Are Cover Letters Obsolete?

As a member of the Career Thought Leaders Consortium, I have been following and participating in an ongoing discussion of the obsolescence or continuing relevance of cover letters. The overwhelming consensus has been that they are necessary and in no way obsolete, and to pay no attention to career counselors who say they are not worth the bother because HR doesn't read them. Of course, if you are properly pursuing your executive job search, your primary contact is not HR anyway, but that is a topic for another post.

One colleague indicated that she had recently conducted an informal survey of hiring managers regarding this question and received an overwhelming response of ABSOLUTELY YES! Do include a cover letter. Many of these hiring managers indicated that an effective cover letter can make the difference in whether a candidate is called in for an interview, particularly at executive level.

I wonder why anyone would NOT want to include a cover letter! Firstly, it is simply business courtesy to introduce yourself when you make a new business contact, as you are doing when you send your resume in application for a position. Secondly, the cover letter can be used to express things that do not lend themselves well to or may even be inappropriate for inclusion in the resume itself. Thirdly, it gives you an opportunity to reinforce the business case made in the resume. Fourthly, along with some possible tweaking to the executive resume, sending a cover letter allows you to effectively customize your presentation to the particular audience and opportunity.

So, when I am asked by my executive clients whether a cover letter is needed, my answer is always an emphatic "Yes!" The worst that can happen if you include one is that the recipient skims it or even tosses it. The worst that can happen if you do not include one is that your recipient is like me--I would be completely put off by someone who lacked the business courtesy to tell me why they were sending me their resume! One of my pet peeves and something that always gives me an initial poor impression of a potential executive resume client is to receive their resume in an e-mail, with no message and sometimes even without a subject line!

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Are You a Detail-Oriented and Quality-Focused ‘Manger’?

I was amused to visit a couple of blogs recently that spotlight real resume blunders that not only are real but also no doubt really ruined many job candidates’ chances before their qualifications could be given due consideration. To add a little levity to your day, you may wish to check these sites out:

http://resumehell.blogspot.com/
http://nothired.com/

(From a cover letter on this site: “I will get the job done, and I will get bitter each day.”)

While we can all derive some entertainment from this, the fact of the matter is sobering: Most hiring executives and recruiters when asked how they react to typos and mistakes on the resumes they receive indicated that the resume would immediately find its way to the circular file.

A survey by OfficeTeam.com found that even a single resume typo could ruin your job prospects. The survey was conducted for OfficeTeam by an independent research firm and includes responses from 150 senior executives at the nation’s 1,000 largest companies.

Executives were asked, “How many typos in a resume does it take for you to decide not to consider a job candidate for a position with your company?” Their responses:

One typo-----47%
Two typos -----37%
Three typos-----7%
Four or more typos-----6%
Don’t know/no answer-----3% Total: 100%

The title of my blog entry today showcases a blunder that I see at least once a week in resumes submitted by executives for my evaluation: the substitution of ‘manger’ for the word ‘manager’. Be very careful of this one, as it will slip right by your spell checker. A good strategy to use is to make a habit of doing a “search and replace” for common errors such as this in your document to be absolutely sure they do not slip past you and into the hands of the recruiter or hiring executive who stands between you and that dream position.

And just in case your face has been red at some point in your job search due to a misspelled word or other mistake, you can gain some comfort from the fact that those on the other side of the hiring table are not immune. A recent discussion among my colleagues in the Career Management Alliance spotlighted just a couple of blunders in position announcements. One colleague encountered this gem:

“Must be detailed oriented.”

Another resume writer pointed out her favorite from a sample posting provided to her by a client. The ad stated that since the organization was a non-profit, “salary will be commiserate with…” She observed, “Now maybe they really did mean ‘commiserate’, but somehow I doubt it .”

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Many Employers CANNOT View Your Windows Vista or Word 2007 Resume!

