When it comes to the topic of cover letters, it’s hard to figure out whether you need one with your job search documents. A quick Internet search turns up many comments from job-seekers who are glad to see it go, and from career experts who say, “Toss it.” But some people still advise, “Better write a good one; they’re important.”

I fall into the latter camp — but I do recognize that the role of the cover letter has changed. No longer do you introduce your CV with a letter on the finest linen stationary; the letter will be printed out — if at all — on whatever paper your contact happens to have in the printer. And it’s true that a lot of people don’t even read the cover letter. Yet, the cover letter still serves a purpose that no other part of your package can serve: it makes a strong, upfront, specific case for your candidacy for the position. There’s no better opportunity — at least until the interview — to point out a particular strength or to hammer home the reasons you’d be an especially good fit for the position.

Why Do Cover Letters Seem Less Important Today?
I get asked about cover letters frequently, which is surprising based on the lack of emphasis that employers put on that document in an era of company websites. You may ask, “Why are they necessary? I just filled out six online applications and not one company requested it.” Well, yes — if you’re going to rely on the relatively unproductive Internet-only approach to job seeking.

If you are applying via a website, you may be stuck with a “To whom it may concern” letter, if you get to include one at all. But, when working your network, as we advise so often, you’ll be able to e-mail people directly and include a nicely formatted Word or PDF document addressed to them personally. That’s the best approach.

Still, why write a cover letter at all? Because it’s an opportunity to personalize and to customize your approach to the job. Will your letter be to an HR person? A hiring manager? In writing the letter you’ll take into account the identity of the recipient. Writing a letter also forces you to consider the uniqueness of the opportunity in front of you. You start to differentiate yourself, to focus on what’s special about you, and to sell that to the company . . . Never use a “form letter” cover letter!

Another reason why a cover letter is good is that it allows you to present your strengths and accomplishments in bite-sized nuggets — both good practice and an effective job-search strategy. I spoke about the importance of succinct writing in last issue’s Managing Your Career, and the cover letter should carry that process forward. You will, in fact, utilize one of those Challenge-Approach-Results paragraphs from last issue later in this column. But first I’ll talk about how cover letters can be an advantage to employers — even, as you may have discovered, if they don’t ask for them very often.

How is the Cover Letter Received?
Just because you’ve written a great cover letter doesn’t mean that everyone is going to read it. A year ago or so I did an impromptu survey of my friends in Human Resources; just 40% told me they “regularly” read the cover letter. The other 60%, though, said that they read cover letters on occasion, and that in certain situations a cover letter could be very useful.

Andrea Piccarelli, Manager of Human Resources at Smithers Pharma Services (Wareham MA), tells me that while she doesn’t consistently read them, cover letters are important in several situations. “For example, if I look at the CV but notice the home address isn’t in the geographical area of our business, I will go to the cover letter to see what the applicant had to say about the potential of actually making a move,” Ms. Piccarelli said in an interview.

She added, “In another instance, there may be a very strong emphasis on communication skills for a particular job, and there’s no better way to get a grasp on that than to see how they write their cover letter. Lastly, if there’s a significant gap in employment — or perhaps a series of short stays in jobs — I want to see an explanation there in the cover letter.”

The Mechanics of Writing Your Cover Letter
The passage of time is most obvious in the cover letter’s changing format and appearance. No one opens a physical envelope anymore, and the fax has mostly vanished. Your choice, then, is working up a nicely formatted Word or PDF version and incorporating it as page one of the CV or — as most people do — separating them into two documents. That’s the better approach.

Ms. Piccarelli offers a third option: She says it’s OK to put your cover-letter points in the e-mail that encloses the CV. The problem is that not everyone prints out the email when they circulate an enclosure. Take me, for example: If I want to hand my client a binder of our candidates for a search, I’ll routinely print cover letters and CVs, but never an e-mail. If you want to ensure that your covering statements get read by all, you stand a better chance with a separate, stand-alone document.

Consider the cover letter your first piece of eloquent business writing. It’s a sales tool. It is not meant to be a restatement of what’s in your CV, or as a multipage ramble on what you’ve done at work and what you want out of life. It’s a clearly written, succinct summary that teases the reader into wanting to know more about you. It’s also a fairly easy formula, or should be. Just three easy-to-read and interesting paragraphs . . .

Paragraph One: This is where you explain how you and the reader are connected. “You’ll recall that we met at the Contract Pharma meeting in New Jersey last September, where we had a coffee with our mutual friend Dan.” Or, “I saw the advertisement for a Senior Scientist in your process development team and wanted to draw your attention to my CV.” Personally, I don’t think you should ever write a “To Whom It May Concern” letter, but you may not be able to avoid it if you are applying via an online application process.

Paragraph Two: This is the critical paragraph, where you bring out the big guns — your most relevant accomplishment — and entice the reader to look at your CV. In my last column I discussed writing short statements about your accomplishments. Here’s where you put that to use: “I’m sure that the scientist you hire for process development will need to have great critical thinking skills to aid the company’s program in microbial process development. I demonstrated such skills, to cite one example, after my boss asked me to resolve a problem where a bench-scale E. coli fermentation had dropped 20% in yield, suddenly and without apparent cause. My approach was to take it back to shake flasks and do a bioanalytical study. I found a way to improve the media so that we were able to get the process up and running again, with a 7% increase in throughput for the secondary metabolite of interest.”

Paragraph Three: In marketing circles, this is known as the “call to action.” Whether you are writing a web-page for a product or a cover letter for an employment package, the call to action provides critical closure for your message. Marketing experts will tell you that the key to a call to action lies in its simplicity, so don’t overdo it. The goal is to suggest a course of action: “I would love to have an opportunity to meet with you or your HR business partner, in person or by phone, to discuss your company’s needs and my fit with those needs. Alternatively, I’ll be in Boston next month for the ASM meeting, and I’ll check in with you beforehand to see if we can meet.” Of course, if there are any “issues” with your CV — a long gap due to illness, parenting, or unemployment — this is the paragraph where you must defuse those.

That’s all you need: three simple paragraphs fine-tuned to the employer’s requirements. Whether it is an e-mail or — better — a nicely formatted Word document or PDF, don’t lose this opportunity to reinforce your fit, or to clarify some issue that otherwise might scare people off. While it may not be as important, or as widely read, as it once was, the cover letter remains an important tool in finding a job.