The Importance of a Covering Letter

I recently checked with a client who – at the start of our project – was as anti-covering-letter as anti-covering-letter gets. She was one of the many people out there who believe that a covering letter is a "throw away" item – something that needs to be done but not very mindfully. Early on, I explained to her the importance of writing a covering letter.

First off, always submit a covering letter (or, as they are called here in the States, a cover letter) with your resume unless a company/organization specifically asks that you only submit a resume. An ideal covering letter can take many forms to be sure, but its main goal should be to motivate the reader to take a closer look at your resume. Moreover, I typically like to see a covering letter that gives the reader a bit more information – some  context that will help them to make further sense of the resume. Oftentimes, a covering letter becomes more important once the list of job candidates has been whittled down. That's when the "extras" that a covering letter provides can make all of the difference.

Back to that client… She let me know that she believes it was ultimately her covering letter that got her a job. Her new employer told her that it expressed a level of interest and sincerity that set her apart from other applicants.

Covering letters are still a big part of the hiring process. So don’t skip them.

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