Do you still need a cover letter? Yes: it's called e-mail.

It?s 2012: e-mail is the cover letter.

Recruiters and career counselors advise to include a cover letter with each job application. However, today?s cover letters look a lot different than those of even a few years ago.

When resumes were chiefly submitted in hard-copy, a cover letter was essential to breathing life into an applicant?s resume as it only tells half of the story. But, as business communications went digital, so did resumes and cover letters. Now with the Internet, applicants face new challenges in shaping their online presence on a cursory Google of their name.

For you, the medium change means a messaging change: instead of attaching a cover letter and a resume, consider your e-mail the cover letter and include within a link to your resume (which Huntsy can provide you), your portfolio, or any web presence that would be useful for the hiring manager to know about.

If my inbox is any indication, many people still choose to attach these cover letters in addition to resumes. In most cases, there?s little need to include a separate cover letter let alone a separate resume. In fact, providing an e-mail with both resume AND cover letter attached seems redundant, if not a bit ridiculous. It demonstrates the candidate as out-of-touch in the modern workplace.

A word of caution: in some old-school industries and at many large corporations, submitting both cover letters and resumes in addition to any e-mail application is still standard and expected practice. Call their HR departments (because these sorts of companies all have HR departments), they?ll let you know of best practices.

When in doubt, a ?traditional? resume PDF attachment to your e-mail will always suffice.

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