Dos and Don'ts of Cover Letters

Do I or don't I write a cover letter?  I’ve written posts about cover letters in the past.  There was a rather detailed post  entitled Cover Letter Follies, Part II.  For the life of me, I can’t find Part I!  There are lots of online resources giving advice on How to write a cover letter.  This post is about whether or not you should "bother".

I wrote myself a note a few days ago to write another piece on the importance of cover letters, because for several weeks,   I’ve been seeing very few with candidates’ resumes.  I’ve always been an advocate of the cover letter’s ability to provide an additional dimension of depth and understanding that goes “beyond the resume”.  I see them as complementary.  

I’ve just run into an employment advisor who categorically disagrees with me.  He believes that recruiters, whether in house or third party, just don’t take the time to read a cover letter.  I read that and thought, he means “they won’t take the time”, not “don’t”!  He talks about the huge number of applicants for any position posted online, resulting in a necessarily fast preliminary screening process.  There’s simply no time for reading cover letters.

(I’m inclined to disagree with the notion that there are “so many” applicants for each position.  It depends on the position.  There is not a “talent surplus” in the marketing, there is without questions, a “talent shortage”).

That advisor considers cover letters to be a “distraction”, cutting into the 30 seconds or less the viewer spends reading a resume.  He also contends that cover letters are frequently not even seen, because they are rarely parsed into the ATS (Applicant Tracking System) that all employers and recruiters use.  He’s right about that.  He also says, “If it’s not on the resume, it doesn’t exist”!  He’s only partially right about that.