
Ask HN: Writing cover letters for tech jobs - scabarott
I really hate writing cover letters as I never know what to write or if anyone is even going to read them.
I see a lot of sites offering advice on how to write generic cover letters, but most all of them don’t seem appropriate (at least to me) for tech jobs - more for formal sales, business jobs. I&#x27;m interested to know what HN’ers with experience on either or both sides have to say by way of advice  - What do you usually write&#x2F;expect, is it even really a requirement?. Do you attach a separate document or just write an informal email. What tone do you take - formal, familiar. Do you summarize your skills experience or just include a link to Github etc.
======
huntero
Cover letters might get lost in the HR departments of larger companies, but
they're incredibly useful to me when sorting through applications at a small
company.

Especially for entry level positions, a well-written cover letter is a much
stronger positive signal than a bullet point style resume. Far too often the
resume is a regurgitation of university class projects and career center
templates.

Think of it like a pre-interview, but you get to choose the questions. Since
most entry-level resumes look the same, this is your chance to explain why you
stand out. (a passion for the industry, strong open-source contributions, etc)

If the position isn't entry level, my advice is the same. Use the opportunity
to stand out and score the interview ( which is where the actual decisions
will get made). At a small company, someone will read it.

~~~
starwind0
I find it funny that we have completely reversed methodologies on hiring. If
someone gave me a resume with bullet point skills as the first thing on the
resume, I would be impressed. Though you can't have too much or too little of
any of these elements.

That is interesting. We are seeking the best way to do something, but we are
forgetting that people, the interviewers are all different, looking for
arbitrarily (but defendable) different things..

Far as new grads. When I got my first job, I did list my class projects, but I
focused more on the internships I had had (3 by that point), as well as my
freelancing, and the work with open source 3d printers. If a new grad only has
projects that would be a red flag.

~~~
erichurkman
I like the compromise. A clear definition of background + what they want out
of a new role. If they are specifically targeting my company, I want to know
that and why ("In a prior role I was a financial analyst. I then went to
college to study computer science" will get a very different level of interest
for specific roles from me than "I went to college and studied computer
science").

------
fecak
Resume writer here that also writes cover letters for clients, converted to
writing after 20 years in tech recruiting. Almost any time that a client asks
for a cover letter, my response is "Here it is, and I hope you never have to
use it".

If you're using a cover letter to apply for a job, it means you have no human
inside the company that is advocating on your behalf. Your friend wouldn't ask
you for a cover letter (in most cases) if he/she was going to refer you
internally. So when you are required to use a cover letter, it usually means
you're applying to a job 100% 'cold' as an outsider.

Unfortunately that may be the case sometimes. If a cover letter is required,
there are a few key elements

1 - prove to the reader that you actually paid a bit of attention to the job
requirement. I spent 20 years in recruiting, and generic cover letters that
clearly weren't written for me ("Dear Esteemed Employer") never got my
attention. I want to know what interested you in this opportunity, or briefly
what you know about the company (could be lots of things).

2 - Talk a bit about what you're interested in from a work perspective. What
kind of work do you want to be doing (and hopefully that is the work we're
offering).

3 - Maybe check off a few boxes from the job spec. If they require a degree
and n years with Python, a few sentences to check off those boxes will make it
easy for the reader (often a recruiter or admin with little experience and
limited knowledge of the domain) to say yes to you as a candidate.

Semi-formal tone. You can link to GitHub, but usually I link GitHub and
LinkedIn on a resume.

~~~
tyingq
>Almost any time that a client asks for a cover letter, my response is "Here
it is, and I hope you never have to use it".

That seems kind of absolute. If I were applying to, say, an auto manufacturer,
the cover letter might be the obvious place to state why I'm interested in
working there. And why I'm a good choice. Like, _" I've always been a car nut.
I even wrote an open source library to access CAN bus data here:
[http://whatever](http://whatever) "_

Basically to say that a personalized, per-company, cover letter might have
significant value. A generic one, perhaps not.

