How important is the motivation letter really?

A letter of motivation makes sense if your CV does not yet have much to offer. For example, for career starters or lateral entrants who do not yet have many points on their CV that match the position. Even if your CV does not exactly match the requirements in the job description, you can use your letter of motivation to explain why you still fit the position.

It is particularly important to explain in your motivation letter why you are applying for the position. Say whether you have ever had any personal contact with the field and why you are interested in the position.

These things are particularly important to me in a letter of motivation:

• Address the recruiter directly by name.
• Explain right at the beginning why you would like to apply for this particular position.
• Less is more! - the absolute maximum is one page
• Address situations from your professional life that reflect your qualities, e.g. "I worked on a time-critical project and was able to show that I could hold a lot of strands together."
• Draw a connection between the company and you. To do this, find topics from the website, social media or trade show appearances and make a personal connection to you.
• Don't reproduce your CV 1 by 1, but elaborate on your interests and your motivation behind the application
• When applying, keep in mind: We don't want to hire grades or references, but the person behind them!

No-go's for me are when I notice that the applicant has not dealt with the job and the company and that it is a "copy & paste" application. I usually notice this when the salutation is not my name but "Dear Recruiting Manager" or when the letter does not refer to the job at all.