In a blog entry on Cube Rule, 5 reasons to love cover letters when you really hate them, Scott Herrick responds to a general job-seeker sentiment of hating writing cover letters by offering five reasons to write them anyway. Here’s one of his reasons:
Cover letters highlight particular areas of the resume for the job. Yes, your resume will show your accomplishments and how you qualify for the job. But it may take sifting through five different jobs to really address how you fit with the job you are applying for. Or you may have consistently done all sorts of work that fits the job description, but it is not as obvious in the resume (like your job title is Project Manager, but half your work was on process management while you had the job title).
The cover letter allows you to gracefully tie together all the parts of your resume relevant to the prospective job. It tells the story of why you are the right fit for the job.