~~~
estsauver
If you're going to throw in links, I would do them as footnotes.

... I even wrote an open source library to access CAN bus data [1]...

Thank you, Name

[1] [http://whatever](http://whatever)

~~~
zhte415
I wouldn't. A pain on stream of consciousness.

------
ravenstine
I almost never need to write my own cover letter. The closest I get to a cover
letter is if I have an opportunity to send an email to a company I like, and I
know the email will go to someone not in HR. If I have no choice but to
interact with HR, either I'll see it as a red flag and won't bother applying
or I'll apply with no cover letter. Yes, this does mean I won't get interviews
at most companies.

Writing cover letters that go to HR is like writing a custom message for every
attractive person on a dating site. Everyone _says_ that's what they want, but
your extra effort will go unappreciated 95% of the time while the goofball who
just sent "sup?" actually got some dates. When it comes to searching for a
job, best to not waste cumulative hours of your life writing material that
won't be appreciated.

~~~
expertentipp
> When it comes to searching for a job, best to not waste cumulative hours of
> your life writing material that won't be appreciated.

Cover letters aside, this includes take home assignments in particular.

~~~
bob_roboto
Having had to go through public interview processes (i.e. not being approached
by the company or referred) recently for the first time in a while I can't
agree more. Take home assignments are fine _after_ an interview. Companies
that send you a take home assignment before they want to talk to you are a
waste of time and quite frankly, it's rude and shows a lack of respect. The
ultimate insult being not getting back to you even though you scored the
maximum on their silly CS undergrad tests.

~~~
expertentipp
> The ultimate insult being not getting back to you even though you scored the
> maximum on their silly CS undergrad tests.

The score is _always_ too low and there are _always_ some tests failing. Just
submit the tasks blank or with dummy code. This way they waste time and money
for the license - that's the only thing one can do in defence.

------
starwind0
Personally I have never really seen the point in writing one. My resume has
all my abilities and even a bit about me. The recruiter is going to scan the
resume and let the computer decide if I get the interview. That said the
smarter thing you can do is copy the job posting, attach it to the end of your
resume. I usually do it in micro print and white, as it's just for the
machines.

Speaking as someone that has interviewed a lot of senior level engineers in
the last 2 years. The fastest way to get a black mark is to hand me an 6 page
resume. Frankly as a lead, with 10 resumes on my desk.. most of whom don't
have the right skill set. The last thing you want to do is make me hunt to see
if you can do the job. Cover letters in the rare case I got them, I didn't
read at all. If your resume interests me I'll look at your linkedin.

That said, I am a senior / lead android dev. So I don't exactly hurt on the
job front.. I have noticed the smaller the company the more they want you to
know about them. Especially start ups (the more obscure and small the higher
the expectation)

~~~
zhte415
Can you not manage time sufficiently to spend 2 minutes reading a 6 page
resume and hopefully spending a good 15+ minutes thinking about what u just
read?

~~~
brailsafe

      minutes = 20; // 2 + 15+
      n = resumes.size(); // 6
      Time t = contemplateResume(minutes, n);
    
      // If you manage time sufficiently,
      // you'll not be spending that much time looking at only the first indication of a candidate's fit for a role

~~~
zhte415
Spend more time on your people then. They're your exponentials.

------
qznc
I repeat parts of their job description and explain why I fulfill it.

Example: Job ad says "we look for a proactive and self-reliant person" then my
cover letter says "to successfully finish my PhD, being proactive and self-
reliant was important". This technique works even better for the technical
parts.

I'm not sure if it was worth the effort. In the german job market, employers
are quite desperate these days. A friend sent out simple template letters and
got interviews just as easily.

I always sent a PDF. If sent by email, I duplicated the cover letter in the
email. My experience is that many had a print out at the interview and PDF
works best to ensure a good print.

~~~
Balgair
I second this approach.

