Do they still matter?
For large-volume online applications, often not much. For small and mid size employers, and for any job where a human posts the opening and reads the responses, they matter a great deal. Write one. It takes ten minutes with a template and it is the only place you can explain a career change or a gap in your own words.
The four paragraph structure
- Opening: the job title, where you saw it, and one sentence on why you are a fit. Name the referral here if you have one, because that is the single strongest opening line available.
- Proof: two or three sentences tying your specific experience to the two most important requirements in the posting.
- Fit: one short paragraph on why this employer specifically, showing you read something about them beyond the posting.
- Close: a direct statement that you would welcome an interview, plus your phone and email.
Rules that save you
One page, never more. Address a person if you can find one, "Hiring Manager" if you cannot, never "To Whom It May Concern." Do not restate the resume. Do not open with "I am writing to apply for," which wastes your best line. Check the company name in every version, because pasting the wrong one is the fastest rejection in the business.
Explaining a career change
Name the change directly, then bridge it: what transfers, what you have already done in the new direction, and why the move is deliberate rather than accidental. Employers do not object to career changers. They object to career changers who seem to be guessing.
The follow up email
A short note five to seven business days after applying, to a named person where possible: reaffirm interest, restate one specific qualification, offer to provide anything useful. This alone moves a meaningful number of applications from the pile to the screen.