All About Creative Cover Letters

When you send your resume to a company, do you include a cover letter?  Why?  Or, why not?

Our own recruiters at Brookwoods Group are frankly indifferent to cover letters.  Our clients do not require cover letters from us.  Our candidates never ask us about tweaking their cover letters.  Still, some others here find them helpful, noting that they should accompany any resume via postal mail or any resume sent by e-mail to a specific person.

Our colleagues at Ragan Communications offer this article on "Five Nontraditional Cover Letters That Worked".  The examples include:

1. A chart that outlines how the published job requirements match the candidate's skills, talents, knowledge and experience
2. A collection of relevant quotes and endorsements (akin to LinkedIn)
3. A clever Google ad-words purchase
4. A presentation that leverages the target company's own product
5. A target company-specific website and twitter campaign

One of my own favorite "cover letters" was delivered to my boss when I was employed by General Electric's in-house advertising and PR group.  The person was applying for an advertised creative position.  She fabricated two pieces of wood cut to the shape of slices of bread.  She painted them to resemble toast, and then hand printed her resume on one piece and her cover letter on the other.  She put them both in a vintage GE toaster and mailed them in.  It was the most clever approach anyone there had seen in a long time, and -- guess what? -- she got an interview!

In my book, here is everything you need to know about cover letters:

• A cover letter is really a marketing piece that should complement your resume.
• A cover letter should document or illustrate all the ways you are a great fit.
• A cover letter should be tailored carefully, completely and obviously to a specific company or job.
• A cover letter need not be a letter, but can be a visual presentation, an auditory presentation or a tangible item.
• If you are going to bother with a cover letter, make it one that stands out so effectively that you will be sure to get noticed.

By the way, if you are submitting your resume through an online portal, don’t include a cover letter unless the portal asks for a cover letter.  This can actually cause problems in some of the applicant tracking systems and you risk having your information and resume kicked out and into a pile that someone, someday may look at to fix!