The Cover Letter is Dead Who Killed It (A Murder Mystery Case)

The Cover Letter is Dead Who Killed It (A Murder Mystery Case)The Cover Letter is Dead - Who Killed It (A Murder Mystery Case)In recent years, it has become fashionable to hail the death of the titelbild letter. After all, compared to the allure of social media, the titelblatt letter looks antiquated, almost quaint. Some go as far as to say that the only thing missing from the decline of the titelbild letter is the time of death.If the cover letter is dead indeed, theres another pressing question we need to ask Who killed it? Cover letters rarely die of natural causes and this murder mystery is long overdue for a solution.The cover letter had beenaroundfor centuries. Leonardo da Vincireportedly wrote the first cover letter in history in orderto pitch his services to the Duke of Milan. This makes it even older than the resume itself. The cover letter welches never loved but somehow itwas always around, allowing us to make strong cases for our candidacies. What did bring about its un doing?Suspects are many and easy to find. Ultimately, however, it comes down to three social media, networking, and the cover email.The cover letter is dead. Itwas never loved and itsenemies were many.Let us examine the evidence first. Most witness accounts suggest that cover letters hardly ever get read. A study conducted by reCareered found out that 90 percentof hiring managers mostly ignored cover letters and 97 percentbased a decision whether to interview a candidate on the resume only. That was back in 2009, the same year iPhone 3GS came out. Imagine how much has changed since then.Today, youcould hardlyfind a company that leise asks for cover letters. One of the reasons is that most candidates cant write them well. Because of this, recruiters usually end up with a heap of generic write-ups that dont help themfind the right candidate in any way. Another reason is that candidates generally hate writing them. If you insist on including a cover letter, youll probably repel some of the best people you could have found.Social media, networking, or the cover email all replaced it in one way or another.In the end, however, the cover letter was killed in a turf war against its indirect competitors. Social media, networking, or the cover email all replaced it in one way or another, effectively burying the body of the cover letter at the periphery of the HR world.Murder suspect 1 Social mediaIf social media were the main offender, then the death of the cover letterwould be most likely unintentional. Why is that?Frankly, there was neverenough direct competition between the two. The main purpose of a cover letter is to make a strong case for your candidacy for a position. Social media, on the other hand, simply allow you to share stuff with other people in your network.Still, unless youve been living under a rock for the past decade, you know theres such a thing as your social media footprint. You probably also know that anyone can access it without too much effort. And recruiters always scour social networks for skilled candidates.Facebook photos alone reveal far mora about you than a carefully prepared cover letter.Whenever you apply for a job, your social media profiles come under a scrutiny. A quick look reveals much about your views, activities, and personality. Depending on your digital footprint, this can be either an advantage or a disadvantage.First, your Facebook photos alone reveal far more about you than a carefully prepared cover letter. Therefore, even if youre not applying for a job at the moment, you should always carefully curate all the content youve ever shared on social media.Second, a well-managed LinkedIn profile will make recruiters approach you. This is also one of the reasons why the cover letter is dead. After all, you only have to write one when its you whos approaching a company, not when its the other way around.Murder suspect 2 NetworkingThe cover letter has no place in a world of employee referral programmes. Afte r all, theres no surer way to employment than having someone at a company to personally recommend you. Employee referral has always been there, in one way or another, somewhat hidden under the guise of old-fashioned networking. Recently, however, many companies began to actively encourage it and today 75 percent of companies use employee referral systems.Employee referral hires are cheaper, have much higher retention rates, are easier to train, and generally produce 25 percent more profit for their companies than regular hires.Moreover, 70 to 80 percent of job openings are reportedly never posted online. All of these people get hired through old-fashioned networking or employee referral instead of regular job applications. Unfortunately, the cover letter only makes sense in a world wheremost jobs were filled through job advertisements.Murder suspect 3 The cover emailThis murder case, however, seems to be a bit more complicated than we could have thought. Just think about it. When yo u look up cover letter is dead in your favourite search engine, youll immediately find a heap of articles for every year between about 2009 and 2017. If the cover letter is dead indeed, why is it that someone somewhere still needs to proclaim it dead again and again? How come the cover letter hasnt faded into obscurity yet?Why is it that someone somewhere still needs to proclaim the cover letterdead again and again?Well, the obvious answer would be that the cover letter is still well alive and kicking. Sure, it has changed its form over the years. Some people say that cover letters were superseded by cover emails short introductory emails you attach to your resume. This is only too fitting for an age in which regular letters have been relegated to the status of papyrus manuscripts as something charming. From such point of view, the cover letter is dead indeed. Long live the cover email thenWhen should you attach a cover letter anyway?Short answer every time youre approaching someo ne at a company you dont know. Sure, your online presence and networking took upon themselves many of the roles originallyfilled by the cover letter. However, this doesnt mean that the cover letter is dead. It still has its use.The original purpose of a cover letter was to make a strong, specific case for your candidacy for aposition. Whereas your resume will always be a list of your skills, a cover letter allows you to to create a brief argument. It would be foolish to underestimate the persuasive power of a strong argument. Learn how to write excellent cover letters.Perfect resume and cover letter are just a click away Share Your Feedback or Ideas in the Comments