Digital Transformation Through Agile Delivery
IT Agility AbilityTM
Digital Transformation Through Agile Delivery
IT Agility AbilityTM

Are Cover Letters still relevant?

By . December 20, 2018
If you’re a driver in the UK, your driving licence was made up of a photo card and a paper counterpart. Last year the DVLA brought an end to the paper counterpart to make the photo card the only document you need. With the means of recording, storing and accessing information without any physical documents much easier than ever before, it was becoming redundant to have two forms of record keeping. The paper counterpart was seen as an ‘unnecessary burden’.

The cover letter use to be compulsory when job hunting, accompanying  and supporting your CV, explaining your story and the value you can bring to employers in order to hook them in and pick you out of the hundreds of applications they receive on a daily basis. We were taught to believe that the cover letter was an essential part of job hunting because without this the employer won’t know who you are.

Times have changed and ‘time’ is more valuable now than ever. Anything that takes up this precious resource will soon be dismissed. If you had to read through half a page or more of the same content over and over again, you would quickly remove that part of the process out as it holds no benefits. The 20 seconds it would take to look for essentials skills is drawn out by “Here’s what I’m skilled in”, “I feel I would e a good fit for your company because...” and “I look forward to hearing from you soon”.

Your CV should convey everything the employer needs in as little time as possible to encourage interest in you. If your skills matched what the employers were looking for then you would be invited to an interview to present yourself further.

But it’s not just employers who are letting go of cover letters. According to Jobsite, if a candidate is required to provide a cover letter they are less likely to apply for the position. “Our research has shown that applications increase, on average, by more than 5% when cover letters are not required.” Not only are the cover letters a burden for the employers to read, but they are a hassle for candidates to write. Jobsite continues, “...the majority of candidates don’t edit the default cover letter, making it of limited value.” Once the initial cover letter is written a candidate will generally use that cover letter for every job they apply for instead of purposing the cover letter to specific jobs.

Although cover letters appear to be less important than they once were, some employers still ask for them. Unless instructed not to, you should include a cover letter with your CV. This seems a bit contradictory to what has been previously said, but there are people who still read cover letters. Just adding your cover letter could be the difference between you being shortlisted or you CV being put aside.

In the future cover letters may be scrapped completely, but as of now, they are still relevant...to some extent.

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