Cover letter: A waste of your time, or get you across the line?

Roughly once a month I have someone ask about cover letters, and if I am around other recruiters it tends to split a crowd. I for one am a big fan of a well written, purposeful cover letter. That said, I would never require one. 

Why do I like them? Why don't I require them? What's the point?!

More and more our ideal candidates are seeking ease of application; being only tentatively interested, sourced directly, or forwarded application links from a referral point. Most very skilled candidates, the ones you really, really want to get through to your ad—those people who have options, or are very happily kept in a great job—will opt out once things become too difficult. Why should they waste all that time when the recruiter may not even call? What about if they don't 100% know if this is the job for them? (Don't even start me with how confusing JD's are; the a candidate often has no idea what they're getting into!)

So if, after sending what should be all of the required information (i.e. a CV), a candidate sees a dialog box demanding a cover letter as part of the application process (god forbid it's an upload, and not an empty text field) they're going to run screaming (or at least ALT+F4). 

Requiring anything other than a CV and/or portfolio (be it LinkedIn, GitHub, StackOverflow, or website portfolio), is superfluous and purely for the company/recruiter's benefit. I want to start thinking of what my candidate needs to be successful straight away; and in some circumstances what a candidate needs is a cover letter. 

So, as I said, requiring anything additional is absurd... but allowing it creates an application that offers something much more beneficial to our candidates. We now have the chance to asses additional skills a candidate may have that cannot be showed off in a CV. Something that you can look at when a CV puts you "on the fence" - this is exactly where I rely on a cover letter.

A cover letter can be a vacant, rambling, 500 word waste of download quota and, indeed, both my and the candidate's time. The alternative side of the coin is a cover letter that is insightful, demonstrates networking and research, asks questions, and gives answers to any obvious holes in CV or experience. Oh, and a cover letter that really rocks my boat is usually a little bit 'spunky' (as my mum would say). 

A great example of a cover letter is one that:

• Isn't copy pasted from role to role. This will only confirm concerns I have in your application.
• References something interesting about your knowledge of the company ("I learned about Box when I saw Snoop Dogg and Aaron Levie talking on Twitter!" - an actual quote from one of my favourite cover letters, and yes, it lead into something a little more boring, but it was a great opener!)
• Fills gaps in experience or your CV and talk about the extras! "Never a shrinking violet, I've actually sat in on Senior AE trainings all year, and have been shadowing with XXX for over 12 months."
• Gives me specifics!!! "I developed a training in 4 months that was delivered, by me, to over 150 staff members across Europe. This training saved ￡XXX and lead to the development of a global program, of which I am a consultant in the project."
• Tells me a little bit about yourself, and what makes you fantastic.

In closing I know they aren't everyone's cup of tea and I likely haven't convinced you all, I admit that. I think they get a bad rap, but in the end a really, really good cover letter is 100% more likely to get you a call with a recruiter who reads it, than an empty text box will. 

Oh, and if you're a recruiter reading this, stop requiring them. Just let the magic happen!