Many job ads will have a bulleted list of what they are looking for and
responsibilities. Just copy-paste that list and then re-write the bullet
points in a way that shows how you have that skill. EXP:

\- Candidate must have 5 years experience with FooBar

\- Candidate must have good knowledge of ZooCar

Turns into:

\- Via my 5 years at class/volunteering/job at McEnroeCorp I used FooBar and
made FooBarApp with it.

\- I have used ZooCar for class/job/side-project and got-a-B/made-$$$-for-
company/went-to-FGH-conference

Just go down the list and put in whatever you can.

ProTip for 'shyer' people: Don't worry if you only have 3 years and they need
5, apply anyway. Also, if you only have ~40% of the listed requirements, apply
anyway. Hell, if you think the logo is kinda cool and you have an inkling that
you can code and fog a mirro, apply anyway.

~~~
pfranz
I completely agree about applying even if you don't match all of their
criteria. A lot of these job postings are a wishlist for candidates and you
have no idea what the pool of actual applications look like.

------
pruthvishetty
Always write a cover letter from scratch. It's better to invest time in five
most relevant positions and apply with a complementing cover letter (and
resume), than to apply for fifty positions without any background research
(AKA generic cover letter/resume.)

If you are applying online to a big tech company, it almost always goes into
an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). The ATS scans your resume and cover letter
for keywords, and matches it with the keywords in the job description or
specific keywords as asked my the hiring manager. (You can get through ATS
just by copy-pasting the job description in your cover letter. Don't do it).
Once you pass through the ATS filter, the recruiter don't seem to care much
about the content of your cover letter, but it makes a huge difference when it
goes to the hiring manager.

Apart from convincing why you are a perfect fit for the role, share
interesting stuff about you like a link to your website (highly recommend this
for new grads in tech roles), github profile, previous internship experiences
and what excites you about this role.

PS - The most effective way to get a call is to network.(and avoid the whole
ATS blackhole).

~~~
walshemj
Sucks for dyslexics even high performing dyslexics like myself find writing
cover letters hard and I would only do that for some very specific and life
changing jobs - some run of the mill startup not so much.

~~~
gjjrfcbugxbhf
If they require a cover letter then that is because they want you to think of
them in the former category...

That said I've found cover letters to be pretty much a waste of my time so
far.

------
kevin_thibedeau
Don't write one. I quit using them after in interview where the HR didn't
bother to provide it to the interviewer who complained about how sparse my
resume was. It was on purpose because the letter had much more background
content. I've also never received a cover letter for candidates I've
interviewed.

You have zero control over the distribution of two separate documents. ATS
systems are geared toward something they can run keyword matches on and the
extra fluff of a cover letter gets cast aside if they are even supported at
all. Just work the meat of the cover letter into your resume and let that
stand on its own.

Of course, outside of tech, where soft skills may need to be displayed a cover
letter has more merit.

~~~
Uhhrrr
Generally I think the importance of a cover letter correlates inversely with
log(company headcount). At a couple of places, I have had people remark
positively regarding my cover letter. In those cases I was particularly able
to show good technical fit and experience with the product space. But the
biggest company where that has happened had 200 employees.

------
ChuckMcM
As a hiring manager I appreciate a cover letter that suggests you have read
the job description, a bit about the company, and thought a bit about what
skills you bring to the table. So for managers like me, getting one gives the
candidate a slight edge over those who don't write cover letters.

That said, just like boiler plate recruiter emails that try to interest me in
a job that I'm clearly not going to be interested in based on where I am in my
career, a cover letter that is clearly just boiler plate can be a slight
negative.

Bottom line, bad cover letter (-1), no cover letter (0), good cover letter
(+1) in terms of impact. Regret minimization says you are always safe not
sending one, but min/maxers would have you tailor it to the job to give you
that extra edge :-).

------
jdlyga
Imagine you were a character in a video game. Why would I want to pick you?
What are your strengths, special moves, etc and how can that help with my
playstyle? That's all I want to know as someone interviewing people. You
wouldn't focus on Ryu as graduating from Kyoto Martial Arts academy, placing
first in the uppercut tournament. Tell me what Ryu is good at. Tell me that
you have a good hadoken that's better than other people's projectiles, and I
can use you in sitautions where projectiles are useful.

