I think people have cover letters all wrong. I asked my friends and colleagues what their stances on cover letters were and the majority of them said they didn’t feel they were that important. Someone I asked referred to them as “a waste of time”, while another said “they’re just some formality to introducing your resume”. I was not only aghast but started to wonder if all the blood, sweat and tears I put into my cover letters really was a waste of time. After some research I was pleased to find out that the importance of cover letters has never diminished, and their significance is as weighty as ever. Cover letters are no longer (or really never were) an optional, mere introduction to your resume.

A cover letter should ALWAYS go hand in hand with your resume and it may be the one thing that can give you the one-up from the rest of the applying masses.

It is a time for you to shine. In your cover letter you get to sell yourself as well as explain yourself in your own words. It can help you explain things that your resume doesn’t. For example, say you were applying to an amazing opportunity as a Human Resources Recruiter. After polishing off your resume you feel you want to omit the two summers you worked at a pizza shack (because they have nothing to do with the job you’re applying to); instead, use everything to your advantage. Relate your experiences serving pizzas to the amount of real world experience you gained dealing with customers and co-workers, all of which lead you to your human-resources internship.  Remember to tell your potential employer why you would add value to their company and draw upon past experiences that support these claims.

As well as explaining your experiences, use your cover letter as a way to showcase your other abilities. A cover letter gives an employer reasons why they should hire you, so don’t give them any reasons why they shouldn’t. Besides it being grammatically perfect and errorless, (even one typo can turn an employer off enough to not even continue to your resume) it shows your employer how effective you are at written communication.

A cover letter is also an extension to the “Objective” of your resume. You need to customize and cater to the specific job you are applying for, so make them feel like you’ve done your homework, on their company and the position as well.

And lastly, keep it short and simple. Three paragraphs works best. With the piles of letters and resumes employers have to weed through, they don’t have time for two or three pages. Get to the point in a way that will not only make you stand out from the rest of the hopefuls but in a way that will give your potential employer a sense of who you are.