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

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.