------
eli
I can't speak to every hiring manager, but I definitely read cover letters and
value non-generic ones. (And in fact my job ad instructs you to include one.
So I still look at resumes that come in without one, but it doesn't speak well
to your attention to detail.)

The tone doesn't matter that much, but I would avoid the extremes of very
informal or very formal. It should be the first thing that I read, so if
you're applying by email it should be the body of the email.

A cover letter is an opportunity for you to tell me why you're interested in
this job/company _specifically_ and to highlight things that might not be
readily apparent by reading your resume. Some of the best cover letters call
out specific achievements that are relevant to the job you're applying for, or
preemptively address concerns that someone reading only your resume might
have. Even just including enough information to show that you did some
research on the job/company before applying already puts you above most cover
letters. A generic cover letter makes me wonder if you're just applying to
every job ad.

~~~
gjjrfcbugxbhf
Oth. If I don't include a cover letter and you want to find out more about me
you have to interview me...

~~~
eli
This is not good idea.

------
adrianratnapala
Write whatever fits in with the company's hiring process. If that includes a
cover letter, write a SHORT one. A traditional (formal) one might be something
like:

> Dear Sir/Madam,

> My name is scabarott and I am a Something Engineer with N years of
> experience. As shown in my CV I my strenghs are [something impressive, don't
> be boring]. I think this will make me a good fit with your team and am
> looking forward to your reply.

> Yours Faithfully, > scabarott

Once I saw a tech company trying to be hip by saying don't send a cover
letter, but then later asking for a short description of what makes you great.
I thought it was silly, because that description just was the cover letter.
But it was also wise because it set expectations well, and prevented people
bloating out their letters.

P.S: The informal e-mail you my attach a CV to and the dead-tree cover letter
are really the same thing, just tweaked sighlty for different technologies and
traditions.

------
BeetleB
Last time I applied to jobs, and got calls from recruiters, I asked what stood
out. It was always the resume. I asked if the cover letter helped. Response
was usually "You submitted a cover letter? Let me check. Oh hey, I see you
submitted one."

My advice is the opposite of another comment: Write one only if you have a
"direct pass" that avoids the HR/recruiter filter. Recruiters don't seem to
look at them, and HR folks usually don't know enough about the job to value
them.

~~~
SmellTheGlove
This is a good comment, but see my other post in this thread - at least with
me, the cover letter itself gives you a "direct pass" for one of my vacancies.
That's not advertised in the posting or anything, but I'm betting I'm not
entirely unique in doing that.

At the very least, a cover letter can't hurt, so write one for a position
you're really interested in!

------
arwhatever
I wish it were suitable to just submit a resume along with a message "Reply
'YES' for a cover letter," before I take the time to draft a nice, custom
cover letter. Because too many times, applications including a nice, custom
cover letter apparently do not even warrant an acknowledgement of receipt.

Honestly, it feels like a bit of a power imbalance.

------
smoe
My own cover letter consists of two sentences plus a little informal or formal
fluff around it:

1\. Who am I, short description of career so far.

2\. Why I think hiring me would be good for your company. This is essentially
a sales pitch, based on prior research on the company I'm applying for.

It is also what I like to see when being on the other side. It helps filtering
out people that have an actual interest vs the ones that send mass mails, and
also it already gives a first personal impression about a candidate.

------
auntienomen
I hire data scientists, machine learning specialists, and the like, and I
definitely value cover letters. Hiring is an intrinsically noisy process, and
any additional information I can get helps me make better decisions.

I don't particularly care about tone, though. I'm looking to see if the
applicants can string thoughts together, and if they understand what sort of
position they're applying for.

------
roberttt
I would write one and keep it short. Nobody wants to read a huge block of
text. For startups, I've always kept it informal and sent it as an email.

    
    
      Hi Team,
    
      I'm a software engineer in [LOCATION] looking for new opportunities. I have experience with your stack and would love to hear more about the company and openings.
    
      You can see more from me here:
      [WEBSITE/GITHUB LINK]
    
      Please have a glance at my resume and see if my skills and experience could be useful.
    
      Thanks,
      [FIRST LAST NAME]

~~~
dewey
That’s also how I always did it and it works well for startup jobs. A lot of
people are too formal or list too many things that the person on the other end
doesn’t care about.

