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I've applied for around 60 jobs over the last year. I'm not sure how much time was wasted crafting cover letters that actually explain why I would be a good fit

I've applied for around 60 jobs over the last year. I'm not sure how much time was wasted crafting cover letters that actually explain why I would be a good fit. They are not worth the effort. Spray and pray seems like a better approach time wise. You never know what these recruiters actually want, or if they even know, so by the numbers you might get lucky if you just apply for everything. Infact I was just thinking about automating the process yesterday, which is why this post sparked my interest.

mikekchar 10y ago
There seems something not quite right here. I'm trying hard to phrase this in a constructive way, so if I say something that seems unkind, please forgive me. 60 applications in a year seems like a strange rate. That's 12 a month. If you are currently employed and looking casually, then I suppose it's reasonable, but it's really, really low if you are unemployed. Also, the time frame seems really strange. After 12 applications in a month, I would expect at least 1 interview. If you are doing this consistently then a reasonable target would be to expect to be hired in about 3 months. So with a year of this, if you haven't been hired, then I think something has gone wrong. I wonder if you are experiencing problems with having a high rate of rejection, which might actually be made worse with automation. I've given this advice before, but I'll try to keep it short this time. Job searching is a full time job. Even if you are currently employed, it really makes sense to prioritise some of your personal time to work on it as if it were a part time job. Your CV is really important. If you are not getting interviews with 10-20% of your applications, then I would focus on it first. Go to the library and read a few books on writing a resume. It helped me dramatically when I was first starting out. Take your CV to friends in the industry and ask for feedback. Also, if you are lucky enough to be in a big vibrant city, you should prioritise going to meet ups as often as you can. Print personal business cards with a link to your online CV. Get stuck in and talk to people. It doesn't come easily to some, but you get better with practice. Get in the habit of giving your card to people. If they mention that they are hiring, make sure to get their contact details and follow up with an email later. These days I think it is almost imperative if you are a programmer to have a portfolio. Many people put a link to their github account. Often when I look I find a collection of half-hearted Rails projects 90% of which is generated code. A portfolio should be organized. It should highlight your skills. Even a single project can be your portfolio. The automation project here would make a fantastic portfolio project for a junior-intermediate programmer. Personally, I would interview them on the strength of the initiative alone. Build at least one interesting and useful project. Or build many katas and explain why you think they are good katas. Or write lots of blog posts. Organize them into a website and make it easy to find the bits that show your good points. In the past, my portfolio has outright given me jobs. Getting your CV in order and getting a good portfolio together is a huge job. It can take a month of full time work to get something worth presenting. But it's worth it. After you get it started, you should try to spend some time on your portfolio every week to keep it fresh and interesting. That way it gets stronger over time. Finally interviews. These are skills. I will give you a good tip. Nobody interviews someone that they think they aren't going to hire. It makes no sense. So in a way, the job is already yours by the time you get to the interview. Your job is to confirm their suspicion that you have the skills for the job and that you will fit well into their team. Honestly, a good rate is about 1-2 offers per 3 interviews. That seems very high, but like I said, the job is already yours if you get to the interview. If you are having trouble getting the offers, again visit your library and read books on job interviews (there are lots of them). Go and practice with friends in the industry and get feedback. One small tip I'll leave you with is that it is just as important that you interview the company than the company interviews you. Usually I find that with 3 interviews, in 1 we both realize that it is not a good fit. In another only one of us realizes it is not a good fit. In the last, there is an offer that is accepted. Anyway, I failed to keep this short (again). I really should write a blog post (or several) about it. I hope it helps you (or someone else who stumbles across it). After saying all that, a cover letter is quite important. But I hope you can see that it is the icing on the cake. Compared to everything else you need to do, it takes almost no time.
- piokuc 10y ago
  Lots of good advise here. A job applying bot is a cool idea, though, with NLP and ML stuff I'm sure it can go way beyond simple spamming.
- johnward 10y ago
  I really appreciate the time you took to write this constructive reply. I'm employed but looking and also selective of what I will take right now. If I was out of work I probably would have taken something already or moved. I work remotely now and would like to avoid a commute still. I also narrow down the jobs to things I think I could actually be a good fit for which might be one reason the number seems lower to you. After such high rejection I'm pretty sure something is wrong with me. One issue is that I'm consultant and the product is basically only implemented by my company. The thing that I'm the best at is not valuable on the market. I have other general web development skills. One of the products I implement is RoR based. I end up writing a decent amount of ruby/html/css/js widgets that integrate with the product. I'm targeting Front-end Dev and RoR jobs because those are the parts of my day that I actually enjoy. I also target software consulting roles because I have that background. With development jobs I find that I'm not a "real developer". With consulting roles they generally want experience with their specific application or industry. I basically only got my current job because they were looking for warm bodies. I ended up doing great and we got acquired but I'm not thrilled with the new employer. I find it hard to qualify for junior dev roles and if I do it's usually such a drastic pay cut that I can't really consider it. I'm almost to the point that I would be will to take a cut though. I'm probably going to end up stuck where I am until a layoff then forced to take something at lower pay.

