3 ms·

109 applications to 60 interviews is a phenomenal hit rate. I’m mixed on cover letters. I rarely read them, and a poorly written one can do more harm than good

109 applications to 60 interviews is a phenomenal hit rate. I’m mixed on cover letters. I rarely read them, and a poorly written one can do more harm than good. They can be used to explain why a non-obvious candidate may be a good fit, but that’s usually better done via 3 bullet points attached to a referral.

scarface74 6y ago
Not really. I was just your average every day software as a service CRUD developer from 2008-2018 living in a major metropolitan area on the east coast - not NYC. Before that I had stayed at a job for a decade writing programs for batch processing in C. 2012 - after the company I worked for went out a business, I landed a contract to perm role in less than 2 weeks. The company was crappy and I just sent an email and didn’t come back to work after lunch. I met a recruiter for lunch that day. They submitted my resume to a company the same day. By that Friday I had an offer - for what a company that had recently been acquired by a f10 non software company. 2014 - emailed three recruiters. Submitted my resume to 8 jobs. Out of those 8, 7 phone screens, 2 - pay too low. 5 in person or scheduled for in person 1 - rejection 2 - offers 2 - cancelled in person. I accepted an offer after four days looking. 2016 16 applications all through external recruiters. 6 - Hiring on hold/position filled 7 - phone screens/either interview in person or I cancelled the in person. 2 - offers. This was again within three weeks. 2018 - two applications, 1 offer in two weeks. 2020 - I was passively looking after a Covid related paycut. A recruiter from $BigTech emailed me about a remote position. The process from start to finish took two months, 1 technical phone screen and a 5 interview loop. This was for a cloud consulting position.
- mathattack 6y ago
  Interesting. And congrats on the recent move. Cloud for $BigTech is a great place now. One of the few inevitable growth spots in an awful broader market.

scarface74 6y ago

Not really. I was just your average every day software as a service CRUD developer from 2008-2018 living in a major metropolitan area on the east coast - not NYC. Before that I had stayed at a job for a decade writing programs for batch processing in C. 2012 - after the company I worked for went out a business, I landed a contract to perm role in less than 2 weeks. The company was crappy and I just sent an email and didn’t come back to work after lunch. I met a recruiter for lunch that day. They submitted my resume to a company the same day. By that Friday I had an offer - for what a company that had recently been acquired by a f10 non software company. 2014 - emailed three recruiters. Submitted my resume to 8 jobs. Out of those 8, 7 phone screens, 2 - pay too low. 5 in person or scheduled for in person 1 - rejection 2 - offers 2 - cancelled in person. I accepted an offer after four days looking. 2016 16 applications all through external recruiters. 6 - Hiring on hold/position filled 7 - phone screens/either interview in person or I cancelled the in person. 2 - offers. This was again within three weeks. 2018 - two applications, 1 offer in two weeks. 2020 - I was passively looking after a Covid related paycut. A recruiter from $BigTech emailed me about a remote position. The process from start to finish took two months, 1 technical phone screen and a 5 interview loop. This was for a cloud consulting position.

mathattack 6y ago
Interesting. And congrats on the recent move. Cloud for $BigTech is a great place now. One of the few inevitable growth spots in an awful broader market.