It’s also important to reference something from the company website / job
offer in my opinion. I recently had to wade through a bunch of applications we
got through Indeed and 100% of them had irrelevant generic cover letters /
intro text that could apply to a startup or an enterprise at the same time.
Spending your time on that instead of formatting your CV goes a long way.

------
wtvanhest
You should never 'apply for a job' in the traditional sense unless it is an
hourly job at a mall or something like that.

For professional jobs, the pattern is as follows:

1\. Locate professionals at the company you would like to work at.

2\. Email them through a friend if that is possible, and if not, cold email
them and say you are interested in learning more about XYZ company. Ask if
they can grab a coffee or do a quick call.

3\. During the coffee, ask them good questions to learn more and if you think
you would still be interested, ask them if they have any advice on how to
apply.

4\. Do their advice, which typically means giving them just your resume and
having them insert you in to the HR recruiting process.

Any other strategy is a gigantic waste of time.

~~~
kyle-rb
Maybe I'm just antisocial but I don't envy the person on either side of that
situation.

Also, if this is such an established pattern for professional jobs, why even
bother having proper channels for applications? Are online applications just a
honeypot to blacklist me from actually getting hired?

~~~
chrisbennet
Here’s the thing, sometimes it seems like the HR department’s job is to weed
out exceptional people. If you can avoid going through the front door (HR)
it’s often to your advantage.

As an aside, it may seem unfair to the less socially outgoing that others
don’t use an existing process that might be in place. Take dating for instance
- just because a girl is on a dating site doesn’t mean that the dating site is
the _only_ way to ask her out on a date. Finding a job is similar to dating in
some ways.

------
jeffnappi
As a hiring manager, I always like to see at least a few short sentences. At a
minimum you should share a point or two of why you are a good fit for the
role. It doesn't need to be overly formal and could just be along the lines
of:

"Hello, I noticed that you have a position open using [tech]. I am very
familiar with [tech] and have been using it for [x] years. I saw on your
website that your company is building a solution to [business model], [show
your interest in business model]."

A longer letter is OK, but I don't really value a generic long-form letter any
more than a short note showing you are paying attention and have real interest
in a role at the company.

------
schneidmaster
My company wrote a blog post a while back with some tips for a good cover
letter -- it's not specific to engineering but I think it's super helpful
anyway: [https://blog.aha.io/the-best-cover-letters-that-ceos-love-
to...](https://blog.aha.io/the-best-cover-letters-that-ceos-love-to-read/)

Two key takeaways (in my opinion):

\- If you care about the job, do a little bit of research about the company.
What does the job posting focus on and how do you align with that? What's
their engineering stack and when have you worked with those technologies? This
isn't "required" (i.e. you can certainly find jobs by mass-sending the same
generic intro) but investing a little time in finding out about the company
goes a long way towards telling them that they should take the time to find
out about you in return. I also think this helps with the question of tone --
you probably won't go wrong matching the tone of the job posting itself.

\- Make it easy for them to see if they want to hire you. Include your resume
and make it easy to read (a short, well-formatted PDF is great). Include a
direct link to your GitHub/portfolio/etc. If you don't have any public work,
just say so and give them a Cliff's notes instead -- "Most of my recent GitHub
contributions are private, but for the past six months I've lead a team of
four developers in developing a new widget using React, Redux, and ES6, which
I see is a close match to your tech stack."

