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Do cover letters actually help?

4,628 Views | 28 Replies | Last: 3 yr ago by one MEEN Ag
aggieman00
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I was recently laid off due to covid and have been applying to quite a few jobs, and I have added a cover letter to 95% of the jobs I apply to.

Do they actually help? Do hiring managers look at them?

They're not hard to make one then tailor it for each position applied for. I'm just curious if it's a waste of time or actually something useful.
500,000ags
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AG
Try a small profile section on your resume with 3-4 sentences. I've had some people say third person is best. The idea is to get the job keywords on your resume so it is picked by the applicant screening software as a potential match.
ktownag08
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AG
This is an interesting one. I'm sure everybody has a different experience but more often than not it hurts the candidate more than helps.

I typically see one provided when a candidate is looking to provide context as to why they applied in the first place (industry change, etc).
Astroag
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AG
Don't waste your time...
Texker
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AG
I wouldn't submit a cover letter unless the post specifically asks for one.
78bc3
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AG
Several perspectives to help you best present "Product You".

Apply to comply. Network to get work. send resume and cover letter to comply with their hiring process, but don't rely on any system to get your resume in front of a hiring manager or anyone on their Team. Use our networking tools to find and connect with Team members looking for someone to own that pile of work they don't want to perform because they are focused on their deliverables.

I use a cover letter every time (template provided on page 17 of the link below).It is not a typical cover letter.
I know 1/2 of covers are immediately tossed.
1/4 will kinda be looked at.
But that last 25% will be read---- by the managers you want to work with--- Because they IMMEDIATELY see something different in the way you approach them. They want to know who you are and why they can trust and depend on you. They will read this different cover letter which is focused on their needs not your self promotion. Use your cover letter to introduce them to your story - an overview of why/how you prepared for that pile of work for which they are concerned.
This Answer Guide may be helpful. Our webinars may be as well...
Job Search Resource and Workbook for Former Students
http://careercenter.tamu.edu/Documents/Handouts/Answer-Book-for-Former-Students-(2016-revised).aspx
Paul Pausky BC3 '78
AggieOO
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78bc3 said:

I use a cover letter every time (template provided on page 17 of the link below).It is not a typical cover letter.

Maybe its just me, but the details of the cover letter on page 17 look exactly like a typical cover letter. Perhaps I'm missing something.
78bc3
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AG
I may need to refine the introduction to the template. Thank you for the feedback.
The vast majority of cover letters I read start with the applicant restating the job they are applying for or telling the reader about the exciting or challenging opportunity they want.

We promote starting from a referral when possible, investing effort to secure one through informational Interviews if you don't have one. If you do not have a referral, consider identifying what you have learned about their organization, strategy or core business that compels you to want to be a part of their team. (Example: While researching your company, I am learning about the industry leading work you are performing by focusing on reducing rework in your drive train manufacturing process.) This takes serious research.

This cover letter strategy is focused on their Team and Their needs.
Some naysayers will say they see right through that strategy; which are represented in the 1/4 recipients mentioned in the initial post. But the key 25% appreciate the fact that the interested prospect did their homework and actually invested time trying to understand the the needs of their Team. It is an indicator you will show up at a meeting prepared and ready to get to work.
Notice the close doesn't confirm you are the perfect fit for the job. It focuses on your commitment to understand and work to meet their needs.
Paul Pausky BC3 '78
Petrino1
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IMO they are a waste of time. I am in Talent Acquisition, and sometimes we have to review 100 applicants for one position. There is no way we are reading every single cover letter. Typically the qualified resumes will get sent to the hiring manager without the cover letter attached.
78bc3
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AG
understood.
This Is why I encourage Aggies in transition, especially if working to transition from one path to a different career path, to apply to comply (respect the process) but network to get work (but don't depend on the screening process). And ALWAYS focus on the needs of the Hiring Manager
Paul Pausky BC3 '78
texan12
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ea1060 said:

IMO they are a waste of time. I am in Talent Acquisition, and sometimes we have to review 100 applicants for one position. There is no way we are reading every single cover letter. Typically the qualified resumes will get sent to the hiring manager without the cover letter attached.


Do you think the hiring process is antiquated? To review 100 applicants for one job seems too time consuming. Why don't companies draft questionnaires or use some other metric in order to find the person that fits what they are looking for?
Ulrich
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texan12 said:

ea1060 said:

IMO they are a waste of time. I am in Talent Acquisition, and sometimes we have to review 100 applicants for one position. There is no way we are reading every single cover letter. Typically the qualified resumes will get sent to the hiring manager without the cover letter attached.


Do you think the hiring process is antiquated? To review 100 applicants for one job seems too time consuming. Why don't companies draft questionnaires or use some other metric in order to find the person that fits what they are looking for?

As a hiring manager, here is my process:

I'll give TA a fairly loose set of requirements, and I only want them to screen on the measurable ones. No judgment calls, I want to see lots of resumes.

My first review only takes a few seconds per resume.

