Cover Letters

MSN had an article discussing whether or not a cover letter is important for job applicants. You can read it here. Do HR people really read them?

My best answer is that most of us will..sort of. But if you don’t submit one, we will definitely think less of you. Here is my take:

Will I read a cover letter all the way through before looking at a résumé? Probably not. But I will read it if something on the résumé strikes me as odd. Like if you had a break in employment – a cover letter is a great tool to explain where you’re coming from. Like:

“For the last three years, I have been out of the country with my family while my wife was working an overseas assignment. While unemployed, I spent the time by….and kept up with the industry by…” Can you find a way to make that experience sell you as a better employee?

Or if you are changing fields and are willing to consider a “lower level” position in order to begin a new career. Use the cover letter to explain.

My favorite point from the article:

“The more personal the letter is to our business, the better. You wouldn't believe how many times we've seen letters that are glaringly obvious canned messages," Renzi muses. "Sometimes candidates even leave in other companies' names or positions." “

Or the title of the position is incorrect. Or the source of the referral is incorrect. Spend the time on each cover letter.

Recently, I read a cover letter where the applicant listed all of the requirements I placed in the posting, in bulleted form, and wrote a sentence on how she met the requirements. I had never seen that before and it won points with me.

So how important is it to win points with HR? Depends on the company, depends on the HR professional. In my company, it depends on whether the hiring manager cares what I think. Some really want my guidance and some want to handle it all themselves. In some companies, if HR doesn’t like it, the résumé goes no further. And yes, there are HR people that will not let one pass if a word is misspelled.

It doesn’t require very much time to take the process seriously. So take it seriously. And no phone calls, please.