3 ms·

The mythos around cover letters seems totally wrong to me. You're telling me that when presented with two candidates, companies routinely pick the less qualifi

The mythos around cover letters seems totally wrong to me. You're telling me that when presented with two candidates, companies routinely pick the less qualified one because... The cover letter was more personalised? They put more custom messages in there? Come on. They're going to turn down a better CV for an interview because the cover letter was copy-pasted? Come on. Companies like the best candidate they can get for the price, I honestly don't think much else matters.

IneffablePigeon 6y ago
As someone who screens a bunch of applications, absolutely I'll factor in a cover letter. For me, the presence of a cover letter with half an attempt at customisation to the company and job ad demonstrates they actually care at least a little about this role at this company. And if it's well written then that demonstrates communication skills which I value highly in my colleagues. It's really not often clear cut which one of two CVs is the "best qualified". The cover letter is just a bit more signal that will often swing my decision towards "let's take a punt".
- bananaface 6y ago
  So in other words: if they have a good CV, they'll get through to the next stage regardless, but if they're a punt candidate then the cover letter might make a difference, maybe? I would then ask: if I'm a punt candidate to begin with, the number of interviews I get is primarily a factor of how many applications I fire off into the crapshoot, right? What's the increase in success rate for applications with cover letters? Is it enough to outweigh the reduction in applications I can send from hand-crafting each of them?
- hackinthebochs 6y ago
  >demonstrates they actually care at least a little about this role at this company But why does that matter to you other than ego? Barring some exceptionally unique work your company does, we know that the applicant wants to work there because you offer money for their particular skills. Why perpetuate a culture of bullshitting?
- vultour 6y ago
  People want to work somewhere to earn money. I assume you're one of those people that likes to ask "Why do you want to work here?". I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but unless you're a charity or doing something groundbreaking (e.g. SpaceX), the only reason people want to work for your company is money.
wojciii 6y ago
I generated the cover letters using some Python. This gave me 60% success rate (got me an interview).
- bananaface 6y ago
  Yeah, this seems like the best strategy, especially if you have GPT-3 beta access.
- Drdrdrq 6y ago
  Yes, but what would the success rate be without the cover letter? Without the control group this doesn't mean much.

IneffablePigeon 6y ago

As someone who screens a bunch of applications, absolutely I'll factor in a cover letter. For me, the presence of a cover letter with half an attempt at customisation to the company and job ad demonstrates they actually care at least a little about this role at this company. And if it's well written then that demonstrates communication skills which I value highly in my colleagues. It's really not often clear cut which one of two CVs is the "best qualified". The cover letter is just a bit more signal that will often swing my decision towards "let's take a punt".

bananaface 6y ago
So in other words: if they have a good CV, they'll get through to the next stage regardless, but if they're a punt candidate then the cover letter might make a difference, maybe? I would then ask: if I'm a punt candidate to begin with, the number of interviews I get is primarily a factor of how many applications I fire off into the crapshoot, right? What's the increase in success rate for applications with cover letters? Is it enough to outweigh the reduction in applications I can send from hand-crafting each of them?
hackinthebochs 6y ago
>demonstrates they actually care at least a little about this role at this company But why does that matter to you other than ego? Barring some exceptionally unique work your company does, we know that the applicant wants to work there because you offer money for their particular skills. Why perpetuate a culture of bullshitting?
vultour 6y ago
People want to work somewhere to earn money. I assume you're one of those people that likes to ask "Why do you want to work here?". I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but unless you're a charity or doing something groundbreaking (e.g. SpaceX), the only reason people want to work for your company is money.

wojciii 6y ago

I generated the cover letters using some Python. This gave me 60% success rate (got me an interview).

bananaface 6y ago
Yeah, this seems like the best strategy, especially if you have GPT-3 beta access.
Drdrdrq 6y ago
Yes, but what would the success rate be without the cover letter? Without the control group this doesn't mean much.