What do you think about “Cover letters” in a job search?

In a recent workshop, a participant commented: “I find cover letters useless. Should we even bother including them?”

My response –

Cover letters are useless because people write ‘useless’ cover letters

– Most of them are generic where people just change the name of companies and copy-paste the exact same thing

– Long description of their suitability for a role – a very “Me” focused approach

– If you don’t spend more than 5 mins on your cover letters, you can’t expect them to do magic.

So, how can you write impactful cover letters?

Let me give you a simple structure:

Paragraph 1:

Talk about why the company is “uniquely” special to you. Not copy paste their vision/ values from the website.

– It could be a personal story of association

– It could be a project they are doing currently

– It could be their plan for the next 3-5 years

Paragraph 2:

Top 3 things you have done so far that make you a suitable candidate. You can even use bullet points here to make it an easy read

Paragraph 3:

Your motivation for this particular role.

Here, you need to read the job description carefully to highlight what part of the role and responsibilities appealed to you. Not what you can do, but what gets you excited.

And as always have realistic expectations – about 10% of recruiters read cover letters. But it makes immense difference to the ones who do.

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