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I have read quite a few articles recently on the demise of the cover letter. One recruiter broadly proclaimed on LinkedIn that ‘Cover Letters are Dead’, as they never believed in cover letters and job seekers should stop wasting their time crafting the ultimate cover letter.
Over the last several years, there has been a prevailing trend towards shorter government applications. While full responses to selection criteria are still utilised, more Government agencies are turning to a cover letter, comprising of 1 or 2 pages.
I personally think this is a great trend, as in the ‘not so good old days’, when long and unwieldy responses were the norm, there was a lot of repetition and these applications did little to make the selection process easy, or accountable. (I also personally felt sorry for panel members who had to wade through mountains of tripe).
However, before you quickly scratch together a cover letter for government, you have to keep in mind, that while these applications might appear simpler on the surface, they are in many regards more complex than the standard selection criteria response.
If you are really pressed for time and need to move fast to get your application out to a recruiter, then an alternative to a cover letter is an email cover letter or note.
In recent years, with the advent of email, rather than traditional post, email cover letters and notes are increasing in popularity and becoming the norm. The difference between an email cover letter or note and a normal cover letter is that an email cover letter or note is very short (usually one to no more than three paragraphs) and they are typically sent in the email in text, not as an email attachment. [Read more…]
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Carolyn Smith BA, LLB, PLSC, CARW, CEIC, CERW