The (Dreaded?) Cover Letter
By Soozy G. Miller, CPRW, CDCC, CDP
The cover letter is absolutely the most talked about topic in the career services field. It is hotly debated. It is a very polarizing issue.
I once watched an interview with an internationally known executive career coach.
At one point, the interviewer said, “Now we’re going to talk about the dreaded topic, cover letters.”
The coach’s reply was to smile and giggle and say, “Oh no! Please don’t ask me about cover letters!”
Professional resume writers and career coaches say that they either love cover letters and encourage their clients to keep using them, or hate cover letters and wish they would go away. I’m in the latter camp. I hate cover letters. I think they’re worthless and useless.
The funny thing is, historically speaking, the cover letter was the original resume. Way back when, if you wanted a job, like an apprenticeship, you would write a letter to a company requesting employment.
But now, only about 50% of applications call for a cover letter. I believe Google has completely stopped asking for cover letters. FYI, if the company does not ask for a cover letter, don’t send one. It means that they don’t want to see one. And don’t try to get around this by attaching your cover letter to your resume in one big document. That is a turnoff.
When I’m playing recruiter, I don’t want to see a cover letter, because the resume tells me everything that I initially need to know. And when resumes are badly written, cover letters are usually worse. But that’s also because nobody knows how to write a good, enticing, effective cover letter, so they’re often off-putting (to say the least!) and they actually detract from the person’s application.
But as little as I enjoy cover letters, some companies still want to see them. Somehow some recruiters think that the cover letter is a great way to get to know the candidate. Maybe the thinking is the more writing they see from someone, the more they will get the know the person. They also use the cover letter as a means to reduce their applicant pile; as in, we made it an option to see who puts in that extra effort. This means they do not necessarily read the cover letter.
I think that this is flawed logic because people think that they need to write about their entire lives to sell themselves in the cover letter. And they end up disqualifying themselves because no one on the hiring team wants to read about your passion for metallic engineering since you were 6 years old.
So you really want to be careful with the cover letter. As much as I don’t enjoy writing them, apparently they do a serve purpose for hiring teams, and they are an asset when they are well-written.
What does well-written mean?
Lots of white space
One or two short-sentence paragraphs at the top, explaining how you can address the company’s needs as outlined in the job posting
Three bullet point accomplishments/value-add statements taken from your resume that address the needs of the company
One final paragraph thanking the company for taking the time to read the cover letter and resume
That’s it. Plain, simple, and to the point.
Don’t think of the cover letter as another way to sell yourself. Think of it as a way to get the hiring team excited about the resume. The cover letter is a preview document, that’s it. At its best, the cover letter simply encourages the hiring team to check out your resume.
Stop trying to connect with the hiring team by writing about how much you love roses or that you’re the fifth generation in your family in the industry. Make life easier for the hiring team and get to the point. You have the skills, tools, and expertise to do the job – give them a taste of that in the cover letter!
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Better job. More pay. More control.
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