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So the next question is... Does the cover letter even matter? Is the cover letter the reason I got past HR in the first place? Or did they just shred my letter,

So the next question is... Does the cover letter even matter? Is the cover letter the reason I got past HR in the first place? Or did they just shred my letter, speed read my resume, and slap it up to you because I got enough buzz words in the resume? Or more probably somewhere in between?

dkarl 16y ago
I'll describe the situation as I believe it was at my company before we were acquired by MegaCorp. HR was in charge of processing applications but had no influence over which applications were considered. They enforced whatever absolute requirements the hiring manager specified for a particular position, but considering we have senior developers with no college coursework, much less college degrees, I bet our hiring managers were wise enough to specify very few absolute requirements. Our HR personnel knew nothing whatsoever about software development skills and were not expected to. However, HR did process the applications, and the result of that was that a manager with an open position would get a big stack of resumes on his desk every few days. The key word here being "resumes," rather than "applications." I never heard a manager say anything about reading cover letters, or saying things like "so-and-so's cover letter says he's interested in <blah>." When we met to discuss candidates, the only sources of information people mentioned were resume, phone screen, and interview. So what's the point of the cover letter, you ask? I guess it varies. In my company, the cover letter was evidently only read (or more likely simply discarded) by HR, who had no input in hiring decisions. In a smaller organization, the hiring manager might see the entire application, including the cover letter, which the manager would most likely ignore. In a larger organization, ignorant HR folks might be making judgments about candidates' suitability for the job, and in that case the cover letter might mean a great deal, since the resume would be gibberish to them.

dkarl 16y ago

I'll describe the situation as I believe it was at my company before we were acquired by MegaCorp. HR was in charge of processing applications but had no influence over which applications were considered. They enforced whatever absolute requirements the hiring manager specified for a particular position, but considering we have senior developers with no college coursework, much less college degrees, I bet our hiring managers were wise enough to specify very few absolute requirements. Our HR personnel knew nothing whatsoever about software development skills and were not expected to. However, HR did process the applications, and the result of that was that a manager with an open position would get a big stack of resumes on his desk every few days. The key word here being "resumes," rather than "applications." I never heard a manager say anything about reading cover letters, or saying things like "so-and-so's cover letter says he's interested in <blah>." When we met to discuss candidates, the only sources of information people mentioned were resume, phone screen, and interview. So what's the point of the cover letter, you ask? I guess it varies. In my company, the cover letter was evidently only read (or more likely simply discarded) by HR, who had no input in hiring decisions. In a smaller organization, the hiring manager might see the entire application, including the cover letter, which the manager would most likely ignore. In a larger organization, ignorant HR folks might be making judgments about candidates' suitability for the job, and in that case the cover letter might mean a great deal, since the resume would be gibberish to them.