mikekchar 10y ago

There seems something not quite right here. I'm trying hard to phrase this in a constructive way, so if I say something that seems unkind, please forgive me. 60 applications in a year seems like a strange rate. That's 12 a month. If you are currently employed and looking casually, then I suppose it's reasonable, but it's really, really low if you are unemployed. Also, the time frame seems really strange. After 12 applications in a month, I would expect at least 1 interview. If you are doing this consistently then a reasonable target would be to expect to be hired in about 3 months. So with a year of this, if you haven't been hired, then I think something has gone wrong. I wonder if you are experiencing problems with having a high rate of rejection, which might actually be made worse with automation. I've given this advice before, but I'll try to keep it short this time. Job searching is a full time job. Even if you are currently employed, it really makes sense to prioritise some of your personal time to work on it as if it were a part time job. Your CV is really important. If you are not getting interviews with 10-20% of your applications, then I would focus on it first. Go to the library and read a few books on writing a resume. It helped me dramatically when I was first starting out. Take your CV to friends in the industry and ask for feedback. Also, if you are lucky enough to be in a big vibrant city, you should prioritise going to meet ups as often as you can. Print personal business cards with a link to your online CV. Get stuck in and talk to people. It doesn't come easily to some, but you get better with practice. Get in the habit of giving your card to people. If they mention that they are hiring, make sure to get their contact details and follow up with an email later. These days I think it is almost imperative if you are a programmer to have a portfolio. Many people put a link to their github account. Often when I look I find a collection of half-hearted Rails projects 90% of which is generated code. A portfolio should be organized. It should highlight your skills. Even a single project can be your portfolio. The automation project here would make a fantastic portfolio project for a junior-intermediate programmer. Personally, I would interview them on the strength of the initiative alone. Build at least one interesting and useful project. Or build many katas and explain why you think they are good katas. Or write lots of blog posts. Organize them into a website and make it easy to find the bits that show your good points. In the past, my portfolio has outright given me jobs. Getting your CV in order and getting a good portfolio together is a huge job. It can take a month of full time work to get something worth presenting. But it's worth it. After you get it started, you should try to spend some time on your portfolio every week to keep it fresh and interesting. That way it gets stronger over time. Finally interviews. These are skills. I will give you a good tip. Nobody interviews someone that they think they aren't going to hire. It makes no sense. So in a way, the job is already yours by the time you get to the interview. Your job is to confirm their suspicion that you have the skills for the job and that you will fit well into their team. Honestly, a good rate is about 1-2 offers per 3 interviews. That seems very high, but like I said, the job is already yours if you get to the interview. If you are having trouble getting the offers, again visit your library and read books on job interviews (there are lots of them). Go and practice with friends in the industry and get feedback. One small tip I'll leave you with is that it is just as important that you interview the company than the company interviews you. Usually I find that with 3 interviews, in 1 we both realize that it is not a good fit. In another only one of us realizes it is not a good fit. In the last, there is an offer that is accepted. Anyway, I failed to keep this short (again). I really should write a blog post (or several) about it. I hope it helps you (or someone else who stumbles across it). After saying all that, a cover letter is quite important. But I hope you can see that it is the icing on the cake. Compared to everything else you need to do, it takes almost no time.

piokuc 10y ago
Lots of good advise here. A job applying bot is a cool idea, though, with NLP and ML stuff I'm sure it can go way beyond simple spamming.
johnward 10y ago
I really appreciate the time you took to write this constructive reply. I'm employed but looking and also selective of what I will take right now. If I was out of work I probably would have taken something already or moved. I work remotely now and would like to avoid a commute still. I also narrow down the jobs to things I think I could actually be a good fit for which might be one reason the number seems lower to you. After such high rejection I'm pretty sure something is wrong with me. One issue is that I'm consultant and the product is basically only implemented by my company. The thing that I'm the best at is not valuable on the market. I have other general web development skills. One of the products I implement is RoR based. I end up writing a decent amount of ruby/html/css/js widgets that integrate with the product. I'm targeting Front-end Dev and RoR jobs because those are the parts of my day that I actually enjoy. I also target software consulting roles because I have that background. With development jobs I find that I'm not a "real developer". With consulting roles they generally want experience with their specific application or industry. I basically only got my current job because they were looking for warm bodies. I ended up doing great and we got acquired but I'm not thrilled with the new employer. I find it hard to qualify for junior dev roles and if I do it's usually such a drastic pay cut that I can't really consider it. I'm almost to the point that I would be will to take a cut though. I'm probably going to end up stuck where I am until a layoff then forced to take something at lower pay.