Covering letters divide opinion

Current advice has it that covering letters are an important tool used by recruiters in deciding whether to call people for interview. However, there’s been a lot of discussion on social media platforms recently about whether the covering letter is becoming redundant. One post on Linked-in asked ‘Do recruiters actually read cover letters?’ Over 300 replies later the views seemed polarised between those that bin them without reading to those that value them highly.

So what’s the truth?

We’ve undertaken some research to find out. And having just started gathering the results they make for interesting reading. Here are some of  the latest findings:

• CVs and covering letters are the most popular tools and used by 63% of recruiters in deciding whether to interview
• 28% of recruiters WILL NOT read a CV unless a covering letter impresses yet…
• over 20% of recruiters don’t review covering letters at all
• Over 40% of covering letters are not forwarded to line managers from the initial sift

So, it looks as though there is a wide divergence of opinion. But, importantly, what does that mean for job seekers? There’s lots more to come and we’re looking to publish our report in the next couple of weeks so stay in touch if you’d like to find out more.