I have just figured out why so many job seekers have an incredibly hard time landing a gig, and it's not always because they are not a good fit or because they accidentally tooted during an interview. In this day and age, hiring professionals don't really know of what the perfect "fit" really is, but they are sure quick to point out their exasperations.
I, too, wish to point out my vexations, starting with ever popular debate of resumes vs. cover letters. I was bored one day and decided to collaborate different replies from various hiring "professionals" (I use quotes for a reason) to see if I could find any kind of a pattern of which method was best. In the end, my head was spinning, and was highly tempted to throw my laptop out the window. I didn't because I kind of like my laptop. I digress.
Mind you, I haven't even cracked a third of the internet. The following comments were gathered from various blogs, newspaper articles, and job forums. All from hiring "professionals" unless otherwise indicated. My comments are in regular text. By the way, names have been omitted ONLY out of courtesy (which is, kind of a shame, because I believe if you post on an open and public forum along with your name, it's considered public record and open to scrutiny). None of these comments have been edited for grammar and spelling, as I refuse to correct someone else's' idiocy. Read on...
The basic idea of the inquiry is the ill-famed question: Which do you read/prefer: resumes or cover letters? An assortment of replies have been provided for your reading pleasure:
From a "career coach"
"One point that the job seekers need to know is that often resume reviewers read the cover letter AFTER they read the resume. If you do not have the “key words” in your resume that focus on core competencies, the reviewer may never get to your cover letter! It is critical that your resume “stands on its own” so that hopefully the reviewer will then read your cover letter. As an HR professional who has managed and conducted hiring for 1000s of employees over my career, I never read the cover letter unless the resume was “spot on”. I used the cover letter as an indicator of the applicant’s level of interest for the position and the company and secondly as writing sample"
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"I'm the author of the job search book "Think Like an Interviewer: Your Job Hunting Guide to Success." And I trained in human resourcs. Plus, I've taught subjects from literally A to Z. So let me answer your question. I've spoken to a wide variety of employers to see what they're doing today. And there are a number who are bypassing the resume and focusing more on the cover letter. Why? Because it's shorter and takes less time!"
Woah! Big conflict of interest there! Career Coach vs. World Renowned Author...who's going to win this battle? Stayed tuned on the next Hiring Pro Deathmatch!
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From a job seeker:
"Whenever, the economy is booming and companies trying to hire people as fast as possible and there're plenty of jobs to go around... no one asks for cover letters and if they do it its rare and only with big old-school or gov-type companies. Whenever, economy is unstable... that's where the cover letter requests and other stupid pre-screening requests starts to come out.....Also, it seems like only resume writers/consultants are really benefiting from it and saying "yes" to it."
I had to include this because this is so spot on. Excellent point. Too bad for the typo.
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"As someone who has done screenings for posted positions that would report to me, I can say that the cover letter matters. It gives me a sense of your writing ability and personality, your interest in a position, and related experience. I have tended to immediately dismiss applicants who do not include a cover letter with their application. Not including one conveys an aura of laziness and the sense that you are not really interested in the position or organization.".....
"I'm a recruiter. I hardly ever read attached cover letters but if it is in the body of the email I'm "forced to read it."
Forced? FORCED??! Au contraire, no one is twisting your arm to do anything. No is forcing you to DO YOUR JOB. Please fire yourself immediatley. Better yet, read my blog post, How To Achieve World Peace by Firing Yourself and then heed that advice. You're obviously not happy with the daily and mundane tasks and there is no way anyone who's a potential candidate can get a job with persnickety people like you.
.........."I am a corporate recruiter for a large financial services firm and I will tell you that I never read cover letters. There are too many resumes to go through to care about WHY someone wants the job they are applying for. I go straight to the resume and look for the key criteria for the position I am trying to fill. If the candidate has what I am looking for I pass it off to the manager. If not, I decline them."
"I do a lot of hiring. If the cover letter isn't good, I don't care about the resume. The cover letter is where you can tell me how you will solve my problems. The resume tells me that you, in fact, can do what you say. While resumes can all look alike, the cover letter is where the successful candidate makes the case. It's a great -- a terribly underused - tool.".....
