I second that. A great cover letter won't be the sole reason you were hired for a job (or even a big reason), but it will be a big reason you were called in for

I second that. A great cover letter won't be the sole reason you were hired for a job (or even a big reason), but it will be a big reason you were called in for the interview. And from my own experience, people who take the time to write a cover letter also tend to be people who do better on the subsequent interview (probably because candidates will only take the time write a cover letter for job positions that they're genuinely qualified to fill). Joel Spolsky offers an interesting perspective (which I believe is right on) in his piece, "Getting Your Resume Read." http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/ResumeRead.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/ResumeRead.html