I look at it as how is my time best spent. I could send a default resume/cover letter to 100 companies in the time it takes me to send 2-3 well crafted cover l

I look at it as how is my time best spent. I could send a default resume/cover letter to 100 companies in the time it takes me to send 2-3 well crafted cover letters to companies I'd actually like to work for. It's the "Penis Craig's list Effect" (Credit: Ramit Sethi). Basically you can send a picture of your penis (resume) and sound like a desperate creeper(cover letter) to 100 women on crags list. Or you can figure out what you think 2-3 women actually want and write something specifically for them. Funded tech companies probably won't pass up a proactive, solid programmer that shows some competency through a blog, side projects, weekend projects, etc, etc.