E-mailing Cover Letters

Traditionally the advice of career guides like this one has been, “Always include a cover letter with your resume”. For the most part, this rule still holds pretty strong. A resume without a cover letter is an appeal without direction. Why should a person read your resume? What are your goals? What are your expectations? How should they best contact you? All these questions can be answered in a cover letter.

Use of the Internet for job applications has modified the way job seekers do things however. Agencies like ABA Staffing, typically remove and discard the Cover Letter when processing the resume contents into a searchable database. Although the cover letter is useful in explaining things like your intention to relocate to a specific location or stating that you are interested only in part-time work, the need for a formal cover letter has decreased.

When e-mailing a resume, always include a brief note detailing the most relevant information pertaining to your application. However, realize that this information is likely to be lost after your application is initially processed. This means that you should include all the vital pieces of information on your resume including e-mail address and contact phone number.

Applications for specific positions still require a cover letter, albeit brief and to the point.

Please note that this more informal approach to cover letters does not give you an excuse to leave misspellings in your cover letter. If an employer does read your cover letter, the negative impact of a misspelling or bad grammar will still be the same.