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Thanks for sharing, remote job hunting is challenging. Some constructive feedback: TL;DR. Too much personal fluff and no meat. Nobody cares about your hobbies
by mpetrovich 9y ago
Thanks for sharing, remote job hunting is challenging. Some constructive feedback:
TL;DR. Too much personal fluff and no meat. Nobody cares about your hobbies unless they're directly relevant to the position.
Overly general. You haven't differentiated yourself enough from others applying to the same position.
These kind of cover letters/emails should be highly specific to the company you're applying to. It should answer the HR manager's primary question: Is this applicant the best person to help the company achieve its goals?
Find out from the job description what you're being hired to do, and provide examples of things you've done in the past that are similar. Help the manager imagine how you could apply your experience and talent to that position. And do it quickly, since they're reviewing hundreds of these a day and will spend less than 30 seconds on yours.
Customizing your cover letters in this way is definitely more effort and more time consuming, which means that 99% of applicants won't do it. Be the 1% that stands out.
Finally, the HR filter sucks. Find the actual team managers/members and reach out to them instead. Referrals, even if cold, are better than nothing.
- kostarelo 9y ago> It should answer the HR manager's primary question: Is this applicant the best person to help the company achieve its goals? Yes that's actually something I didn't pay much attention. Thanks, will definitely keep in mind.
- nogbit 9y agoYou should, I did exactly that sometime ago for only the 5 companies at that time who were super interesting to me. For each of their cover letters I told a personal story that was spot on relevant to the position and their mission/values. It demonstrated all the soft skills....each of them called me within a day or two.
- martinald 9y agoAgree entirely. The opening email is a lot of waffle - I'm sure the beaches are nice but the person hiring almost certainly doesn't care. I know the idea was to come across like a friendly person but I feel the tone makes you seem naive tbh. I think a couple of a paragraphs about why you want to work for the company and a CV would suffice. Best of luck with stuff though, an interesting post.