------
muzani
I find them tedious but I really enjoy it. I know some employers also take the
effort to read every word, especially when the recruiter is also the founder.
But companies like Google and Facebook don't even let you send them. Maybe
there's some correlation that the smaller the company, the more important the
cover letter is?

The purpose of a cover letter is to just bring up things that aren't in your
resume. If you have nothing to say, make it as brief as possible, maybe even
one paragraph. Most employers will open the resume anyway.

Don't try to fake passion, that just makes you sound like a teenager desperate
to get laid.

My format:

First paragraph, say what you are applying for if it's not in the title
header.

Second paragraph, tell them how you meet the requirements. This is where you
make it clear you have read the job ad and aren't resume blasting.

Third, explain other unique skillsets you bring. I like to emphasize my
entrepreneurship and product development experience or that I can do full
stack, if applicable.

Fourth, why you want to work for this company specifically.

Each paragraph would ideally be 1-2 sentences. The shorter the better. If not
applicable, don't write it.

------
curun1r
As a hiring manager, the cover letter was the most important part of the
packet that I was given. The resume was pretty meaningless since I've seen
plenty of bad candidates with good-looking resumes and vice versa. But the
cover letter was a much more reliable signal of a quality candidate.

For me, there were two important goals that a cover letter was supposed to
accomplish. The first was that the cover letter should prove to me that the
applicant read the job posting. I took time to write an engaging job posting
that wasn't just a list of job functions and qualifications. The cover letter
should explain why the applicant is the person I'm looking for by essentially
regurgitating everything that I've asked for in the job posting and citing
relevant experience, skills or traits of the applicant.

The second is to prove to me that you invested some amount of time into
applying. If I choose to schedule a phone interview and possibly an in-person
interview that may include airfare and hotel, I'm going to be investing a non-
trivial amount of resources into you as a potential hire and I'd like to
believe that you're willing to kick in the 10 minutes or so it takes to write
the cover letter. I'd like to be one of a handful of places you're applying
and not one of 50 or so. A customized cover letter is like a proof-of-work
system that prevents resume spam. It may seem tedious, but that's the point.
It should be hard to automate and if I believe that you're using the same
cover letter for multiple companies, I'll pass.

As an applicant, the formula I follow when writing them is to start by talking
about why the company's product or mission is compelling to me. If I have
difficulty writing this, I rethink applying in the first place since it's
really hard to enjoy working for a company with goals that don't excite me in
some way. After I've talked about why the company is appealing, I pick the two
or three most-emphasized things from the job posting that I feel describe me
and write why I believe that. I save linking to Github for the top of my
resume.

