If you’ve Googled cover letters recently, you know that people have Very Strong Opinions about them—you should always write one, you should never write one, you look too old if you attach one, you don’t follow instructions if you do.
What a landscape.
What’s the real answer? Alas, it’s that… it depends.
On what does it depend, you ask? A number of factors:
- Is the job you want something that relies heavily on communication or is highly creative? Fields like marketing, training, and copywriting are more likely to want to get a sense of how you convey your points, whether you can construct a sentence, if your style is articulate and interesting to read, so your cover letter can be a key element in your application. If you’re an accountant, you’re much less likely to need such a thing.
- Is this a new area for you? If you’re changing careers, it makes some sense to use a cover letter to tell your story: why you’re switching, which skills transfer, how your background has prepared you for this role. But if you’ve been repairing elevators for 8 years, you probably don’t need to put the effort into a letter.
- Do they ask for, or give space for, such a document? Read the posting carefully. If it says somewhere that you should attach a cover letter, you really should attach a cover letter. Not doing so will make you look inattentive, and it risks getting you rejected before a human even sees your application. Conversely, some portals will only give you the space to upload or paste in a resume, meaning you’re off the hook for a cover letter. And many places are somewhere in the middle, with an “other document” attachment option, in which case, see points 1 and 2.
But when in doubt, err on the side of sending one. The worst that can happen if you do is that nobody will read it.
