tell them that. Your interview can, eventually. The cover letter is the bridge between those two moments. It's where you say, in your own words, why this work, why this company, why now.
4. They're the tiebreaker
This is the one that surprised me when I started hearing it from my network. When hiring managers and founders are stuck between two finalists, they go back and re-read the cover letters. Not the resumes. The cover letters. That's the tight-decision moment — two candidates equally qualified on paper, and the question becomes who actually wants this and who's going to fit. Most candidates write the cover letter for the initial screen and never think about it again. The people doing the hiring are reading it at exactly the moment that matters most.
When they're stuck between two finalists, they don't re-read the resumes. They re-read the cover letters.
But let's be real. You're applying to hundreds of jobs. How do you personalize in a way that actually matters without starting from scratch every time? At In Women's Health we use a modified version of the "Disruptive Cover Letter," first created by JT O'Donnell.
It's something we usually only teach inside the Mastermind — but on July 9 at 1:30 PM ET I'm going to walk you through it live. Come learn the In Women's Health cover letter format: how we build for scannability (you have 6–10 seconds to stand out), how the format stays repeatable, and how it ties immediately to the company, role, and mission you're applying for.
So what: The cover letter isn't dead — it's just misunderstood. It screens you in or out before anyone reads a word of substance, and it resurfaces at the exact moment a hiring decision comes down to two people. Submit one, personalize it, and make it tie to the mission. In women's health, that's often the difference between the finalist who gets the call and the one who doesn't.
Excited to take you through it,
Jodi Neuhauser · Founder, In Women's Health
Ready to write the cover letter that actually lands?
Registration is open for the August Career Mastermind.
Over four weeks you'll build the assets we just talked about — a sharp resume, a LinkedIn profile that gets you found, and yes, a cover letter and storytelling toolkit you can actually reuse. You'll also stand up your own AI Networking CRM in Claude Cowork and leave with a 30-day plan to land your next role in women's health.
4 weeks · 8 live sessions (Mon & Thu, 12–2 PM ET) · AI Prep Session July 30 · Cohort begins August 3, 2026 · Limited to 20 students · All sessions recorded
Use code IWH100
Takes $100 off your Career Mastermind seat at checkout.
💳 Pay over time
You don't have to pay all at once. Split it into interest-free installments with Klarna or Afterpay — both available right at checkout, no separate application needed.
Already an alum? You're eligible for special alumni pricing to come back and go deeper. Email [email protected] for your rate.
$1,249 · Code IWH100 saves $100 · Payment plans via Klarna/Afterpay at checkout · Special alumni pricing (email [email protected]) · 100% money-back guarantee · Rollover policy available
"She promises results in four weeks, and she is not kidding. I walked in unsure how to talk about my own experience and walked out with a resume, a story, and a plan I actually used to land interviews."
— Career Mastermind alum
⭐ Featured Roles
Three we handpicked from this week's board.
Director of Growth
Birth Control Pharmacist · Remote
💰 $100,000–$110,000 / year
Birth Control Pharmacist provides education, training, and clinical resources to pharmacists prescribing contraception, while leading advocacy to expand pharmacists' role in reproductive health.
Why we flagged it: A growth role directly advancing pharmacist prescribing rights and reproductive access — mission-driven work paired with high-impact strategy.
Apply →Senior Director of Investments, Lifecycle Capital
Rhia Ventures · Remote (East Coast core hours)
💰 $150,000–$190,000 / year
Rhia Ventures leverages private capital to advance reproductive and maternal health, and is launching Lifecycle Capital, a catalytic strategy funding community-led and early-stage enterprises traditional investors overlook.
Why we flagged it: A foundational role building investment infrastructure at the intersection of reproductive justice and health equity — hands-on portfolio work with real mission integrity.
Apply →Senior Manufacturing Engineer
ClearPoint Neuro, Inc. · San Diego, CA (On-site)
💰 $80,000–$135,000 / year
ClearPoint Neuro specializes in precise navigation systems for the brain and spine, serving clinical and research centers globally with both commercial products and pre-clinical development services.
Why we flagged it: A strong engineering role at an innovative medtech company with rigorous standards (FDA 21 CFR Part 820, ISO 13485) — technical depth with direct impact on patient therapies.
Apply →🔢 Number to Know
1 in 5
Insurance interference, not medical judgment.
Insurers denied 19% of in-network claims in 2024, and 77% of those denials stemmed from paperwork or plan design — not medical necessity. For women navigating reproductive health, maternal care, or cancer treatment, that gatekeeping delays care and leaves patients with the bills.
See the KFF denial breakdown →💡 Beyond the Community
📅 Upcoming Events
IWH · Free
Do Cover Letters Matter in Women's Health? How to Write One That Does
July 9, 2026 · 1:30 PM ET · Virtual
The live companion to this week's essay — what a cover letter actually needs to do in 2026, and how to write one that opens doors instead of filling space.
RSVP →IWH · Free
Building a 10-Step Plan for Your Career in Women's Health
A walkthrough of the 10-step framework for breaking in and moving up — the same backbone behind the Career Mastermind, distilled into one session.
RSVP →IWH · Free
What It Takes to Negotiate with Payers — and Who Tribunus Health Is Hiring to Do It
Kevin Isaacs (Founder, Tribunus Health) walks through how payer contracting works, why it's a consequential career path, and what roles his firm is hiring for.
RSVP →|
P.S. If your current cover letter opens with "To Whom It May Concern," it concerns me. Come fix it with us on July 9 — save your seat here. Your future hiring manager thanks you. In Women's Health · The careers and education platform for women's health professionals |