"I own a small business. We're too small to have an HR department, and I do hiring (if any) myself. I'm actually more interested in the cover letter than the resume. In order to get an interview with me, the resume has to be on point, but I also want to see a cover letter that demonstrates the person is bright, articulate, has initiative, has attention to detail (typos go in the trash), etc. I would hire someone with an excellent cover letter and slightly less impressive resume over someone with a seemingly great resume but who comes across as cold and impersonal by failing to write a cover letter, or who can't be bothered to ensure their spelling and grammar are correct. Maybe the moral of the story is to know the company you're applying to. Small businesses may demand more of a personal touch."
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"I’ve been an individual hiring manager and now screen all applications for my company. While companies are always looking for a perfect match of experience to position, I’ve tossed seemingly “perfect fit” resumes which were accompanied by poorly written cover letters, or which were missing a cover letter if the candidate was instructed to send one. And I’ve interviewed candidates whose resume experience was in a different field, or seemingly not a perfect fit, because they wrote a dynamite cover letter explaining how their experience applied to the open position. I don’t really care why a candidate wants the job; use the cover letter to highlight how your experience qualifies you for the position and what you can do for the company. On the other hand, no cover letter is going to help if you’re applying for positions that your not qualified for."
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"I am an IT recruiter. Word 2007 is a completely overblown program, and I hate editing in it. I can read it because I have the plug in, but I would not want to edit anyone's resume in it (and 100% of resumes I recieve need editing)...and just because I can read it doesn't mean the employer I send your resume to can read it. I work with a lot of tech and financial firms whose employees cannot download plugins to their desktops for security reasons. Why debate this? If your goal is to get a job, send your resume in the format that just about EVERY person at EVERY company can read."
I'm baffled as to why this person even wants to EDIT a resume? So many others have said if it's not in a readable format and/or consist any typos, that automatically disqualifies them....but not you! Desperate times calls for desperate measures I suppose, which is EXACTLY why my resume is password-protected so you CAN'T edit it. Read-only, you fools, and that's the way it shall stay.
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"As a recruiter, I do not need a cover letter, because I am going to speak with you directly, ask you what skills are relevant to the job, and write one for you to be submitted to the hiring manager. What I DO need is a resume in Word format, not PDF, because in addition to editing for grammar and spelling, all resumes I send out will be formatted the same way...it's branding for my company. Whether you agree or disagree with that is irrelevant...I doubt there is a recruiter who sends your resume out to an employer without their company logo on it. Things that drive me crazy are tables or headers and footers (most of which are poorly done to start).If you are applying directly a company, go ahead and use your PDF version, but If you are posting your resume on Monster or Careerbuilder for recruiters and HR to hit upon in a skill set search, PLEASE include your uploaded resume in Word (don't just cut and paste it in), DO NOT use headers with your name and contact info on the document, and include ALL of your contact info on the document...not just on the Monster registration page. Most recruiters use a software package that automatically imports your resume and creates a database profile for you. If your contact info is not on there, or is in a header, then it is extra work for me to go back and find it. Now, if you are an exceptional candidate, I will do this and call you. But I may not realize I have missed key info (since I may have uploaded 30 resumes in 30 minutes) and if you are borderline and I missed your number, you become a project for later to complete the data fields of your profile, and not an immediate call. I can't tell you how many profiles clutter our system with names like, "Professional Experience" or "Summary of Qualifications" because actual contact info was in a header and the software skipped it. AND MAKE SURE YOU INCLUDE YOUR ZIP CODE!! If you don't want to publicize your street address, fine...but when I am running lists of candidates to call I often search within 30 miles of a certain zip code, and then widen it from there if I don't find anyone qualified."
This person has a long laundry list of what NOT to do, and it's not a matter of professionalism, it's a matter of personal preference, and a persnickety one at that. Granted, some are legit, others are just considered downright anal, like the zip code. Why does the zip code matter? Are you going to use that against me thinking I live too far from the potential employer? Since I refuse to bow down and cater to your every need, I suspect that would disqualify me as a potential candidate. Bliss.
