As an experienced hiring manager, I know that getting your government cover letter right is the most important part of your application. Which is no surprise that paid cover letter services are increasing, and many of these services (try to) specifically target candidates trying to get public sector roles.
These paid cover letter writing services are all very different. Some cost around $200, and others nearly $500. Some have direct experience working in government, others are factories that produce cover letters for any and every industry.
I am going to share with you my assessment of the top cover letter writing offers currently available to government candidates.
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Why You Might Pay For A Professional Cover Letter
When you are applying for government jobs, you need to customise each of your applications. You cannot use the some cover letter for multiple roles, it just won’t work.
And trust me, it makes a huge difference. When I’m shortlisting candidates for public sector roles, if your cover letter isn’t matched to what I asked for in the job ad, you’re a quick cull. You won’t pass go, you won’t be invited for an interview.
Generic cover letters, even if they share your best work, don’t work for public sector recruitment.
So, if you need to write a custom cover letter every time you apply, you’ve got limited options.
You can write a custom cover letter yourself every time. This works if you know the public sector hiring process well, and have good experience in writing that makes you efficient at telling your story. If not, it quickly becomes emotionally draining and you’re ability to consistently write about yourself diminishes as you apply for more jobs.
Or you can pay for someone else to write your cover letter for you. But this has some risks too, and the cost of these cover letter writing services adds up fast.
Paying for a professional cover letter writing service can be a great option for many. It can allow you to get independent advice on how to make your cover letter sound better, and if you have the money, it can make it easier to apply for multiple jobs. It is certainly more effective than submitting a generic cover letter for every job you apply for.
As a candidate, I feel like I’m stuck between choosing between paying with my time or my money to get a fair go at a public sector job.
And as a hiring manager, this makes it clear why so many candidates have cover letters that don’t work.
The other option, is to write your own cover letter but get it reviewed by an expert who knows how government hiring works.
This works. I know, because that is what I do for all of my applications.
But I am lucky to have built up so many helpful contacts across government, which I know that many candidates don’t have.
So I am going to try and level the playing field.
This year I’ve launched this new option: expert government cover letter reviews.
This service is designed to give you a new, affordable and efficient way to boost all your government job applications.
Let’s compare how the traditional paid cover letter writing services stack up against getting an expert cover letter review.
Cover Letter Writing Services Cost: What You Need to Know
When you’re shopping for someone to give you a great cover letter, you need to check for some key things.
First and most obviously, you need to check the cost.
I have found prices range from $120 to over $400 for a single government cover letter.
But that’s just the upfront cost for a cover letter writing service. Many cover letter writing service packages have limitations on them, including page limits or word limits, which means that to get your full application completed you’ll be paying more.
So when you are looking for something in your budget, make sure you check out all of the fees. Check for extra fees for express delivery, additional pages, selection criteria writing and responding to target questions.
How Much Does A Cover Letter Writing Service Cost?
The average price that I found online for cover letter writing for public sector jobs was $399. Prices for expert cover letter writers ranged from $88 to $499. The lower end of the range had some very tight restrictions, like a 500 word limit.
Some offered packages, where if you get help to apply for 3 or 5 jobs, the cost per cover letter is much lower, but you need to pay an upfront fee of over $1000.
So if you need to apply for more than one role, consider what this cover letter writing service will cost you. If you’re applying for three roles, make sure you have between $1000 and $1500 available to cover these costs.
Extra Fees For On Time and Express Services
The last thing you need to look for regarding the cost of your cover letter writing service, is how long they will take to write it for you. Most sites I compared below stated that their standard turnaround was up to 10 business days.
This is a huge red flag. If you see a government job the day it comes out, sometimes you have less than 10 days to get your application in. Ten days becomes very risky, because you wait until they give you your draft letter, and then you need to rush to fix anything and make sure that they’ve covered everything the hiring manager is looking for.
As a professional government cover letter writer, I was surprised it was taking ‘experts’ in government applications this long. Then I found it. The reason why you get told it could take up to 10 days for your cover letter – the express fee.
Your $399 cost for your public sector cover letter just shot up to $499 or higher, when you pay the express fee. The express fee is there for any candidates that need their cover letter in two days. The charge ranged from $99 up $200 extra.
And folks – that’s why I have an in time guarantee.
My cover letter review process is the fastest way to boost your application. And if you ask me to review your cover letter and I don’t get it back to you in time to apply, I’ll refund your money. No one else is offering this.
To give you an idea of how I can help in a hurry, let me share with you how I helped a candidate last Friday. He purchased a cover letter review at 3pm, and he flagged that his application was due at midnight. I turned that cover letter around in time for him to review before dinner – no extra charge. Why would I charge extra? You’re in a tough spot and need to get your application in tonight, so I’m not going to stuff you around and hit you up with extra fees.
