AI may be killing one of the potentially most valuable parts of getting hired. Does the cover letter help you stand out now?
According to Judd Kessler, the Howard Marks Endowed Professor at Wharton, "I used to get really good cover letters for research assistants, and be like, 'oh, I should really talk to this person, and prioritize those people,'" Kessler says. "And now I don't."
Unlike recruiters sorting through standardized applications, Kessler has historically relied on direct emails from students to spot standout candidates.
"All of the best cover letters have come in the last 12 months," Kessler tells me, adding that they all follow a uniformly detailed structure of why they should work for him.
So it's harder to tell whether students are genuinely interested in his work or if they're sending tailored AI-generated messages to dozens of professors, whom he says are seeing the same trend. Increasingly, he relies on other signals: recommendations from faculty, classroom performance, proactive initiative to contact him and others in his network, and referrals from colleagues.
So is the beleaguered cover letter, long a crucial, if dreaded, part of the hiring process, dying in the age of AI?
"Cover letters are definitely becoming less important," says Paul Farnsworth, president of the tech recruiting platform Dice. Similarly, Bonnie Dilber, senior manager of talent acquisition at Zapier, says that all cover letters look the same with AI, making them an ineffective tool to parse candidates.
"They're carrying less and less weight because they can be so easily tailored or crafted to match the role and misrepresent someone's experience," Dilber says.
The cover letter's influence has been waning for more than a decade, and in recent years, job seekers and recruiters have grown openly frustrated with the practice. In 2017, a former Apple recruiter told Business Insider that "Cover letters have got to die." An HR executive discussion group on LinkedIn had over 98% negative comments about the cover letter's value - in 2015!
Marie Christine Padberg, a partner and global talent attraction co-leader at McKinsey, says that the consulting giant stopped requiring cover letters a few years ago. Padberg said the firm tells applicants that there's "no need," although they are welcome to if they wish. "They're long gone," Padberg says. "No more cover letter."
Scott McGuckin, Cisco's vice president of global talent acquisition, says that the company hasn't required cover letters for years.
Instead, candidates often use the "objective" or "summary" section at the top of their résumé to briefly explain their background and fit for the role. Marie Christine Padberg, a partner at McKinsey: "We find this approach significantly more effective for our recruiters and hiring managers to quickly gauge a candidate's fit," McGuckin tells me.
Google ditched cover letters at least five years ago, telling applicants on its "how we hire" page: "A word on cover letters: we don't require them, so focus your time on crafting your résumé." Amazon has taken a similar stance for years, telling applicants in its online FAQ: "Being a peculiar company, we don't accept cover letters. Just ensure your résumé is up to date and you're all set."
Now AI has made Amazon much less peculiar — and much more the norm.
Brian Myerholtz, Boston Consulting Group's global head of talent acquisition, says that BCG stopped requiring cover letters in North America nearly a decade ago, well before generative AI entered the picture. As applications surged, he said, reviewing cover letters became increasingly impractical for recruiters — and AI has only accelerated that shift.
Before AI, a cover letter may have been used as the deciding point between two candidates. That's no longer the case, and it's similarly no longer perceived as an indicator of increased interest, Myerholtz says.
"It takes a couple of minutes for ChatGPT to write up your cover letter," Myerholtz says, adding that, "it's probably not a real writing sample or insight into how the person thinks anymore."
Solution: ALWAYS edit an AI-generated cover letter to ensure authenticity. The resume and the cover letter should align but are not the same. The cover letter's purpose is to highlight the match and articulate why the job is of interest (customized to the position, the hiring manager and the organization). On the other hand, the resume, if well developed, should be a somewhat static document that doesn't change from job application to job application. If you've done the self-reflection, and leveraged a professional career and personal branding coach, your resume will work effectively when the job match is high. Application quantity doesn't work. Application (job-person) match does work.
But at the end of the day, the best advice that brings it all together was stated early in this article. Kessler stated, "I rely on other signals: recommendations from faculty, classroom performance, proactive initiative to contact him and others in his network, and referrals from colleagues.
And if you've been moving from job to job with less than 3 yrs at each job, no resume or cover letter will make up for that. It use to be stated frequently, "if you want to get ahead you have to change jobs." That was very bad advice - it was bad advice 20 years ago and is bad advice today. If you want to get ahead, create value, stay when things get challenging, and use adversity to grow professionally. For job hoppers, when the music stops, you will be the one without a seat.
#resumewriting #careercoaching #resume #coverletters #findajob #careerdevelopment #personalbranding #professionalgrowth #employmentt #howtogetajob #howtokeepajob #adulting