ea1060 said:

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Cover letters are very outdated in the hiring process these days, no one reads them anymore, but there are still a lot of resources out there that recommend candidates upload one.

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I used to think that too, but over the past 3 years, I've gotten to know two different hiring managers who will not even interview a candidate without a cover letter. In general though, cover letters have definitely been declining as a requirement for some time now.

BayAreaAg02 said:

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Another tip. Try to make yourself standout on your resume on top of the first page. Don't use some generic language that every other candidate uses, list out a whole bunch of keywords or skills, etc. you can do that later on it if you want. That resume is lucky to get 30secs of that manager's time for them to flag it as potential candidate.

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What are some things that you have seen at the top of the first page that made the candidate standout to you?

I have what I believe to be the "generic language" at the top of mine. The "Summary of Qualifications" However, my girlfriend worked at a large recruiting firm for 15 years, and her main role was formatting the resumes for the recruiters' candidates. She would review resume from the candidate, and, based on her knowledge of the hiring manager/their client/the company the resume was going to, take out the fluff (reduce a 10 page resume to 3 or 4 pgs), make sure it had the necessary keywords to make it through said company's portal, proof read for errors, and format it a certain way. Her company's owners wanted every resume that came from them to have the same format so it would be easily recognizable to hiring managers.

Anyway, she re-arranged mine and formatted it the way they do at that recruiting firm. I don't really like the way it looks. I just got into the job market and working on getting my resume spiffed up, so any advice would be appreciated.

Cyprian said:

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ea1060 said:

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Cover letters are very outdated in the hiring process these days, no one reads them anymore, but there are still a lot of resources out there that recommend candidates upload one.

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I used to think that too, but over the past 3 years, I've gotten to know two different hiring managers who will not even interview a candidate without a cover letter. In general though, cover letters have definitely been declining as a requirement for some time now.

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I don't doubt there are old-school managers out there like this, but Ive been recruiting for over a decade, and have worked for various companies and hundreds of hiring managers. Not one has ever read a cover letter or requested them. Most managers or recruiters dont have time to read through dozens (or more) of cover letters per job posting.

I think if a candidate has a generic cover letter already written up then its fine to attach it to applications, but its most likely a waste of time to tailor fit the cover letter to every single company.