Continuing our series on a survey on cover letters conducted by Robin Ryan, author of Winning Cover Letters. Ryan quotes a survey respondent, a human resource manager:
“I’m convinced when I see a meagerly written or generic form-like letter that the applicant hasn’t done anything that can help us, so I never even look at the resume.”
Ryan goes on to say: “More than 90 percent of the hiring managers agreed that SPECIFICS sell! Mike, vice-president of human resources, said, ‘The cover letter is the very first thing we see. Candidates that stand out for us used short powerful evidence as they wrote sentence after sentence detailing past achievements and the talents and contributions they would bring to our company. To me, the cover letter is more influential than the resume, because it is a truer sample of the candidate’s communication skills, since they most likely wrote it themselves.’”