I was alerted this morning in one of my association newsletters to an issue that could have very serious consequences for executives sending their resumes to recruiters and employers as a document file, which has largely replaced physical delivery via a "hard" (printed) copy. Do you use Word 2007? Have you recently purchased a new laptop or PC? It probably came with the recently released Windows Vista operating system and Word 2007 on it. Or you may be one of those on the leading edge who has already updated your existing PC to Word 2007 and Vista. New technology is wonderful, but there is a very real caveat pointed out by one of my colleagues at The Career Management Alliance.

Be aware that any documents you may be forwarding in connection with an employment opportunity (executive resume, cover letter, etc.) that were created on Word 2007 software (which is the version bundled with Windows Vista Operating Systems) CANNOT be opened on another computer that does not have Word 2007. So, any employer that has an earlier version of Word on their systems will not be able to open them! This probably means most employers, since companies are generally reluctant to jump too quickly on the bandwagon of new software versions and also because upgrading an entire company to a new operating system or application version is no small task.

With the high volume of resume submissions received on most openings, it would not seem likely that an employer or recruiter would take the trouble to notify you of the issue and request your documents in a compatible format. Far more likely is that they will just discard your e-mail.

The solution is simple. Apparently the problem is not Vista itself but the version of Word (2007) that is used on it. If you select the Word compatibility feature in Word 2007, you can create and save your documents in Word 1997-2003 compatible format, which I would recommend until Word 2007 and Vista are more prevalent. I do not have Word 2007 on my PC, but a colleague tells me that you can address the problem similarly to how it is done on earlier versions of Word: When you save your files, do a "Save As" instead of "Save," and select Word 2003 from the dropdown menu.

Microsoft is working on the compatibility issue, and they do offer a free download of a product called Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 to address it. You may wish to visit the following page on Microsoft's site: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc/default.mspx

There is a demo you can view to tour the Virtual PC 2007 product. If desired, you can then download the product and install a version of Word (1998, 2000, 2003 or 2007) that will allow you to create compatible versions of your resume, cover letters, and other documents you are using in connection with your career transition.

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A New Resource for Company Research

According to Weddles.com, there is a new and free online resource that can be of help in researching companies during your job search. Of course, traditional resources such as Vault, Wetfeet, Brint, and Hoover's Online offer a great deal of valuable information, some of it free, but much of it fee-based.

The new resource is ZoomInfo. They have introduced a feature that enables you to find detailed information regarding more than 3.5 million companies through their proprietary business information search engine. Using this tool, you will be able to find companies by name, products or industry, market niche and a variety of other variables. Available for review are detailed descriptions which may include specifics regarding revenues, acquisitions and recent news, bios of key employees, etc.

Be sure to include this tool in your research efforts before going in to interview with a prospective employer. Displaying your knowledge of the information to be found there may be just what's needed to position you above your competition! It could also be put to good use in writing a cover letter to accompany that dynamic executive resume you are submitting. Nothing makes a hiring executive sit up and take notice more than a candidate who shows far more than cursory knowledge of the company, its competitors, its challenges and opportunities.

Does Your Cover Letter Come Across as Pompous?

An article in an E-Newsletter from NRWA (one of the professional associations I belong to as an executive resume writer) really struck a chord with me today. The fact that many job seekers compose cover letters (and resumes, for that matter) that come across as pretentious and verbose is something that I witness every single day.

Certainly a cover letter for an executive will have a more sophisticated tone than one for an entry level worker, but neither should be flowery or seem to be obviously trying to impress the reader with multi-syllable words where simple ones will do just fine. I cannot tell you how many times I've read letters and resumes that use formal HR or government-ese, with such phrases as "Responsible for such and such, to include: ..."

Good wordsmithing strives to move from the complex to the simple, rather than the reverse. Don't use 5 words where 2 will do the job. This has the added benefits of making your letter or resume a quicker read and reducing the length.

The recruiter or hiring executive reading your executive resume or cover letter will react to their overall tone. Keep it conversational and appropriately cordial, rather than stilted, pretentious, or wordy and you will likely see an immediate improvement in response. Read it aloud to see how it sounds and ensure you have not created a tongue-twisting exercise! Do you come across as an attorney droning on to make a case in court, or as a consummate salesperson enthusing your audience about the features and benefits of your product (you)?

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