How To Decide What To Include In a Cover Letter Enclosure

If you would like to impress your potential employer, you might submit supporting documents that will prove your case that you are the right candidate for the job. You can attach different types of documents: awards from your workplace, skill endorsements, letters of recommendation, character references, or even college or university course transcripts. The most commonly used cover letter enclosure is a reference from a company you worked for. It can be directly from your supervisor, the head of your department, or a HR professional in the company. The more recent this recommendation is, and the more details it includes, the more impressed the person reading your cover letter will be.

You might be required to back up your statements included in your cover letter. As an example, you can say that you overachieved your target by 200 percent, but if you can provide proof and send it as an attachment, you will be establishing your credibility, too. 

You might also mention that you took on extra projects, such as training other team members on using a new system. If you have an official letter thanking you for this contribution, you can win over the person responsible for the company’s recruitment. Remember that managers don’t like taking risks, and the more you can prove that you are ready to support the company the better chance you will have to get hired. 

There are various documents you could attach to a cover letter, such as: employee references, award certificates, internal training certificates, character references, or photos of additional projects you took part in, such as volunteering work. 

It is, however, a question of knowing what the employer is really interested in, as you don’t want to clutter their mailbox with irrelevant information and documents. It will make you look unorganized and unprofessional at the same time. Find out what the company’s priorities are when hiring people, and adjust your attachments accordingly. 

You have to balance the information, as you don’t want the recruiter to be turned off by the number of attachments. It is crucial that you remember that most people are going through dozens of resumes and cover letters a day, and human resources professionals responsible for recruitment often suffer from information overload. 

Write down a list of three priority documents that they would be interested in. Study the job advert, the company website, and the mission, vision, and values statement to find the right cover letter enclosure to go with your application. 

Before you decide which resume enclosure to include in your application, you will have to take into consideration the career level, the role you are applying for, the company’s values and priorities, their HR policies, and the usefulness of the document. 

Always check how relevant the enclosure in the cover letter is to the current job advert and whether it strengthens your case for getting an interview. As an example, if you are applying for a registered nurse job, you might not want to include any references from your early life when you were working in retail. The more recent the documents are, the better they will represent you professionally. 

A cover letter enclosure will not make you too keen. However, if you include everything, independent of how relevant they are, you might look unprofessional and “in need of a job”. While you will have to communicate that you are really determined to get an interview and work for the company, you have to find the right balance. Also, there are certain words you should not include in your cover letter or the attachments if you want to get hired. 

Adding two or three enclosures in a cover letter is acceptable, but you need to have a strong enough reason to attach more than three. 

The best attachments you can add to your application are the ones where you can reference specific projects you have completed successfully that are included either in your resume or your cover letter. For example, you can tell the recruiter that you were responsible for internal training program development, and attach a screenshot of the training you designed. You might also talk about your customer service skills and attach a screenshot of a thank you letter that mentions you by name. Of course, if you did extremely well in college, you can show off your grades, too.

If the company has an informal hiring process, they are not likely to be interested in your grades as much as your skills.  

The general rule is that you will need to include the most recent relevant enclosures in a cover letter first. When you prioritize the attachments, you will have to rank them by recency, relevance, and company culture match. 

If you are planning on sending all the appraisal documents from your last workplace and the one before, you should stop and think. How does it enhance the first impression your future employer will have of you? Also remember that they are selective when it comes to what to read, and they have limited time to review each application. 

There are no rules on how many attachments you should have. The general guideline is to add one or two for each main skill that is required for the role. Of course, the more complex the job you are applying for, the more proof you should be providing. 

Also, if you worked for mainly smaller companies, you might need more references than if you are coming from the market leading company with loads of training and experience. Sometimes your professional background will determine how many enclosures you need. Any more than three attachments for a mid-level job might be considered too many, but for a marketing director position you will have to showcase your past results more. 

Indeed, letters or recommendations will help the employer decide whether they should trust you and give you a chance. Try to go for references from people who directly managed you, and those who vouch for your talent and skills. 

Always check with the people who provide you with a recommendation letter if they are OK to get a follow up call or email from the hiring company or the agency. Include the recommendation letters that have the trigger words that the company has in the job advert and the job description, such as: team player, can-do attitude, or ready for a challenge. 

It is important that you highlight the fact that you added attachments in your cover letter. You will also have to justify why you think that enclosure is relevant to the job. Briefly summarize which of your skills it will show, and introduce the topic. 

If you are attaching a letter of recommendation, a scanned document will be the best option as it will show the content clearly. 

When you attach a certificate, you can either take a photo or link to the image file in your course folder. 

Letters of recommendations should be saved as a PDF document or scanned, so the recruiter can see that the signatures are genuine and you have taken your time to properly format the attachment. 

Even if it is an email, it is better to save it as a PDF document for easy review. 

Hopefully you can now pick the right cover letter enclosure that will impress the hiring manager. 

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