Do you think Cover Letters are a waste of time?

[Bumperstump Cummerbund]

I'm job seeking at the moment, pretty full on - applied for 30 jobs last week alone!

Something that's starting to bug me though, are the ads that require cover letters. I guess I feel that the stuff you'd put in a cover letter would be covered at the interview. The way I see it, the CV gets you through the door, because first off, they wanna know your experience. Then the phone interview, where they're judging your phone skills and general conversational abilities. Then, if you get through that, the in person interview, where they judge you by how well you present yourself. I don't see why a CV is necessary.

Not to mention, all the major seeker sites have apps these days, and while you can store a CV, you can't exactly store a cover letter, it doesn't work.

Thoughts?

[Doing my best]

I think cover letters are very valuable. You are drawing attention to the points in your CV that the employer wants to see.

Reason you can't store them the same as a CV is that they are supposed to be taylored to the job you are applying for.

ETA - when I was going through resumes, the ones that didn't have a cover letter showing the specific experience I was after didn't get a look in, unless I didn't have enough candidates, or was feeling generous. If you can't answer what I want in a cover letter, it makes me think you aren't really that interested in doing what I require for the job.

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

Absolutely not. Cover letters are vital. I look at the job description and highlight how I fit their person spec. So the job wants someone to develop KS3: my CV will say that I taught and planned KS3 - my cover letter says how I helped the team develop KS3 and the way we changed the focus of the lessons.

The cover letter is to say "yes, I can do the job". It shows you pay attention to the person spec. It proves your written communication skills. The interviews are to check you weren't lying and will fit in with the team.

Cover letters can be short: in fact, with speculative applications, I have a set cover letter. It's a mailmerge and I have a field for "extra stuff" so I can tailor the letter to the school and still send 20 letters a day.

[Bumperstump Cummerbund]

I realise why you can't store a cover letter DMB, that kinda highlights what I'm saying though - to do a proper, thorough cover letter is a fair amount of work when chances are, you won't get the job, you may not even get an interview. The CV is supposed to get me in the door, and then I'm supposed to sell myself. I've spoken to recruitment agents who don't even read the letters, they just wanna see if the applicant can follow instructions. Considering how much effort I have put into cover letters in the past, I find that offensive and quite discouraging - why is my time any less viable than theirs?

[Sopdet]

Cover letter essential. You take the key duties for the position & in the cover letter demonstrate how you meet them. Recruiters don't have time to search through a multitude of CVs formatted in many ways to see if you have the skills they want.

I have a few cover letters that I cut and paste from dependent on what skills they want.

[Teeki]

For me, the cover letter determines whether or not your resume is looked at. The employer wants to know that you understand the job and the organisation, and why they should interview you. In my experience, a well– written cover letter gets across a lot more about you a person than a resume, which tends to be dot points following a pretty standard format.

[nothing2lose]

I won't look at applicants that don't have a cover letter that addresses some of the aspects of the position.

[LimeSlice]

The CV gets you on the desk, the cover letter gets you in the room, and your interview gets you the job.
Your CV really should be as brief as possible, while the cover letter allows you to address some specifics more directly. It's purpose is to make the employer want to even read your CV, rather than skim it.

My sister was a recruiter for many years - if you didn't have a cover letter, you didn't make her cut, let alone the employer's.

Getting a job takes effort, time, takes selling yourself long before you get to meet anyone. It is about making your piece of paper stand out above all the other pieces of paper. Taking the time to do that is valuable, but if you are looking for a pat on the back from every employer you apply to for taking the time to write a cover letter, you will be sadly disappointed every time.
Keep going and don't take everything so personally. There are probably 50 other people applying for each position you are, and they all can't get personal attention. Doesn't mean you won't get there in the end or that the person on the receiving end doesn't appreciate you took the time to wrote a *proper* application.

[Phteven]

I always ask for a cover letter. It's my first filter. Any resumes that don't have one go straight into the delete folder because I'm the boss and if I ask for a cover letter and you don't bother, it shows me that either you have no attention for detail or you think you don't need to do what I ask or that you don't complete tasks.
Since resumes are often written by third parties a cover letter is also a chance for me to assess someone's ability to comprehend and communicate.

[lady_neon]

I always ask for a cover letter. It's my first filter. Any resumes that don't have one go straight into the delete folder because I'm the boss and if I ask for a cover letter and you don't bother, it shows me that either you have no attention for detail or you think you don't need to do what I ask or that you don't complete tasks.
Since resumes are often written by third parties a cover letter is also a chance for me to assess someone's ability to comprehend and communicate.

This. Even if a cover letter isn't requested in the ad, its still good practice to include anyway.

[Lenny]

I once answered an ad that asked for a handwritten cover letter. They obviously had some very good reasons.
It's a shame that some of your cover letters have not been read, Keike. But at least you did follow the instructions.

[Bumperstump Cummerbund]

Fair enough I guess I'm thinking about it the wrong way, I'll start writing some kick-butt CL's and see where that gets me!

ETA - Lenny, a handwritten one actually makes sense to me, especially in an admin role; of course they need to make sure you're handwriting is legible!

[CQuin]

I think cover letters are very valuable. You are drawing attention to the points in your CV that the employer wants to see.

Reason you can't store them the same as a CV is that they are supposed to be taylored to the job you are applying for.

ETA - when I was going through resumes, the ones that didn't have a cover letter showing the specific experience I was after didn't get a look in, unless I didn't have enough candidates, or was feeling generous. If you can't answer what I want in a cover letter, it makes me think you aren't really that interested in doing what I require for the job.

This is pretty much exactly what i was going to say. When i get a cover letter i see it as the person has taken the time to put effort into applying for the position. It makes it easier to see what parts of a resume are relevant to the position with out having to read every part of the resume (i have never understood the interests section. I personally don't care what a persons outside interests are if they have nothing to do with the position!) You can still make a cover letter sort of generic, especially if you are applying for similar jobs. Just make sure its edited accordingly and double check to make sure you don't leave any info from a previous job in there!

[Chrispe]

As a reasonably intelligent unqualified (i never completed high school) job seeker the fact that I could write a good cover letter got me into more interviews than many who have excellent CVs and poorly written cover letters.