Number One Resume Mistake – No Cover Letter
03. Sep, 2008 
3 Comments
The biggest mistake job hunters make is to not send a cover letter. Why? Because hiring managers may receive hundreds of resumes for any given job posting and a well-written cover letter is your best way to stand out. Also, in most cases, hiring managers expect to see a cover letter, and resumes that arrive without one are often not considered.
While your resume should be written to compel the reader to pick up the phone to schedule an interview with you, your cover letter should inspire them to read your resume. So, the process of getting the job starts with your cover letter. In fact, an exceptional cover letter may be all that’s needed to prompt the hiring manager to call you.
A good cover letter is subtle ad copy. It’s an opportunity to go more in-depth about the product you’re promoting – you – by offering more detail than what appears in your resume. Focus on your experiences and achievements that can benefit the prospective employer. Grab the reader’s attention from the first sentence and show them what you can do for them. Your cover letter is NOT the place to talk about how they or the job can help you, or to make demands of any kind.
Your resume is a good synopsis of your history and achievements, but the cover letter is where you introduce yourself and give some insight into you, the person. Here’s where you display something of your personality, passion and desire for that job. Use a professional tone but be yourself. Show off your dynamic personality as well as your skills and experience.
A form cover letter, or one you bang out quickly without much thought, is not going to have the desired effect. Take your time and craft your cover letter so it is specifically addresses the needs of the employer for the position you’re applying to. In other words, carefully determine what the employer needs and emphasize the points that make you the ideal candidate for that job. In the process you’ll be showing off your analytical skills, as well as your communication and writing skills.
Keep in mind that a poorly written or mistake-filled cover letter is likely to do you more harm than good. Many hiring managers will completely disregard a job applicant whose cover letter has even one typo or grammatical error.
If the job posting, or a prospective employer, says a cover letter is not necessary (or specifies not to include one) then don’t include a cover letter. Otherwise, you’ll be seen as someone who can’t follow instructions. Other than that, include a job-specific cover letter with every resume you submit.
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I believe this is very true, its getting harder and harder for people to find a good job, all the while employers are struggling to find good help. Cover letters work all the way around
this is a common piece of advice, but it ignores the reality that the majority of job listings provide no data about the company and many have websites which also provide no useful information for the purposes of a “meaningful” cover letter. the unemployed must submit 20-30 applications a week to not be disqualified from benefits and its unrealistic to expect them to go to the library or otherwise mine data on that many companies.
Using a cover letter is not a black and white issue. It is good to use them & critical to direct each one to a specific hiring manager. The issue is that you may never know who that person is UNTIL you get an interview. At that point, bring a hard copy of your resume’ with that well-crafted cover letter. Understand this can help or harm you depending on the hiring practices and interview procedure. It is difficult to do this when most jobs require an online job application and do not reveal who the hiring manager let alone the company is. Most jobs are not direct hires, but through agencies. This is where networking is a high value. When your recruiter knows you and you know them, you can provide the appropriate information through your network contacts.