{"id":61,"date":"2016-07-19T10:56:34","date_gmt":"2016-07-19T10:56:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/career-tips\/?p=61"},"modified":"2022-11-29T17:33:35","modified_gmt":"2022-11-29T17:33:35","slug":"when-do-i-need-a-cover-letter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/when-do-i-need-a-cover-letter\/","title":{"rendered":"When do I need a cover letter?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s a harsh truth: a lot of recruiters will never, ever read your cover letter. With time and attention spans short, there are some employers who reach straight for the CV consigning your lovingly written letter straight into the trash.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, for every recruiter who ditches the cover letter there will be one who\u2019ll read it line by line. A punchy cover letter can make you stand out and some employers won\u2019t even consider your application without one.\u00a0 So when do you need a cover letter?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>When the recruiter has asked for one<\/strong> \u2013 They may specify what they want to see in the jobs ad, and that might include a cover letter as well as your CV and references. Always send one if they have directly asked for it.<\/li>\n<li><strong>When you\u2019re sending it by snail mail<\/strong> \u2013 Not so common these days, but it\u2019s certainly one way to stand out. If you\u2019re posting your application the old-fashioned way, a cover letter is still expected.<\/li>\n<li><strong>When you\u2019re not sure<\/strong> \u2013 It\u2019s never going to do any harm sending one if you\u2019re not sure (unless it\u2019s particularly badly written of course). Just remember that a cover letter should always add value to your CV.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And when don\u2019t you need one?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>If it\u2019s an online application<\/strong> \u2013 If you\u2019re applying through an online system and there\u2019s no room for one, you are off the hook.<\/li>\n<li><strong>If it\u2019s been made clear you don\u2019t need to send one <\/strong>\u2013 Enough said.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>They can be tedious and time-consuming, but as a rule of thumb we would say it never hurts to include a cover letter.\u00a0 It may well be 50\/50 as to whether it actually gets read, but you\u2019re never going to know in advance.\u00a0 Done right it might be the deal-maker.<\/p>\n<p>A good starting place is finding out the value of your skills to an employer, so you know what to shout about if you do write a cover letter. Enter your CV into the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/jobs\/value-my-cv\/upload?utm_source=career-tips&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_campaign=when-do-i-need-a-cover-letter\">ValueMyCV<\/a> tool to get an idea of what you\u2019re worth to them.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re going to write a cover letter, keep it short and to the point \u2013 a short letter is more likely to be read.\u00a0 Highlight your most valuable skills and really upsell them. You may never know whether it was read or not, but at least you\u2019ll know you gave it your best shot.<\/p>\n<p><em>For more advice on writing a great cover letter, follow our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/career-tips\/cvs-cover-letters\/7-tips-to-make-your-cover-letter-shine\/\">7 Tips To Make Your Cover Letter Shine<\/a>.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s a harsh truth: a lot of recruiters will never, ever read your cover letter. With time and attention spans short, there are some employers who reach straight for the CV consigning your lovingly written letter straight into the trash. On the other hand, for every recruiter who ditches the cover letter there will be<a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/when-do-i-need-a-cover-letter\/\"> Continued \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cvs-cover-letters"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adzuna.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}