Is a cover letter still worth writing
Usually no, occasionally yes, and the exceptions are predictable.
Most cover letters are read by nobody, and most advice about them is a decade out of date. But the exceptions are worth knowing, because that is where they still win interviews.
When to skip it
High volume applications through a portal with a generic upload field. If the form does not ask for it and the role is a standard one, your time is better spent on the CV or on another application.
When it is worth an hour
- Small companies, where a founder or hiring manager reads applications personally.
- A role you are slightly under qualified for on paper, where the letter explains why the gap is smaller than it looks.
- A career change, where without a letter your CV is a puzzle.
- Any application where you can name something specific about the company that is not on their homepage.
The structure that works
One paragraph on why this role and not a hundred others, naming something concrete. Two paragraphs of the most relevant evidence, with numbers. One paragraph naming your biggest gap and what you would do about it. Sign off.
Naming the gap yourself is the part people leave out and it is the part that lands. It reads as someone who has assessed themselves honestly, which is rare enough to be memorable.
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