How To Review Public Sector Paid Cover Letter Services
I’m going to assess all the top paid government cover letter writing services against the same criteria:
- Cost – including additional charges
- Turnaround Time
- Direct Public Sector Experience – If they demonstrate to have direct experience applying for and working in government jobs.
I have reviewed the top results from searching for writing services that specifically offer government cover letters. There are many more that offer generic cover letters too, but I didn’t include them here.
All of the information below is available on their websites, which I’ve included direct links to so you can check them out yourself.
So lets get to it. Here are the top paid government cover letter writing services in Australia
Reviews Of Paid Cover Letter Services
One: Team 3Thirty Government Cover Letter Reviews
Price: Lowest Available
Stated Turnaround Time: Excellent – 48 Hours Max
Public Sector Experience: Over 10 years working in state government
I really think my service is the best available. No one else is offering this, because it is too cheap and too difficult to do at a larger scale.
And I’ll be honest, I’ll need to review my prices if I get a lot more work. But for now, you get to benefit from my experiment to change the way candidates get into the public sector.
This cover letter review service has really three main steps:
- You learn the basics how to write a government cover letter, by reading through examples.
- You start to outline your cover letter using the free template.
- When you’re done getting your story down, you get it reviewed.
The first two steps are free, and are part of my mission to make public sector recruitment fairer for everyone.
The last step, the government cover letter review service, cost you $29 per application. This is all in costs – no additional fees, charges, up-sells or add-0ns.
For $29, you’ll get my nearly 20 years of government experience to help you with your:
- Government cover letter – matched to the role requirements
- Target questions if required
- Public sector focus capabilities
- STAR structured examples
I’ll do this typically within 48 hours. If I cannot get it back to you in 2 days, I’ll let you know. If I don’t get it back to you in time for you to apply for the role, I will refund your money.
At this rate of $29 per cover letter review, you can get my help on multiple different government job applications for under $100. Oh, and I don’t charge a different rate for different levels of job applications. It is a flat fee.
This service doesn’t include me writing your cover letter from scratch, or writing your CV. If you need that, please have a look at my reviews below of full-service cover letter writing service options for your government application.
Two: Nicolejessicacoggan – Fair Prices and Good Turn Around
Price: Good
Stated Turnaround Time: Excellent – 48 Hours
Public Sector Experience: None found.
From all of the traditional cover letter writing services available in Australia – I like this one the best.
Nicole has a clear, simple structure for her cover letter writing services that aren’t nearly as expensive as some of the others the list.
Here are the prices in 2025:
- $199 for writing a government application addressing selection criteria – with a max of two pages.
- $299 extra for a resume to go along with the application.
- $399 total for the package that includes: Selection Criteria, Cover Letter and Resume
It appears only the last option includes a cover letter. But, if you use my free public sector cover letter template, and follow my advice on how to write your own cover letter, you might only need help from Nicole with the selection criteria. For $199 you might be able to do most of it yourself, and get a professional touch on the two page selection criteria. This would be a good approach for some jobs, as long as the two pages is sufficient for your application (check your job ad carefully).
Nicole turns around these services in 48 hours – which is leading the pack compared to those below.
From reviewing everything on her website, plus looking around on LinkedIn, I couldn’t confirm that Nicole had direct experience in government jobs.
Three: PSCareers – Expensive Options But With The Right Experience
Price: Expensive
Stated Turnaround Time: Up to 7 Days
Direct Public Sector Experience: Yes
PSCareers are offering a lot of options to candidates that want to get into the Australian Public Service (APS). This ranges from cover letters to online interview courses.
From their website, they have a good understanding of government recruitment, including some staff with direct experience in the APS. And clearly from this website they are all in on helping people find their role in the APS (for a pretty surprising fee).
They don’t appear to have state government experience, evidenced by an outdated table comparing NSW pay grades to the APS.
I found their pricing a little hard to follow, but let me try to do it justice and simplify it.
They have different rates based on what level you are applying for.
For example, the cost of an application which includes responses to selection criteria (no page limit noted) and an updated CV:
- $449 for APS3 and APS4 application pack
- $699 for APS5 and APS6 applications
- $999 for EL1 and EL2 level applications.
If people are paying this much, well, good for PSCareers I guess. It is prohibitively expensive if you need to apply for multiple roles.
The turn around time was listed as being 5 to 7 days. Waiting 7 days for your selection criteria can be fine if you’ve got plenty of time to apply. I couldn’t see any option for this to be done quicker.
Four: ResumesToImpress – Not A Government Recruitment Expert
Price: Expensive
Stated Turnaround Time: 7 Days with a $200 express fee for 24 hours
Direct Public Sector Experience: Not Found
The list starts to really have some issues here.
So as the names suggests, ResumesToImpress are focused on writing your resumes. Their sub-heading on their home page is “all roles for all industries”. This tells you they aren’t focused just on government applications.
The pricing, like some others, is different depending on the level of role you are applying for.
