Do You Know What Part of Your LinkedIn Profile is Viewed Most Often?

I’m a talent management consultant that has been helping companies recruit, assess, and develop leaders for over a decade.  I also provide executive coaching to individuals seeking to advance their careers and lately these customers have become increasingly focused on identifying and securing new opportunities outside their current employer as opposed to internal opportunities.  Because of this I’m doing a lot of work to help individuals write resumes, cover letters, and even LinkedIn Profiles, so I ran a Poll on LinkedIn to better understand which part of the LinkedIn Profile is the most important for a good first impression.

Why You Should Always Send a Cover Letter, and What It Should Say

A colleague recently asked me if I read cover letters.  When I said no she asked if I really thought she needed to include one with every resume she forwarded for consideration.  I said, “Yes, job seekers should ALWAYS SEND A COVER LETTER!”

For one simple reason, you never know if the person on the other end “expects” one.  As can happen with thank you letters, you don’t want a hiring manager or recruiter to ding you because you didn’t send one.

Now, I admit I personally don’t read cover letters.  I’ve been recruiting executives for over a decade and discovered a long time ago that they rarely help me better assess a candidate’s strengths and weaknesses nor do they help determine which are the better resumes.  Boy it would be nice if they did!

That said I’m going to offer a FREE GIFT to all the readers of this post.  A template cover letter that I use with job search coaching clients that I believe actually does help the reader determine strengths and whether or not they should read the resume.