Hiring Wisdom: Cover Letters Are Out, But Facebook Is in

A recent article on Bloomberg.com cites a study of hiring managers Chicago-based consulting firm Addison Group that found that:

  • Only 18 percent of hiring managers think a cover letter is an important part of the screening process and that, if they are read, that they most often lead to prospects being screened out due to typos.
  • Many, especially the Millennials, are relying more on Skype/video dialogues to identify prime candidates for in-person interviews.
  • Some 45 percent of Millennials say they trust Facebook as a source for vetting a job candidate. That’s double the rate at which Gen Xers rely on the site, and triple that of Baby Boomers.

This was originally published on Mel Kleiman’s Humetrics blog.

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Mel Kleiman, CSP, is an internationally-known authority on recruiting, selecting, and hiring hourly employees. He has been the president of Humetrics since 1976 and has over 30 years of practical experience, research, consulting and professional speaking work to his credit. Contact him at mkleiman@humetrics.com.

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