Is the Cover Letter Dead?

At the Electronic Recruiting Exchange (ERE) conference in San Diego, we had the distinct pleasure of meeting and chatting with Joyce Lain Kennedy, the nation's first syndicated careers columnist. Her work, CAREERS NOW, is distributed by Tribune Media Services and appears in more than 100 newspapers and websites.  Now, Joyce is a busy woman, what with answering countless correspondence from her readers and revising the 3rd edition of Cover Letters for Dummies, due out January 2009.  No surprise then, after writing career advice for more than 40 years and seeing the paper method of job search move to an increasing reliance in the technological domain, what's really keeping the woman up at night is, "what do recruiters and hiring professionals really think of the cover letter?  Is it dead?" 

Of course, we thought that was a lovely question to pose to those of you who frequent our blog.  So, what do you think?  Is the cover letter a relic of yesterday's recruiting?  Has it been replaced with on-line profiles?  Or, do you still think it has value?  We'd love to hear your thoughts.

Technorati tags:  cover letter; Joyce Lain Kennedy, recruiting and hiring. 

Comments

[Claudia Faust]

My take is that there are two separate tracks playing in this scenario: form and function.

Regarding form, I think that perception of what's acceptable for a cover letter is changing -- as are many of the methods of communication around us. Video, podcasting, emails, even twitter...all are becoming socially acceptable ways of bridging the electronic introduction between candidates and employers. Perhaps it is driven by a generational shift in the global talent pool; perhaps it is a by-product of the mainstream embracing electronic correspondence? I'm not sure what is driving it -- perhaps you have some thoughts to share.

I doubt that the function of the cover letter will ever truly go away, any more than the function of a thank you note will. It is a small social courtesy, a bit of human glue in a bits and bytes information exchange. When done well, it still can hook a recruiter or hiring manager for a closer look.

Just my .02,

Claudia

[superecruiter]

Umm? What are YOUR thoughts, please?