The Cover Letter

This may be unpopular but I very rarely ever read the cover letter when I was recruiting for roles. The reason?

I generally found them to be a rewording of the resume which I already had in my hand. That being said, I would reference them if there was a question the resume couldn’t answer. For example, a large gap in between roles or someone completely changing career paths. Then the cover letter served a great purpose in revealing answers to the “why?”

I understand that some companies make it mandatory to add a cover letter and if that’s the case, create something concise yet detailed as it relates to your interest in the role and why your background aligns well with what they are looking for. Be sure to connect the dots for the reader, don’t have them try and figure it out. The goals is to have a clean, easy to understand document that explains why they should reach out to you.

I don’t believe you need to spend a great deal of time on these. More time should be devoted to the resume where you can highlight impact not just tasks and responsibilities. In addition to effectively prepping for interviews and relationship building and maintaining.