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"I have been in the hiring process for lower-level workers, and I would say that cover letters were really important to give more insight into who you'd potentially be hiring. Make sure that you stay on-topic for the job you are applying for, and tailor the cover letter for each and every job."
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"I've been a hiring manager for some time......I'll at least start to read every cover letter but will toss it if I see that it's not targeted and/or is one of those canned templates. I may or may not automatically toss the resume, too(usually I do) but even in cases that I don't it does leave me with a bad initial impression regardless of how good the resume is.I think it's also a different scenario when you're talking to HR recruiters -- people that see hundreds of resumes a week. For better or worse, almost none of those that I know actually read cover letters for sheer lack of time. They might do so once the candidate pool has been narrowed quite a bit, but even then it's just a quick glance. You want to make the recruiter or HR person's job as easy as possible when they want to get in touch with you. The more complicated you make yourself, the more work you become to us and the less chance tou have of getting a call."
This is a person who's obviously never been on the other side of the coin, and is not aware of people who have an anally long laundry list.
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"as someone who does the vast majority of hiring in my organization, I can tell you that if someone sends a resume more than once, they are automatically out - I don't have patience for desperation, and sending the same resume in multiple ways only serves to reinforce that notion. Follow the guidelines outlined by the organization, and/or hand it directly to someone you know through informal channels. You can always follow up with an email confirming receipt, but do NOT send it again in another format."
Wow....annoyed much? Please fire yourself, because *I* don't have the patience for intolerable assholes like you.
....."Here's the deal: as a recruiter (in manufacturing) of many years of experience, when submitting a resume to a company, I get most of MY cover letter info from YOUR cover letter. Other than that, I don't read it, nor do I pay attention to the "objective" - what if your objective is not the objective of the hiring official? The other thing is in reference to "employment-seekers are essentially being asked to hit a moving target... in the dark... in the fog... blindfolded... to get past the HR gatekeepers." If you are job hunting, try your darndest NOT to work with HR - no offense to good HR people but you don't want your resume in the hands of some clerk who is only looking for key words or who's break is in 5 minutes or who is in all probability not nearly as educated or experienced as you are - it might very well end up in the round file. In nearly all cases, the job seeker should contact the hiring official directly. Okay, okay - some hiring officials don't WANT to be contacted directly and prefer to go thru HR. But I do believe they are the exception as opposed to the rule."
This is a total 360 of what I've read previously...but oh how I love the idea of bypassing HR.
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From a job seeker:
"For every piece of advice I've received in regards to resume writing there was another that contradicted it. The was a previous post regarding resumes on this site and quite a few recruiters and HR people chimed in, all with their own opinions and how those applied to their method of filtering candidates. When applying for my first sale position I was able to obtain some feedback from some "friendly' sources in the business community and the variation in recommendations was almost comical. Ultimately, the person who hired me said he really liked my resume, it fit him perfectly. Go figure."
Touché :)
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When I hired new employee's I often times hired based more on the cover letter than the actual resume itself :) I am an HR and a job seeker at the same time :) As a job seeker I have heard that Cover Letter is very important as it lets you to highlight you achievements and differentiate yourself from other candidates. I also heard that hiring managers often read cover letter first and if they like it then they read resume. As an HR I pay more attention to the resume when looking through applications. If the resume looks good I may read a cover letter, but often I would just call a person for an interview with a managing partner.
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From a recruiting "specialist"
"Personally, I'm not a fan of cover letters and if I do look at them it's a secondary action. I'm more interested in the meat of an individual's experience then what I suspect is clever marketing language via a cover letter."
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"From a recruiting standpoint, I rarely read cover letters. I don't have the time to go through them. My organization is public and very accountable to OFCCP, which means that if the candidate's resume does not qualify them for the position they are applying for, no amount of explanation in a cover letter is going to change that. The only exception to that is if a candidate emails me and has a referral from someone I know (either an employee or another professional contact) to introduce themselves. If that is the case, it should be the subject line of the email or the very first sentence of the mail."
