Are Cover Letters really necessary nowadays? My View….

Well, when you apply for any position via any portal , they will always ask for your Resume, Cover Letter and other required documents like your certificates etc.

But the question is , DO we really require a cover letter ? I have an impression that we do not require Cover Letter for every role, as a Recruiter I believe, only when one wants to try out entirely different role for example a person working in Gastronomy applying for a Technical role would need a cover letter in order to justify skills and interest for the role.

Other roles do not really need a cover letter, reason being, you have your interview rounds and the Employer ask you to express yourself, previous work experiences, skills and interests for this role, then you already let the employer know about your motivation to work for a certain role, also it’s a time consuming process and your skills already depict about you when you apply for a particular role.

For instance if you want to really apply for a role urgently you found on some website, then you may not like to create or make a new cover letter in order to send, instead you would send your resume directly to the employer. Also the employer is the person who assesses you for a role in an interview round and when you present yourself then he/she gets to know you in terms of your qualifications, work experience and your skills and they get to know you really well in terms of experience they want for a specific role. Practically, every employer will only ask you what they want to know about you an how that matches to their role, and if they find you fit for this role, only then they would move forward with your candidature.

In my opinion Cover Letters are quite traditional now, but it also depends on the work atmosphere and the work culture of the company. Traditional companies may like to have Resume, cover letter, qualification documents, degrees, internship certificates and even recommendations from your previous employer and there are other companies who may not like all these documents but only your resume.

It is also opinionated, some people may like to work for traditional companies and some for start-ups and new-age companies.