With each passing year, technology is leaping forward and changing our habits, culture, and needs. A cover letter is one of those habits, which is on the edges of to be a lost.
The methods of searching for an employee or employer have been changed. Now recruiters use keywords to grab the right talent and it affected the tradition of adding a cover letter with resume.
Earlier the cover letter used to be an essential part of the resume and every recruiter used to read it. But many recruiters skip reading the cover letter hence job seekers have also stopped including it with their resume.
Now, the question of the need for a cover letter arises. In this post, we will counter this question along with a few other topics related to cover letter, so read this article further to know about this old school practice and its relevance in today’s time.
The Need for Cover Letter
Many recruiters believe that cover letter has become a dead tradition. Well, for initial screening the recruiter may skip the cover letter (not all the recruiters follow this practice) but in the later stage of the interview, the cover letter plays an important role.
Before focusing on the need for a cover letter, first, let me acknowledge some recruiters really put down that MS word paper titled as a cover letter. The reason behind this tendency of recruiters is, the cover letter is considered as an appendage to resume instead of a unique tool.
The cover letter carries the responsibilities to revel your qualities to your future employer so it’s as important as the resume is. It gives a deeper insight of you as a professional rather than your work history and roles and responsibilities you handled in any organization.
If you still follow the practice, write your cover letter based on your professional goals. It should be like a small speech instead of a bunch of dry and informative words. You need to compile your cover letter brilliantly in the first person.
If still, you are not sure to write a cover letter then let me tell you, sometimes a cover letter speaks more than a resume. Your cover letter gives the answer to the crucial question of why you should be hired. In the field of research, cover letters still play a crucial role. So don’t be deceived and go for a cover letter as it still matters.
What to Include in a Cover Letter
Cover letters are influential if written carefully and they leave a positive impact on the reader instantly. Creating effective and original content for a cover letter is not an easy job.
Your resume is an outline of your career which has information about the companies where you have worked or still working. But your cover letter has descriptive information about your expertise, skills, and strength. If confused how to draft a cover letter then let’s know what you should include in your cover letter.
Write a Targeted Cover Letter
The focal point of your cover letter should be to present you as a professional and suitable candidate. Do not make your cover letter a platform to show your skills, you already have your resume for this. Include your experience in this paper and mention how you can use it in a new organization.
Enhance Your Soft Skills
As your resume is your professional document and it shows your professional achievements so, here you don’t get sufficient platform to present your soft skills and the cover letter gives you this opportunity. Highlight your skills such as creative thinking, problem-solving and represent yourself as a team player in your cover letter.
The soft skills are a requirement of every employer in today’s time along with technical knowledge if you will offer them both then you will get an advantage on others.
Explain the Gap
A cover letter is the best place where you can describe the reason for any gap in your career. When a recruiter looks at a resume having a gap between two jobs, then the first question the recruiter throws is about the reason for that gap.
The resume has its own limitation and you cannot mention each and everything there. Use a cover letter to describe it in a better way.
Give a Personal Touch
Your cover letter should address the concerned person in the hiring company. Avoid writing dear sir/ madam in your cover letter, it looks immature.
Try to find out the name of the hiring manager or recruiter of the company and then draft a cover letter by addressing them. If you don’t know the name of the concern person then use LinkedIn or Google to search for the name and still if you could not get it then address the concerned person as Hiring Manager of< Company Name>.
Winding It Up
A cover letter is still relevant for both the job seekers and recruiters. If you feel that no one reads the cover letter, then let me tell you that the Human Resource Department is always keen to know more about you, before they call you for an interview they go through your resume and the cover letter.
Your cover letter has the potential to show all your skills in a descriptive form which you could not represent in resume. So don’t be lazy and do add your cover letter with your resume.
