Hi there,

I really like this question and am happy to give my perspective on it!

In my estimation, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain with a well crafter cover letter. It's complementary to your resume and generally needed when your resume doesn't tell the full story or isn't as straight forward and requires a bit of a voice over.

Example: I'm a German national and applied to McKinsey Chile after having done my MBA in Spain and worked as a petroleum geologist in 8 countries on 3 continents prior to that for 6+ years. 

→ If you only look at my resume, it looks a bit all over the place

→ If you read my cover letter and personal story, it all makes perfect sense

Hope this helps a bit and please feel free to reach out for any support - this type of personal story telling is a bit of a passion of mine.

Best of luck!

Moritz

(edited)

Hi there, 

Very. 

Firms like McKinsey for example don't even ask for it in some offices. Some recruiters tell you specifically that if you cover letter doesn't provide anything new than what's in the CV, then you shouldn't send it at all. 

But if you write a great cover letter, it can help you a lot. That's because the cover letter and the CV are the two data points that the interviewer also receives before they meet you. It's their chance to learn more about you and to ‘make a first impression’. 

Happy to help if you need a support with developing the cover letter. It's a real asset if you get it right, as I've notice with many candidates by now. 

Best,

Cristian

Hi there,

Depends on office and region.

1. For McKinsey, the cover letter is not important
2. BCG and Bain usually require a cover letter

In any case, you should have one prepared (use a good template). Given the time you have to invest in MBB interview preparation, spending 30min to 1 hour on a cover letter is a no-brainer.

Cheers,

Florian

Hello,

1) Always good to include a cover letter. Whether they see it or not heavily depends on the office / firm / how traditional or not your background is / who the recruiter is / whether you're applying as a professional or a student / are you applying from a target/non target school etc..

2) In your cover letter, make sure to include a) Why you are a good fit for the firm and b) Why the firm is a good fit for you

All the best! Feel free to reach out to me if you need any help with your cover letters!

Rushabh 

Hi there,

I have actually collected and analyzed real application data and have numbers behind this.

Cover letters are table stakes items. If you submit, your odds are better. If you don't, they're worse.

As mentioned by others, McKinsey is one company that truly doesn't care.

I've developed cover letter mass production techniques. This reduces the time to create a cover letter to 20 minutes (once you have the pieces setup). 

With this in mind, why wouldn't you submit a cover letter? No downside (a bit of time) and only potential upside.

Feel free to message if interested in those techniques!

Hi there,

if you go through the lengthy process of preparing for consulting case interviews, you might as well spend a few hours extra crafting a cover letter. For a few simple reasons:

• It provides a platform to tailor your application to the specific firm
• It lends your application your own personal voice to better convey as to why you are the right candidate
• It makes your application look incomplete if you don't have one but other applicants took the additional effort to submit one

In my personal experience during candidate screening, there were cases where I was about to already reject a candidate based on the CV but changed my mind when I read the cover letter. So they got their interviews. 

In a nutshell, there is more upside than downside by including a well-crafted cover letter. I would therefore err on the side of caution.

Good luck

It depends on the seniority.
As a Manager, there is no need. Below is recommended.
You should point at discussing 

• your motivation
• your unique selling point
• that fact that you fit with the company's culture
• that you are a collaborative person

Your wording should be concise, direct, and structured.

It's pretty important in my opinion. While the CV will be critical as this is the first thinf that is reviewed, a cover letter just helpful in telling your story, highlighting key skills and generally framing why you want to work at the company.

I find that the process of writing a cover letter is also helpful as the starting point of your PEI preparation.