Cover letter
A cover letter is a short written piece a candidate submits alongside their CV — usually one page, explaining why they want this specific role at this specific company.
Whether cover letters still matter
It depends on where you hire:
- DACH: still expected for most roles. Recruiters read them.
- France: still common, especially for non-tech roles.
- Spain: variable; not always expected for tech roles.
- UK/US English-language tech roles: largely optional; LinkedIn-style profiles have replaced them.
For most European SMB roles, asking for a cover letter is reasonable. Making it required filters out the candidates who’re applying to 50 roles a week.
What a useful cover letter does
It says three things that the CV cannot:
- Why this specific company, not just “a company in your sector.”
- Why this specific role, given what they’ve already done.
- What they want to do next, in plain words.
A cover letter that recycles the CV in paragraph form is worse than no cover letter at all.
The trap: filtering on length
A common SMB mistake: rejecting candidates whose cover letter is short. Length is not signal. A three-sentence cover letter that lands the three sentences cleanly beats a half-page of “I am writing to express my interest in…”