But that's me, and by some of the responses here, I gather others feel
differently.

~~~
mihaitodor
Writing a cover letter doesn't ever take 10 minutes, unless you're sending it
in bulk. For me, it takes hours, even days to be happy with the final result
and to send it along. Due to this, it really annoys me when I get back a one
liner "thanks, but no thanks" reply, but I do understand it's not reasonable
to expect more than that from people and I'm grateful when people do bother to
send a reply, even if it's just a brief rejection note.

I think people who claim this process takes "10 minutes" haven't needed to
write many cover letters...

------
busterarm
I've used cover letters in the past when applying to a job directly without a
warm-introduction from someone. It's been a while.

I had three or four standard cover letter templates I rotated through with a
couple of places to add research I'd done about the company and why I would be
a good fit for them. Often stuff based on what stack they use, who is on their
team, etc.

I think applying to jobs directly is worse than networking and worse than
working with a recruiter, in that order. If you do decide to go that route and
write a cover letter, only include in it what is directly targeted to that
company and the person reading it.

------
gvajravelu
As a job candidate, I found cover letters helpful. They gave me a chance to
explain exactly how my past work experiences and skills would be beneficial to
the company.

Now as someone involved in evaluating tech candidates for my company, I find
cover letters helpful. First off, it shows that the candidate took additional
time to research the company rather than just looking for any job.

Second, I get a better sense of how the candidate's skills fit into the job we
are filling. Bullet points on a resume are helpful but leave a lot
unexplained. A cover letter can fill that gap.

Third, communication skills are incredibly important on my team. Even in tech
jobs, we need to write documentation, email customers, and explain our thought
process. Reading a cover letter helps me understand the candidate's writing
style better.

Overall, if you are given the change to write a cover letter, write one.

The basic format for a cover letter should be:

\- Letter head with your name and contact information

\- Date you are applying

\- Company's address

\- Salutation to the specific hiring manager

\- First paragraph explains how you heard about the company, which position
you are applying for, and why you are a good fit

\- Second paragraph elaborates on a specific tech project that demonstrates
that you can do the job well

\- Third paragraph explains another reason why you are a good fit for the job.
It could be a past tech project you completed, a side project, or something
that demonstrates industry knowledge

\- Closing paragraph explains how they can contact you and thanks them for
reading

\- Valediction with your signature and name

There is a good example of a cover letter here:
[https://www.careerperfect.com/examples/letters/ceo-cover-
sam...](https://www.careerperfect.com/examples/letters/ceo-cover-sample/). (I
have no relation to that site and only found it on a Google search now. Trust
anything else on that site with a grain of salt.)

Good luck!

------
Maro
I review about ~100-200 CVs per week in bulk, for Data Science.

I actually treat a cover letter as a negative signal. Who has time to write
one, and why you do think anybody cares? Show where you worked, what you did,
link to some interesting stuff, all this in the regular CV structure, and
that's it. I have about 10-20 seconds per CV, reading a cover letter is out of
the question. The only thing the CV is for is to (i) send some signals to pick
out the 5% of applicants that make it to the first screening round, and (ii)
at later stages, to quickly open it to recall who the applicant is.

~~~
brailsafe
> Who has time to write one, and why you do think anybody cares?

How did you get your current job, and what is your opinion about the summary
or cover letter space in almost every job application form? Assuming of course
that you don't have an alternative means into the company.

~~~
Maro
Last 2 jobs I was headhunted. But that's because I'm "old" in this industry
(10+ yrs of experience) and have the right signals on my Linkedin = worked at
good companies (Prezi, Facebook). The biggest signal is what company you
worked at, second biggest what school you went to (if it's a big one).

I guess there's some segments where cover letters are a thing, eg. academia.
But I've never seen anybody care about cover letters at tech companies.

------
tomc1985
A cover letter is your sales pitch. I've never understood why there is so much
instruction in them when all you're doing is trying to sell yourself. Write
them a sales letter hyping YOU the programmer.

~~~
twobyfour
To a lot of people, selling in general is not second nature, and promoting
oneself runs against deeply ingrained social strictures about modesty.

How DOES one hype oneself without being boastful? How DOES one sell without
coming across as fake? What things about oneself WOULD the hiring manager find
appealing?

These are all questions whose answers are far from obvious to probably the
majority of job applicants.

------
ragnese
As someone who is currently applying to jobs, this is a very important
question and the answers are, unfortunately, exactly what I expected:
everyone's experience and suggestions are totally different.

Which sucks, because I really wanted to figure out what I'm doing wrong. I'm
still fairly new to the field, and I don't have a vast network to tap into
(which is what it seems like most people here prefer to do).

So here I am, thinking that my resume/CV is actually starting to look nice
(PhD in a hard science where I spent the whole time doing/writing Monte Carlo
simulations and analyzing data, plus 1.5 years at a tech startup doing backend
and Android dev, plus proficiency in many languages, SQL, etc), and I'm
getting almost no interest in my applications. I had one local guy contact me
and one corporate job that made me take an SAT-style online test and a
"personality test" that I guess I failed because I haven't heard back after
that.

I think I've sent out nearly 30 applications in the last couple of months.
I've been mostly sending them out via Indeed and WeWorkRemotely.com. Is this
field really that competitive? I'm not even getting to the "perform like a
trained monkey" interview questions- I don't get any responses at all!