Isn't the point of a electronic resume tracking system is to make the job EASIER??! Don't you lift your fingers and type various keywords? Is that too hard for you? I assume that cover letters are implemented within this system (provided by job applicants, of course), so I fail to understand how this recruiter is so "inconvenienced." Obviously very wired. My advice: lay of the caffeine. That way, good candidates won't be overlooked by this persnickety and wired demeanor.
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"As a Master Resume Writer, I never complete a resume without completing a cover letter. Apart from the obvious opportunity to market a different side of yourself and tell the employer or recruiter things that are not in the resume that may influence a hiring decision, it is also common courtesy. I don't walk up to someone and shout in his/her face "I'm a professional resume writer and I have 20 years experience!" Surely the civilized thing to do is shake his or her hand, smile, small talk and then build the pitch. A resume without a cover letter is just like shouting in the face of the person. Regardless whether the recruiter or employer read it word-for-word, glance at it or simply turn the page, at least I know my client has made the effort to demonstrate manners!"
Speak for yourself, oh Master Resume Writer! I'm not certain how well you demonstrate manners to your clients considering you end your sentences with an exclamation point! "Common courtesy" tells me that ending a sentence with a period is enough to get your point across.
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In a lot of cases the resume you submit will be scanned or imported into a database. If the cover letter will contain information not found in the resume, it would probably be beneficial. (Of course that begs the question of why you're excluding valuable information from the resume). If the cover letter won't add anything useful, then the question becomes whether the cover letter will fill a purpose.
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"I don't read cover letters. As an internal recruiter I give maybe one minute to read a resume to look at current and past positions to determine relevance to what I'm recruiting for and move on if I don't find it."
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"I tend to skip the cover letter altogether. They tend to be bragging templates and they rarely reflect the true skill set or personality. In my opinion, candidates should focus on designing their resumes as very factual sales documents without physical frills but with lots of content."
Please note: an "opinion."
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"Cover letters are a thing of the past. Resumes that have bolded words highlighting job specific skill sets really pop! Personality assessments will be conducted during an interview so there is no need to over emphasize on the soft skills. Keep personal info out such as age, marital status, and even hobbies."
And then are other recruiters who grimace at such revelations. I digress.
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"I like to read the cover letter for this reason... if one of their strong points is "detail oriented" (or something of that matter) and the letter has a mistake or formatting error or best one referring to the wrong position.... it means OUT to me! It just confirms it's a "canned" cover letter and the candidate didn't even make an effort to write it and review it carefully... It always makes me smile inside.."
Touché. This is the best comment I've read so far.
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From a recruiting MANAGER:
"Ths cover letter does give some insight into their writting skills and a brief overview of their accomplishments. For the most part, I receive so many recumes that I do not have the time to go thru each and evry letter and resume; especially if it is a lenghty cover letter. I would suggest a short overview via e-mail with the resume attached to it."
Can I get an order of common sense with a side of spell check, please?
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"I do a lot of resume and cover letter writing workshops at local schools as part of our college recruiting program and always make it a point to address the cover letter issue with the students. The simple truth is that cover letters are not what sells a candidate to a recruiter - they need to do that with the resume. I skim through a cover letter, but spend very little time with it. Cover letters should be short and to the point and should serve to introduce the candidate. My experience is that a lot of folks try to summarize the entire resume in the cover letter - totally not necessary!"
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"I am a recruiting professional of 14 years and I always read the resume first and rarely, if ever, read the cover letter. I can't speak for the HR community but initially I am most interested in the education and work experience to determine quickly if the person is a fit. If the candidate is a fit and I want to present them to my client, I essential become the cover letter for the candidate."
So there you have it. You are free to choose to come with a conclusion of your own as to whether which method works best. Bear in mind, there's no sense in beating yourself endlessly as far as which method you THINK the recruiter wants, because chances are, you are beyond wrong. You cannot fight against personal preferences and someone's aunt coming to town. It's a matter of striking the right chord. Good luck, job applicants. You will certainly need it.
