HR managers say that many job hunters are not writing cover letters anymore. Learn how you can standout if you use these proven cover letter writing formula.

Source: Formula For Writing An Attention-Grabbing Cover Letter

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Comment:  This is a pet peeve of mine, after having served on multiple hiring committees for faculty (and some staff) positions.  I’m surprised at how many applicants don’t provide a cover letter to start off their extensive faculty C.V. and other documents.  My practice is to generally ignore applications without a cover letter.  Why?  There are several reasons:

1. I suspect that the lack of a cover letter implies that the applicant is not that serious about the position, or
2. the applicant doesn’t actually meet the requested qualifications and doesn’t want to highlight that fact,
3. If there is no cover letter, the applicant essentially expects me to sort through 20+ pages of C.V. and other stuff, and try to figure out how they fit into our advertised requirements for teaching and research experience.  There are sometimes 100+ applicants and my time is quite valuable.  Why not provide a cover letter where you can highlight your key features and experience and tell me how it may meet our needs?  Then I can spend my time looking into the details and considering whether I agree.  Job seekers should not expect hiring committees to do their work for them.

So if you’re truly interested in a job (especially a professional or higher level position), spend some time researching and analyzing the position and do a brief cover letter that highlights things of interest to the employer.  It might not get you the job, but at least it’s more likely to pass the first stage of screening.