That probably sounds a little weird: send me tons of resumes that I'll barely look at. But there are specific things I'm looking for that don't seem to be easy to communicate to TA. I have functional experience that TA rarely does, so I am getting more information from the same resume and hopefully making better accept/reject decisions.

The resulting "keep" stack is pretty small and gets a closer look, ~5 minutes per resume for a second winnowing process. Once I've got 3-5 solid resumes I'll schedule interviews. Prior to the interview I spend up to 15 minutes preparing a set of interview questions.

Those questions can be divided into three categories: things I ask everyone (personality/fit and general cognitive ability), questions based on the job (specific skills and talents), and questions based on the resume (validate experience).

I do not ask for cover letters. If I had them I would probably not be able to help myself from looking at them during interview prep, but I'm not sure what they add that I won't figure out from the resume or interview.
Ulrich
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As a job applicant, I usually do not provide a cover letter even if it is requested. This is probably bad strategy.
Vernada
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AG
Hiring manager here.

Yes, a cover letter helps - esp if your resume doesn't exactly line up with the job (ie maybe different industry experience)... or if you list a different city from where the job is.

I'm not looking for a lot of detail, but just some explanation for why you applied to the job.

Note - this is only if your resume doesn't line up all that well or if you are applying to jobs in a different geographic area... I need you to give me some reason to call you.
Frok
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AG
I write them every time although I don't know if they help or not.
AggieBarstool
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As a manager who makes hiring decisions, I can say that a cover letter can absolutely set you apart as a candidate (both good and bad) and should not be overlooked.

For the love of god, tailor the letter to the company, position, and your value-add to the team. I don't care that your a "<insert some boring adjective here> looking to <insert some generic garbage goal here>."
78bc3
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AggieBarstool said:

As a manager who makes hiring decisions, I can say that a cover letter can absolutely set you apart as a candidate (both good and bad) and should not be overlooked.

For the love of god, tailor the letter to the company, position, and your value-add to the team. I don't care that your a "<insert some boring adjective here> looking to <insert some generic garbage goal here>."
Would it be fair to say that managers are more focused on the needs of their Team, than what the job seeker is looking for..
Are you more concerned about the pile of work that is causing your folks to double up to keep up; than your concern for someone looking for a paycheck.
Paul Pausky BC3 '78
Ulrich
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78bc3 said:

AggieBarstool said:

As a manager who makes hiring decisions, I can say that a cover letter can absolutely set you apart as a candidate (both good and bad) and should not be overlooked.

For the love of god, tailor the letter to the company, position, and your value-add to the team. I don't care that your a "<insert some boring adjective here> looking to <insert some generic garbage goal here>."
Would it be fair to say that managers are more focused on the needs of their Team, than what the job seeker is looking for..
Are you more concerned about the pile of work that is causing your folks to double up to keep up; than your concern for someone looking for a paycheck.

I don't want to speak for him, but I'll post my response. (It went off the rails but I still think there's some useful stuff in there for job applicants and early career folks)

I see a cover letter as potentially doing three things:

1. Convey enthusiasm for the position. But this is something I dedicate time to in the interviews. It's easy to fake when you've got time to craft, much harder when I hit the same thing from 2-3 oblique angles during a live interview. So the cover letter is redundant and less effective than the other method.

2. Be a writing sample. But how you write with infinite time and huge consequences doesn't tell me all that much about how you'll write on the job. Besides, even with many ESL colleagues I've never had to deal with someone who COULDN'T write well. Motivation has occasionally been a question.

3. Are they qualified. This is redundant though. The resume does that, and the interview checks for BS in the resume.


If someone has a generic objective about wanting a job, that's a negative to me (you applied, I already know you want a job, why are you wasting space). If someone is really specific about what they want to get out of the job, that's a benefit. If the person is really specific about where the job will take them, we're back to a red flag again.

For example: I asked a candidate what he wanted to get out of the role. He spent a lot of time talking about exposure to executives and how it would make him more qualified for some different jobs. I recommended we reject him because he wanted the job as a stepping stone.

He was offered anyway, proceeded to slowplay us, and eventually took a different job where he underperformed and left after a few months. He wants to advance, but he never tries hard enough to get good at what he's doing so he's a 30-year old junior analyst.

Those people never take work off my plate because I have to check everything in exquisite detail. I'd rather just do it myself.

My best employee ever wasn't quick on his feet in conversation and didn't have the best resume, but he worked hard, took feedback to heart, was careful and smart, and if he said he would do something he did it no matter what it took.

My best hire ever didn't have relevant experience coming in, but he knew his old job inside and out. When i asked what he wanted out of the job, he talked about specific skills and knowledge, not where it might take him next. He applied himself and successfully pivoted his career.

My worst hire was great on paper and super smart, but for complicated reasons I hired him in spite of red flags about work ethic and motivation.
AggieBarstool
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78bc3 said:

AggieBarstool said:

As a manager who makes hiring decisions, I can say that a cover letter can absolutely set you apart as a candidate (both good and bad) and should not be overlooked.

