Importance of Cover Letter

[SussexSeagull]

If necessary tailor a CV and make sure you get the key skills in early.

[northernladuk]

If you are going to get gigs you need to think a little. Think about how agents work. If you can understand this not only will you not need to ask but you will have more chance of getting work.

Agents work on commission so time is money. They very rarely know the tech they are looking for people for and are just sales people. Once they advertise the job they can get 100's of replies. They just don't have the time so they do a keyword sort. If the keywords in the job spec are not in the CV they just bin it. After that they might spend 30 seconds reading the first 2/3rds or less of the CV. If it doesn't match the job spec they will bin it. They just don't have the time and probably don't care enough to read a covering letter. If they can't find evidence that you have carried out that role before on the front page of your CV your gone whatever supporting evidence you have sent.

Don't be tempted just to apply for any old job just because it's easy to click and apply either. You won't get past the basic checks mentioned above.

[wonderboy]

So I was just on CV Library and I clicked 1-click Application and it just shoot of my CV to an advertiser without any cover letter. It applied in a second - so I was a little shocked but also felt good.

Now from experience, is this diminishing my chance of hearing back from them? Do recruiters look at cover letters?

For contracting? No. HTH.

[maxedvolume]

So I was just on CV Library and I clicked 1-click Application and it just shoot of my CV to an advertiser without any cover letter. It applied in a second - so I was a little shocked but also felt good.

Now from experience, is this diminishing my chance of hearing back from them? Do recruiters look at cover letters?