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Don't well written cover letters help employers quickly evaluate a large number of applications? And don't complain that you don't get them along with the resu

Don't well written cover letters help employers quickly evaluate a large number of applications? And don't complain that you don't get them along with the resumes. 1) Ask for a cover letter explaining why you are a fit for the job. 2) Discard applications that don't include them. 3) Resist the urge to look through the resumes anyway. And if you directly ask for a cover letter, and you get anm application that doesn't have one, send the applicant a form letter that says. "This is a form letter. Apparently you do not care about finding a job because you failed to follow the instructions in the job posting. We have deleted your application/email. If you still want to be considered for the job, apply again WITH A COVER LETTER that explains why you are the right fit for the job". If Employers want Job Applicants to do the right thing, then they need to be proactive and teach. Nobody else trains job applicants how to apply for a job, how to help the employer see quickly that you deserve to get an interview.

slyall 11y ago
> Ask for a cover letter explaining why you are a fit for the job How does this help anything. Plenty of these out there which the applicant can attached to the application. "I am very enthusiastic to leverage my [INSERT HERE] skills to help [COMPANY] transform the [WHATEVER] industry "
- raverbashing 11y ago
  This 99% of cover letters will just be, self-importance exaggeration, prospective employer excessive praise, etc.
  - tomjen3 11y ago
    And resumes are not? I am a decent programmer but not exceptional, but when you read my resume you will see that I am a child prodigy - and that is done without any lying at all just selective highlighting facts.
    - vonmoltke 11y ago
      Mine isn't. Maybe that's my problem. :P
      - hodwik 11y ago
        That's your problem.
    - raverbashing 11y ago
      I'd say there's a bit of Dunning-Kruger effect Some people will describe their work as "Built an application from scratch that filters numbers based on mathematical properties while also generating said list of numbers based on stakeholders specification" (This is FizzBuzz btw) They put on paper everything the recruiter wants to hear, they recognize no weakness on themselves, they "accept all challenges", etc
pluma 11y ago
Cover letters are worthless unless you're looking for salespeople. You don't want applicants that can convince you they're obsessive fans of your company, you want applicants that are interested in their work and whose interests line up with the job you're offering. For many jobs, you don't even need that. There are a lot of jobs where any given applicant will have applied to dozens if not hundreds of companies. The only thing an enthusiastic cover letter tells you in those cases is that they are lying. Unless you're looking for co-founders or C-level managers, they don't have to have big ideas about how they can make your company better. But they should know how to do their job and be interested in finding ways to help you help them do their job better. Job applications are for coarse filtering based on vague qualifiers. Two years experience as a C# drone at a bank? Too bad, we're looking for Clojure greybeards. Shoddy formatting and everything is misspelled? We need people that care about the quality of their deliverables. And so on. It's a first impression, not a hiring decision. Of course this all depends on the number of applicants, the number of openings and the size of the company. But yes, if you expect certain things to be in a job application, be explicit about it. If you want the cover letter to answer some interview questions ahead of the actual interview, say so.

slyall 11y ago

> Ask for a cover letter explaining why you are a fit for the job How does this help anything. Plenty of these out there which the applicant can attached to the application. "I am very enthusiastic to leverage my [INSERT HERE] skills to help [COMPANY] transform the [WHATEVER] industry "

raverbashing 11y ago
This 99% of cover letters will just be, self-importance exaggeration, prospective employer excessive praise, etc.
- tomjen3 11y ago
  And resumes are not? I am a decent programmer but not exceptional, but when you read my resume you will see that I am a child prodigy - and that is done without any lying at all just selective highlighting facts.
  - vonmoltke 11y ago
    Mine isn't. Maybe that's my problem. :P
    - hodwik 11y ago
      That's your problem.
  - raverbashing 11y ago
    I'd say there's a bit of Dunning-Kruger effect Some people will describe their work as "Built an application from scratch that filters numbers based on mathematical properties while also generating said list of numbers based on stakeholders specification" (This is FizzBuzz btw) They put on paper everything the recruiter wants to hear, they recognize no weakness on themselves, they "accept all challenges", etc

pluma 11y ago

Cover letters are worthless unless you're looking for salespeople. You don't want applicants that can convince you they're obsessive fans of your company, you want applicants that are interested in their work and whose interests line up with the job you're offering. For many jobs, you don't even need that. There are a lot of jobs where any given applicant will have applied to dozens if not hundreds of companies. The only thing an enthusiastic cover letter tells you in those cases is that they are lying. Unless you're looking for co-founders or C-level managers, they don't have to have big ideas about how they can make your company better. But they should know how to do their job and be interested in finding ways to help you help them do their job better. Job applications are for coarse filtering based on vague qualifiers. Two years experience as a C# drone at a bank? Too bad, we're looking for Clojure greybeards. Shoddy formatting and everything is misspelled? We need people that care about the quality of their deliverables. And so on. It's a first impression, not a hiring decision. Of course this all depends on the number of applicants, the number of openings and the size of the company. But yes, if you expect certain things to be in a job application, be explicit about it. If you want the cover letter to answer some interview questions ahead of the actual interview, say so.