No I do not owe you a cover letter

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I make my decision about whom to interview based on the cover letter. It’s invaluable.

+1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agreed OP. I'm a fed applying for state and local jobs right now and they're killing me. I have to enter data for each job into the online system (revising each time because they're such different jobs), so I can't just upload a resume, plus a physical address for every school I've attended and reference info, and the answer a series of short answer questions. I can't even manage to do all of that in one night after my kids go to bed. Add a cover letter, and I'm not even able to finish a single application in one night.

Yes, I hate these systems. I am a hiring manager and my employer uses this. But when I review candidates I just look at their resumes. I find it so disrespectful to job seekers to make them input all of this information. What a pointless waste of time

There are a lot of jobs I haven't applied to because those systems are so onerous. I guess no loss for the employers - I'm sure they found someone better than me! - but I truly hate them. And they seem so pointless - you and your AI can both scan my resume just fine!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I make my decision about whom to interview based on the cover letter. It’s invaluable.

It's who.

No, it is whom. The interviewee is the object.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From an employer perspective, they’re not interested in people sending out a high volume of applications. Write a letter or not. I’ve seen plenty of good resumes that tailored the summary well enough to avoid needing a cover letter. I’d be more concerned with hiring someone who is going to complain about every policy and process, since that’s just part of having a job.

Conversely, I'm very interested in people who challenge "the way we've always done it" because they will move my department forward.

[Anonymous]

I’ve had better luck landing an interview with a cover letter. Unless you have someone personally vouching for you, the cover letter can be used as a 30 second pitch. The resume pings all the keywords from the job posting, and the cover letter fleshes out the context and highlights the most relevant experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From an employer perspective, they’re not interested in people sending out a high volume of applications. Write a letter or not. I’ve seen plenty of good resumes that tailored the summary well enough to avoid needing a cover letter. I’d be more concerned with hiring someone who is going to complain about every policy and process, since that’s just part of having a job.

Conversely, I'm very interested in people who challenge "the way we've always done it" because they will move my department forward.

I like people who will do this, so long as they show me how carefully they’ve thought about the proposed change and why they think it will work. Usually a person who does this well can also write a cover letter easily and well.

[Anonymous]

Cover letters are as useless as letters of recommendations for college/university applications.

[Anonymous]

We get so many crap applications that I pretty much don’t look at anything without a cover letter. Better to have a chat gpt letter than nothing, but a compelling, excellently written cover letter goes a long way in my hiring, especially if your resume is not an obvious fit. For specialized jobs you really want, it’s worth the time. If it’s something that’s a long shot anyway or more basic / common skills, I could see skipping.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don't owe a cover letter any more than they owe a job.

Were you raised by wolves?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don’t have to provide a cover letter.

And they don’t have to provide you with a job.

Who hurt you?

[Anonymous]

All good points.
There are cover letters that have made a difference, pro and con, for a candidate.
There are industries…higher Ed, private schools, for instance…where they may be the expectation.

By and large, you can stress key points in a summary heading of your resume….and change that for different jobs. Then pdf it each time.

[Anonymous]

Im a hiring manager and often read the cover letter before the resume.

[Anonymous]

I go back and forth on this. On one hand, it's super frustrating to spend time writing a cover letter for a job that requires 10+ years experience. On the other hand, if the job requires alot of writing, I could see the benefit from the hiring managers perspective.

[Anonymous]

I think it's just an issue of how much are you asking. Do you have a complicated ATS that requires re entering every line on your resume into a different format, with additional info like employer street addresses and phone, and short answer questions requiring narratives about your relevant experience? Then maybe don't expect a specifically tailored resume and a cover letter ON TOP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All good points.
There are cover letters that have made a difference, pro and con, for a candidate.
There are industries…higher Ed, private schools, for instance…where they may be the expectation.

By and large, you can stress key points in a summary heading of your resume….and change that for different jobs. Then pdf it each time.

That's a completely different kind of job search. For a private school teaching position, it is more like a mission statement. You write it once and work with a recruiter. Not comparable to someone applying for 100+ jobs.