Will Your Cover Letter Be Read? Discover 3 Cover Letter Secrets That Recruiters Don't Tell You

Job seekers often ask questions about how to write a cover letter and its importance when developing a job search marketing campaign. While cover letters are expected and important, there are three secrets about them that internal company recruiters know that they don't share with you:

Secret #1:  Recruiters (and hiring managers) seldom read cover letters.

The reason?  Recruiters, especially in mid-size to large companies, are extremely busy managing the entire end-to-end recruiting process for multiple jobs at a time, each with hundreds upon hundreds of resume and cover letter submissions. Hiring managers are extremely busy managing their teams, department and their business. There is no time for either recruiters or hiring managers to review every single resume submission, much less every cover letter.  Additionally, legal requirements prohibit many company recruiters from opening and reviewing unsolicited resumes and associated cover letters.

Exception: Hiring managers often directly receive cover letters with attached resumes via email, mail or sometimes even hand delivered.  They usually come from someone the manager knows or from a referral inside or outside the company.  Even though they may quickly view (scan) them, hiring managers forward those resumes and cover letters directly to the recruiter to include in their overall screening and recruiting process. This is done for convenience as well as legal reasons.

Cover letters serve several important functions:

• To introduce your resume and explain which job you are applying for and why (your objective).
• To quickly capture the reader's attention and provide additional critical information about your skills, experience, accomplishments, requirements or situation not already on your resume
• To augment your resume in further helping to market and sell yourself as the "candidate of choice" to a recruiter or hiring manager.
• To ask the reader to take some sort of action, such as asking them to consider you for an interview or to contact you for further discussion.

To find qualified resumes, recruiters use sophisticated tools and techniques to conduct system database, keyword and various other online searches.  Resumes (with attached cover letters) that make it through the recruiter's initial search and screening process are then put into "maybe" or "yes" stacks to later narrow down to a select few.

Secret #2:  Recruiters visually scan selected cover letters for only about 15 seconds each.

At this point, the recruiter visually scans each cover letter of the top selected resumes.  Within a few seconds, they can quickly identify important additional information and discern any potential issues or concerns.  This helps them make a decision to either follow up with a pre-screen conversation or to pass and move on to another applicant's resume. 

Recruiters look for the following information in cover letters:

• Referrals:  If someone referred you for the position, listing their name(s) at the very beginning of your cover letter can greatly increase the odds that your resume will be reviewed by the recruiter and hiring manager.  NOTE: Referrals with the most impact tend to be those who are a professional acquaintance or a personal friend of the hiring manager, one of his/her respected team members, a company executive or senior manager.  Other valued referrals include highly credible and recognized professionals who are well-known within the company or industry.

• Written communication skills: Misspelling and poor grammar can cause a recruiter to immediately reject the cover letter and the attached resume. Reason? A determination is quickly made that the applicant lacks the necessary written (and most likely verbal) communication skills; this is especially critical for positions at management and senior levels.

• Additional information: Highlights of a few major job-related accomplishments, achievements or awards, projects, critical knowledge, skills, experience, or expertise NOT already listed on your resume can generate interest and prompt a more in-depth review.

• Issues or concerns: Unusual salary requirements (if indicated), unique situations or specific comments or requests concerning travel, vacation, or relocation requirements, etc. will be noted and probed by the recruiter during a pre-screen conversation.

Secret #3:  The information in your cover letter can give you an edge in being selected to interview...or not.

During the interview slate selection meeting with the hiring manager, the recruiter shares and discusses each applicant's resume highlights, pre-screen conversation information, and any critical details gleaned from the cover letter.  Those cover letter details can sometimes give the slightest edge to one highly qualified applicant over another when decisions are being made to fill a limited number of interview slots.  So, to increase your odds of being selected to interview, make sure your cover letter is as effective and well-written as possible. 

An effective cover letter should:

• Be as brief, concise and to the point as possible. Respect the reader's time.
• Represent you well in terms of grammar, spelling, punctuation, and overall content.
• Provide one or more names of professional referrals whenever possible.
• Use bullet points to effectively highlight key areas and break up the text for quick and easy reading.
• State specifically the exact position to which you are applying, and exactly when and where you learned about it (date and name of newspaper ad, online job ad, social media site, referral, etc.).
• Include no more than 3 short paragraphs with specific keywords, highlighting additional details concerning your skills, knowledge and experience, requirements and/or accomplishments that are NOT already on your resume.
• Add any important situational information relevant to the position (such as willingness to travel or relocate, for example).

Recommendations:

At the beginning of your job search, build several generic cover letter templates, one specifically designed for each of your resumes.  Store them as as email templates or as templates in your favorite word processing program.  Ask someone to proofread them. Then, you can easily attach or cut and paste, and quickly customize to fit each specific situation as needed.

Spend the majority of your job search time on crafting one or more great resumes, networking, setting up informational interviews, and following up on job leads. But do be sure to spend some time on the front end of your job search crafting well written cover letter templates. Use them to help you create effective cover letters that can multiply your odds of being selected to interview.

(c) Copyright 2009 - Sheri Dresser - All Rights Reserved

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