For the love of god, tailor the letter to the company, position, and your value-add to the team. I don't care that your a "<insert some boring adjective here> looking to <insert some generic garbage goal here>."
Would it be fair to say that managers are more focused on the needs of their Team, than what the job seeker is looking for..
Are you more concerned about the pile of work that is causing your folks to double up to keep up; than your concern for someone looking for a paycheck.
Both... and neither? Hard to nail this one in a succinct answer.

When I look at cover letters, I want to see a little bit of your personality expressed in the form of what you can bring to the job. Don't regurgitate what you've already told me on the application and resume; I can read all that. Your cover letter is a place to use free-form writing to highlight a particular skill or passion, describe a major success at a previous job, or otherwise sell yourself. If all I see is a boilerplate cover letter, chances are the rest of your application looks the same. You end up in the bottom of the pile, even if you have the skillset and perseverance to be a perfect fit.
bmks270
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AG
Okay, for those making hiring decisions, do you rule out any candidates because they don't have a cover letter?
78bc3
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Guidance many people read or hear indicates that cover letters do not make a difference.
So I would approach your question from a different perspective.
I anticipate that someone making the extra effort to write a cover letter, will be more willing to deliver the extra thought and work to exceed my expectations, and our Customer's expectations.
Paul Pausky BC3 '78
one MEEN Ag
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Looks like there's no one size fits all answer here, but reading the remarks here it lines up that a well written cover letter never hurts you, but not having one certainly can. But you'd never know it because your resume got thrown in the trash before even getting an initial phone call.

My two cents are that the only cover letter worth writing is a T-Chart cover letter. You take the job posting, simplify the 'hiring needs' into one column, and then put EXACTLY how you fit those needs in the other column. Refer to things on your resume.

One of my jobs that I applied to years ago had a line like this, "2 years experience in using uncertainty bracketing and modelling"

So my cover letter had this on it

Requirements
2 Years experience in uncertainty bracketing and modelling | -Built uncertainty models for company X
that accomplished Y returns
-Experience using Co-Kriging Methods

My resume was always chronological with job titles, responsibilities, wow-factor things I did, etc. But my cover letter pulled all the puzzle pieces together for the hiring manager to see how my experiences would fill their needs.

it worked incredibly well, especially when I could find the name of the hiring manager and send everything to them directly as well as apply online. I never not got a call back if I wrote that style of cover letter and had someone hand it off directly to the hiring manager for me.

Now as I've progress in my career, I face a different challenge. Every hiring manager wants direct engineering experience in the exact product line they work on. Which basically means there's around 20 people in the city I work in that do this exact job. And most of them are tied up in some form of noncompete agreement. But the hiring managers still want to only hire those guys. So they search for the unicorn whose old enough to not have signed a noncompete and then try to get them on the cheap. There's two brilliant PhDs I work with that would probably struggle to be hired outside of this industry, but if a competitor came calling they could be a huge asset. Noncompete agreements keep them underpaid and under wraps.
AggieBarstool
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bmks270 said:

Okay, for those making hiring decisions, do you rule out any candidates because they don't have a cover letter?
Eh, sometimes.

If your resume / application are good enough to stand on your own, a lack of a cover letter won't automatically disqualify you.

If your materials are average, a cover letter can make or break your application. I could go either way.

I even had an applicant that was "meh" in his resume but really sold himself in his cover letter and ended up as an outstanding interviewee... and got the job.
AggieBarstool
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one MEEN Ag said:

My two cents are that the only cover letter worth writing is a T-Chart cover letter. You take the job posting, simplify the 'hiring needs' into one column, and then put EXACTLY how you fit those needs in the other column. Refer to things on your resume.

One of my jobs that I applied to years ago had a line like this, "2 years experience in using uncertainty bracketing and modelling"

So my cover letter had this on it

Requirements
2 Years experience in uncertainty bracketing and modelling | -Built uncertainty models for company X
that accomplished Y returns
-Experience using Co-Kriging Methods

My resume was always chronological with job titles, responsibilities, wow-factor things I did, etc. But my cover letter pulled all the puzzle pieces together for the hiring manager to see how my experiences would fill their needs.
This is how it's done!
JobSecurity
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AG
I'd never even heard of a t chart cover letter, so I really appreciate this. I've never sent in a cover letter with a job application but I can see how this would really help you to stand out. I'll start doing this for sure!

I was doing something similar by formatting my resume to match job descriptions but this method works much better and gives me more room to highlight specific things on the resume
one MEEN Ag
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AG
ThunderCougarFalconBird
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My practice is extremely niche. Cover letter isn't really necessary to communicate anything I don't already know. There is a handful of stuff you'll have done and you'll know.
BetsyParker
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AG
A T-Letter is the way to go. Google it and you'll find examples.
aggieman00
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I just wanted to stop in and say thanks to everyone who contributed on this discussion.

I just accepted an offer and wanted to say the hiring manager that first contacted me said that I had good experience and matched what they were looking for, but the T Cover letter I included really caught his attention and he liked it.

For what it's worth
one MEEN Ag
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AG
Boom.

Glad to hear it!
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