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Does anyone write cover letters anymore when applying for jobs online? I’ve been applying to a few roles and getting a good amount of callbacks without submitt

by cgb223 4y ago

Does anyone write cover letters anymore when applying for jobs online? I’ve been applying to a few roles and getting a good amount of callbacks without submitting a cover letter or anything. My friend is a FAANG recruiter and basically says he doesn’t have time to read them so they don’t matter to him personally. Are they still a good use of time to write?

neodypsis 4y ago
For academic jobs, I guess.
wpietri 4y ago
Depends a lot on the hiring process. And on the cover letter. For my process, resume spammers are a problem; I want people actually interested in the job. So I'll have some sort of turing test. One way to pass that is to write enough of a job-specific cover letter. Especially valuable to me is a few sentences on why you personally are a match for the specific role. I think it's also valuable for people whose resume doesn't totally tell the story of why they're the right person. E.g., I recall a cover letter from somebody who had been out of the industry for a few years; it was good that they recognized the issue and had thought about how to overcome it. It's similarly good for people who are changing tracks a bit. But yeah, I'm sure a lot of places pay little attention to the humans they're hiring, so if you're happy working at a place like that, they're fine to skip.
exitb 4y ago
They’re useful in certain situations, for example when your skill/experience set does not completely match the role requirements, but you still want to make a case for yourself. As a person involved in hiring process at a small, but established company, I can say they’re definitely read, when submitted.
serial_dev 4y ago
My default approach is write a cover letter if it comes from the heart (yes, really). I got all my recent jobs without a cover letter. I didn't feel any connection to the jobs or people knew me already well and wanted to hire me. I never felt like copying 5 paragraphs of bs just to check a box. The last time I wrote a cover letter I really wanted the position and I really felt that I'm an excellent match for their requirements. It was a forming team, where the technical person was my friend, but the decision was up to a business person higher up. I wanted him to know already before the interview that I'm serious about this position. The interview went well, they both mentioned at a later point my cover letter, and I enjoyed working there. I have just been through the Google interviews, and all the googler acquaintances told me, "don't bother with the cover letter, either your CV is good enough to get to the technical phone screening or not". One even said that the only reason to write a cover letter "if it makes you feel better", because it will make zero difference throughout the whole process. YMMV.
DrewADesign 4y ago
For a straight-ahead technical role in an organization that will likely get a stack of candidates and sort them by qualification, then probably not. For any job that requires interpersonal nuance or lots of cooperative teamwork or artistic creativity, the cover letter could be more important than the resume. I've evaluated candidates for both types of roles.
krageon 4y ago
> Are they still a good use of time to write? No. If someone that matters reviews your resume, they won't care about the letter. It is something people write when they expect they'll be read by HR. In that case, you should write a single cover letter and have a few templated bits (the company, some parts of the industry they work in, maybe an anecdote related to those industries) that you swap out. Even that is IMO too much effort for something that won't benefit anyone but people not qualified to evaluate you.
chrisseaton 4y ago
Your cover letter should be reaching out to someone on the team you want to work on to say you're applying and why you're interested.

by cgb223 4y ago

neodypsis 4y ago

For academic jobs, I guess.

wpietri 4y ago

Depends a lot on the hiring process. And on the cover letter. For my process, resume spammers are a problem; I want people actually interested in the job. So I'll have some sort of turing test. One way to pass that is to write enough of a job-specific cover letter. Especially valuable to me is a few sentences on why you personally are a match for the specific role. I think it's also valuable for people whose resume doesn't totally tell the story of why they're the right person. E.g., I recall a cover letter from somebody who had been out of the industry for a few years; it was good that they recognized the issue and had thought about how to overcome it. It's similarly good for people who are changing tracks a bit. But yeah, I'm sure a lot of places pay little attention to the humans they're hiring, so if you're happy working at a place like that, they're fine to skip.

exitb 4y ago

They’re useful in certain situations, for example when your skill/experience set does not completely match the role requirements, but you still want to make a case for yourself. As a person involved in hiring process at a small, but established company, I can say they’re definitely read, when submitted.

serial_dev 4y ago

My default approach is write a cover letter if it comes from the heart (yes, really). I got all my recent jobs without a cover letter. I didn't feel any connection to the jobs or people knew me already well and wanted to hire me. I never felt like copying 5 paragraphs of bs just to check a box. The last time I wrote a cover letter I really wanted the position and I really felt that I'm an excellent match for their requirements. It was a forming team, where the technical person was my friend, but the decision was up to a business person higher up. I wanted him to know already before the interview that I'm serious about this position. The interview went well, they both mentioned at a later point my cover letter, and I enjoyed working there. I have just been through the Google interviews, and all the googler acquaintances told me, "don't bother with the cover letter, either your CV is good enough to get to the technical phone screening or not". One even said that the only reason to write a cover letter "if it makes you feel better", because it will make zero difference throughout the whole process. YMMV.

DrewADesign 4y ago

For a straight-ahead technical role in an organization that will likely get a stack of candidates and sort them by qualification, then probably not. For any job that requires interpersonal nuance or lots of cooperative teamwork or artistic creativity, the cover letter could be more important than the resume. I've evaluated candidates for both types of roles.

krageon 4y ago

> Are they still a good use of time to write? No. If someone that matters reviews your resume, they won't care about the letter. It is something people write when they expect they'll be read by HR. In that case, you should write a single cover letter and have a few templated bits (the company, some parts of the industry they work in, maybe an anecdote related to those industries) that you swap out. Even that is IMO too much effort for something that won't benefit anyone but people not qualified to evaluate you.

chrisseaton 4y ago

Your cover letter should be reaching out to someone on the team you want to work on to say you're applying and why you're interested.