I'd rather create a cover letter than waste time on selection criteria.
this post was submitted on 21 May 2025
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I'm a hiring manager occasionally and I never got a cover letter and I don't care for it. It'll probably be written by AI anyway. Your interview tells me 80% of what I need to know.
I have a few saved cover letters that cover certain role types.
I either copy and paste that in or attach them.
Regardless, getting nowhere with the job search. The job market is cooked.
edit -
and this just popped up in my feed.
I've been putting out 20-50 applications a week since September. So far I get a handful of rejections every day and I've gotten a grand total of 3 first round interviews
I went all out applying in about August last year and I am at about 550+ applications.
I've probably put in about 30+ today alone.
I've had about 6 interviews and only 2 of them were from applications I made, the rest were organised by recruiters that contacted me.
Spoke to an old colleague of mine that did a similar job to me, he got the axe from our company after I left and it took him about 300 applications to get 3 interviews and then finally a job.
Unfortunately for me, I took a role in a niche area because I needed a visa at the time and moved onto another role afterwards but I have too little experience in that area to land another role in it.
So, my main focus is too long ago to land a role, my latest experience is too little to land a role, and my main experience is too niche for me to find any roles.
Speaking to a few recruiters and they all say the same thing, 300+ applications on every role they advertise.
Damn, yeah I get it. I left the military because I saw another trump term on the way, but they had employed me outside my degree field for a decade and didn't provide enough certifications for anything related to what I actually did, so I have zero credibility in anything.
I'm about 400+ applications in and I've only been contacted by companies preying on young people, AI training companies, or scams. None of them have moved me past the first stage.
Terrifying that recruiters are getting so many applications. Good luck out there
Wait, you're talking about remote jobs, right? Where do you even find 550 companies that seek someone in your role?
Remote, hybrid and on-site... everything. I am applying for everything.
Basically, I am applying for any role I have done previously and recently.
Junior, mid and senior roles.
There are loads of IT roles that overlap, so a lot of different things I can do.
I've managed to get two first round interviews, and I'm a "perfect candidate" for one and have been invited to a second interview. They dropped a surprise drug test that wasn't mentioned at any point before, and while they won't find any hard drugs, THC is legal in my state. So if I get past the second interview, I have to just hope they don't care about thc.
At least if they do, I'll have wasted their time as much as mine, and more importantly, their money on the tests.
You got to network. I say that as a deep introvert but I just entered the job market and reached out to my network one on one for recommendations and job postings.
I hate that I have to do that but it's the best way to get a job.
How do you establish networks?
The easiest way is by keeping in contact with your co-workers. Doesn't mean you need to hang out with them but just talk to them, get their personal numbers, etc. But if you want to hang out with them, do so.
It also helps to be the change you want to see. So if someone comes to you for help with a job or something like that, help them. If you have a job opening, reach out to your network first.
The second easiest way is by going to local meetups. Get to know the hosts as well as the attendees. Build these connections before you are searching and again, help out folks who are looking as well.
The hardest way is to cold-call people, even those you've worked with or had a relationship with. If you have to do this, do it. But try to establish some sort of connection before asking them for referrals.
By getting jobs, of course!
Employers get a resume
That's it
If they force a cover letter send the resume again.
Cover letters are one of the few things I've found AI is decent at producing. I give it my resume, the job description, and tell it to write of a cover letter based on those. The employer will most likely skim it or not read it at all, so it doesn't need to be super detailed. Of course, make sure to double-check it for hallucinations.
Of course, make sure to double-check it for hallucinations.
I've been mucking about with a local instance of llama
1st weekend, i got it ruining. i pointed it at the oxygen not included wiki, and asked it a few questions. A couple of weeks later, I pointed it at my linked in prifile, which needed updated. I told it my new job title and to write a new summary
About half way down, it had
| Oxygen not included aficionado
🤣
Ok but that's really fucking funny
It's just messing with you at that point
Yeh i laughed myself. It was easy missed as it was right in the middle of the text were skim reading would likely have missed it
Drag tried that and the AI told the company to look at drag's github account.
Drag's github account is crap, drag didn't tell it to do that.
I can tell you, as a hiring manager I never once looked at a cover letter. Let me see what your resume tells about you.
As a manager that has to do dozens of performance reviews, stop using AI to write your self eval. You used to give me a bulleted list that was quick and human readable. Im gonna start putting character limits on them because all AI is doing is wasting my time
Then do that, don't whine that people are using technology to save time on a pointless activity that doesn't benefit them.
It could be argued that getting a job because your resume isn't terrible is a benefit?
Just get an AI to summarise it for you. Circle of life.
people on LinkedIn swear on cover letters, but i applied to 30+ jobs with 50/50 cover letter usage, the 4 interviews i got were with non-cover letter applications
A lot of automated application portals seem to require it... Considering where AI is at I see that declining in the future however
Same for me. ngl, it appears to me that the cover letter hurts me more than it helps. Though... I really do use ai to make it so... Maybe that's why.
in my experience it literally doesn't matter whether you include one or not
It didnt matter when hunans read applications, now, its an effort filter and an auto-reject if you dont make the computer happy.
"Give me money and I'll do shit for you". Cover letter complete.
Hang on, you're speaking the wrong language here and need to use wasted time words instead.
"Through our mutually agreed arrangement we can accomplish the organizational goals within satisfactory requirements while being cognizant of profits and budgetary availabilities."
This may be specific to my sector (government), but every job posting requires a highly detailed cover letter that addresses numerous specific criteria outlined in some departmental rubric. It takes forever and requires sifting through verbose, corporate-slop documents to grasp their internal jargon and values, etc etc
highly detailed cover letter that addresses numerous specific criteria outlined in some departmental rubric. It takes forever and requires sifting through verbose, corporate-slop documents to grasp their internal jargon and values, etc etc
Sounds like an actually decent use case for an LLM LMAO
Nah. You don't need a cover letter.
So are shitty crops just a thing now, like Instagram tilt?