Do you include a cover letter when applying for a job?

Discussion in 'Employment & Jobs' started by Waria Ahmed, Sep 5, 2009.

  1. Waria Ahmed

    Waria Ahmed Byte Poster

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    As the title says, when applying for jobs on jobserve, or total jobs etc. Do you feel the need to add a covering letter or do you leave that area blank?
     
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  2. Obinna Osobalu

    Obinna Osobalu Banned

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    Links as regards to the question:

    http://www.cvtips.com/job_application_cover_letter.html

    http://www.bls.gov/oco/oco20043.htm

    http://www.englishlink.com/JobsCoverLetter_ENG_HTML.asp

    http://jobsearch.about.com/od/coverlettersamples/a/coverlettsample.htm

    -Obie
     
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  3. BosonMichael
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    BosonMichael Yottabyte Poster

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    Yep. :)
     
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  4. Kitkatninja
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    Kitkatninja aka me, myself & I Moderator

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    Yes, I do.

    -Ken
     
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  5. Bokkie

    Bokkie Bit Poster

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    Cover letters raise an interesting question. If you apply through an agency will they actually send your cover letter to the employer for the position you're applying for? The last time I dealt with an agency they changed my CV a little leading me to think that's the format the employer preferred? I had my CV inspected by our company HR beforehand and they were quite happy with its presentation and content.
     
  6. Evilwheato

    Evilwheato Kilobyte Poster

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    I'll always send a cover letter :)
    I guess agencies have a specific format they follow, extracting just the information they think is relevant for the job.
     
  7. pmidds

    pmidds Bit Poster

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    I applied for a position the other day through Reed. As I know some of the Reed IT staff I only wrote a very brief cover letter - as they know me I didn't see the need in going too in-depth. However, after I clicked on Apply Now, i got a response saying that my CV and cover letter had been sent to the recruiter and not Reed.

    Luckily I managed to get hold of the recruiter's email address and send her a more detailed cover letter. I think it's always important to attach a cover letter. If I was a recruiter I would think the person applying for a job was extremely lazy not doing one.
     
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  8. Shinigami

    Shinigami Megabyte Poster

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    Yeah, always attach a cover letter. If you're sending a CV to a head hunting agency, then your CV and cover letter could follow a more generic form, just make a really good once which goes out to the head hunters. Potentially you may only need to modify the recipient information so that the cover letter feels like it's being directed more at a person rather than an entity.

    When it comes to spontaneous offers sent to companies or in response to specific offers (even from agencies), you'll want to word your cover letter and CV in such a manner as to fit the job description of the general IT culture of the company you're looking to get into.

    I keep multiple copies of my CV's and cover letter samples so that I can go back, mix and match the text for new offers and openings so that I don't always have to worry about writing it all out A to Z (then again, as I have a little experience by now, the job is somewhat easier).

    I do know that my CV's that ended up at agencies, usually do not include the cover letter by the time the agency hands the resume over to their client. In fact, most agencies will ask my CV in Word format (not PDF) so that they can modify it (usually removing my personal details) when they show them off to their clients.
     
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  9. BosonMichael
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    BosonMichael Yottabyte Poster

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    Some will... many won't. Most agencies I've encountered are clueless.
     
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  10. craigie

    craigie Terabyte Poster

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    Recruitment Consultants/Agenices use specialised software that scans incoming CV's for keywords.

    Not sure of the ins and outs of how exactly, as I'm sure all of them use different processes. But often for the larger companies they do not have indiviudals looking at CV's.
     
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