As this service website doesn’t focus just on public sector roles, it is hard to determine when you might get charged the entry level rate compared to the ‘mid-career’ rate.
Lets look at the entry level package. For $249 you get an updated, professional resume in a word document for up to four pages. Need a cover letter? Of course you do, you’re applying for government roles. Cover letters cost an extra $99.
If you are applying for a ‘mid-career’ role (I’m not sure what that is), the cost is $349 for the resumes, plus the $99 extra for your cover letter.
The standard turnaround time is 7 days, but you can get it faster (within 24 hours) for an extra $200. This brings the price range for your cover letter to be between $348, up to $648 for the mid-career roles with a 24 hours turnaround.
And then I found the selection criteria writing offer. Here the cost for nearly all government job selection criteria writing (from APS2 and above) is $299 for page one, and $100 for any additional pages.
If you need to apply for a mid-level role, and buy the resume, cover letter, and two pages of selection criteria, hand over $847.
But the cost isn’t the most alarming point here. In exchange for your $800 or more, you’re getting to apply for one job, with the help of a team that doesn’t focus on government recruitment.
If you’ve read all my advice on government jobs – you know this is a red flag. Paying someone who isn’t an expert in government jobs to write your cover letter is throwing away money.
Five: ResumesToYou – Another Generalist Service
Price: Average
Stated Turnaround Time: Up to 10 days, with a $99 express fee for 24 to 48 hours
Direct Public Sector Experience: Not Found
These packages from ResumesToYou have some issues.
Firstly, they aren’t experts in government applications. They’ve listed government applications as one of over 20 industries they work in. And it shows. Also, they have a clear link to a guide on how to address selection criteria in 2025, which was posted in 2021.
But that hasn’t stopped them from listing their ‘Government Application Writing Services’.
I found this page a little confusing, but here is what it offers:
- Two target questions $189
- Cover letter including two target questions for $271
- A 1000 word statement (I assume an APS applicant pitch) for $262
The stated turnaround time is up to 10 days, and you can pay $99 extra for an express service which is stated to be 24 to 48 hours.
Six: Rev-up Your Resume – Confusing costs
Price: Average
Stated Turnaround Time: Up to 3 days for cover letter
Direct Public Sector Experience: Not Clear
I couldn’t clearly understand this service offering for government roles specifically. Every option I clicked seem to take me back to the same order page, which had the same rate for cover letters.
On that basis, a cover letter would cost:
- $88 for up to 500 word cover letter. There is an additional fee of $58 for every succeeding 500 words.
However, I then clicked the “Tick if government application” and the fee shot up to $262 for the cost of the cover letter.
And then there were more add-ons to consider:
- A 500 to 1000 word statement of claims or applicant pitch: $146
- Expression of interest: $146
- Selection Criteria: $38 per criteria
Overall I found this all a bit confusing, but I did end up finding that they also offer reviews of your applicant pitch for $88. I understood that this was only for APS Applicant Pitches, not cover letters, target questions, and other parts of your application (which I include in my government cover letter review for $29).
Although they offer services for government applicants, I don’t think they are specialists. They seem to write for all industies, and even world-wide including ” across Australia, UK, US, Asia, and Middle East.”
The turn around time was reasonable, up to 3 days.
Seven: 1300 Resumes and Government Resumes
Price: Expensive
Stated Turnaround Time: Not clear – but pay extra $120 to get it in 3days
Direct Public Sector Experience: Deceptive
If you’re looking for a pure dedicated government cover letter writing service you might think that you’ve found the one here. The Government Resumes site has lots APS and government hiring content on it. But this is a mask. Its operated by 1300 Resumes – who do expensive cover letters for every industry.
How expensive? Look at the entry level options:
- Professional CV with a one page cover letter for $499.
- A single two page government cover letter is $350.
And add on another $100 for any applications to roles above “mid-level”.
I couldn’t find the standard turnaround time for this service, but you can pay an extra $120 to have it in 3 days.
I don’t believe that this team have any direct experience working in the public sector. In fact, I really found it quite misleading how they have a dedicated site for government job applications, with lots of pages for different areas of support, but it all flows back to the same service. See for yourself and compare the pages on GovernmentResumes with the 1300Resumes site.
Choosing A Cover Letter Writing Service
Use this information to help you find the right cover letter service for your needs. Working with a professional cover letter writer can significantly improve your chances of securing an interview by ensuring your application stands out.
I believe my approach—offering low-cost, fast, and effective cover letter reviews—will help people take the next step toward their dream job. However, I encourage you to do your own research, compare options, and see what works best for you.
Bonus: How To Avoid All Costs
If you find all of these prices a little too steep, or you just want full control over your government cover letter and application, you can write it yourself!
To help, subscribe to Team 3Thirty for free advice on how to write a winning government cover letter. Plus, you can use this free government cover letter template to get started. This is my own template that I have personally used to successfully apply for government job.
