Cover Letters Separate Wheat from Chaff in Age of Electronic Submissions

Online job-hunting has made application for vacancies easy. Too easy perhaps, since employers are inundated with electronic resume submissions from candidates not even remotely qualified for the jobs they’re applying for.

In response, reports career expert Robin Ryan, some employers are requiring that applicants distinguish themselves — with a cover letter. “During a career counseling client’s search, we found a NY Times online ad that stated applications submitted without a cover letter would NOT be considered at all,” Ryan writes. “This is an employer’s response to the current job hunter’s trend of sending mass e-mailing resumes to everyone for anything.”