I can't imagine that my cover letters are all _that_ bad. I mean, I try to
customize them to each job. I try to keep them brief.

It's just all really, really discouraging.

~~~
user5994461
Where do you live? Would you mind to tell more about you?

If you do heavy maths like what you appear to do, I'd suggest you go for a
finance company to become a quant.

~~~
ragnese
Well, my location is definitely a limiting factor. I live in Florida- and not
even Miami. That's why I've been mostly trying to find remote postings. I'm a
great remote worker- my PhD work was as part of an international collaboration
where I mostly worked with a few people in California and Texas, and my
current job is remote.

Finding a quant position is probably what I need to do. Any suggestions on how
to break into that?

~~~
user5994461
First thing first. It's time for you to consider moving to a larger city.
There are only a few places in the world that have companies in need of these
skills.

I'd recommend you try to get in touch with finance companies through either
your university network, job fair or acquaintance. If not possible, try to go
through recruiters or apply directly.

------
rllin
The request of cover letters in certain fields are to me a red flag.

It seems very useful in some fields which require the skills a cover letter
shows off and could substitute for a screen or casual interview.

In many technical fields however, requesting cover letters usually suggests to
me a lower quality in their hiring process. This undoubtedly bleeds over to my
perception of the management, namely more into checking boxes than results.

------
rufius
Cover letters are largely a waste of time UNLESS you come for a notably
unusual background. For example - you have a PhD in Sociology and looking to
get a job as a software engineer.

General rules for resumes \- no more than 10 years experience listed \- no
more than 1 page listing job experience \- if you have another page, it should
only include things like talks given and/or published papers

------
vfulco
From the perspective of a professional resume editor/writer...make sure to
have a boilerplate version and then match each CL against the job description.
The "art" of the process is to provide just enough enticement, the appetizer
in other words, to make the reader want to move onto the resume. Also try to
be more creative in your writing so that you don't say the exact words from
the job description unless it is a highly specialized role. You want to stand
out from the crowd of applicants.

Try at all possible to find out if a cover letter is even necessary. Many
employers don't ask for them, don't want them, ignore or throw them away. I
have know individuals who have spent hours on theirs unnecessarily.

Regrettable the "rules" are all over the place because different employers
require different things. Try to do some legwork before hand by inquiring with
HR or referring employees.

HTH,

Vince Fulco, CFA, CAIA vfulco[@]weisisheng.cn

------
horsecaptin
Understand that applying to jobs where there are many other applicants is a
bit like playing the lottery: only a few will be picked up from the pile of
applicants.

Now say that you get past this round and that your application gets picked up
by someone in HR or the Hiring Manager. They have a pile of others they need
to look at as well. What would they prefer to read? This is a bit subjective:
some would like you to not waste their time - keep it short and sweet. Others
would like to read a love letter.

So, what do you do? I'd say keep it short and sweet for most jobs that you
apply to. Two, maybe three paragraphs with two to four sentences each with the
last paragraph being an invitation to read the resume and get in touch with
you for a meeting. One in ten.. maybe one in twenty jobs get a love letter. It
has to be a job that you feel strongly about. But even the love letter - don't
waste words - edit it well.

Good luck!

------
SmellTheGlove
I might be a little odd on this one, but I've been in large non-tech companies
for a long time, hiring tech (mostly finance technology and data engineering),
so here's my take -

I like cover letters. They're an opportunity for you to tell me how your
skills transfer to the position, why you're interested in it, and that you can
communicate clearly in writing.

The transferability piece is important because it's rare a candidate has all
of the bullets in the description, but we all know critical thinking and tech
skills are broadly applicable - or at least I know that, but I need to know
that you're looking at it that way. It also helps you avoid the HR filter with
me (more on that in a bit).

Your interest is important because I think there's a lot of flexibility
between tech skills and subject matter/domains. The issue is, we all like some
and all hate some, so tell me why you like this one. This is sometimes a tough
one because HR job descriptions sometimes are generic and don't explicitly
provide this info. In that case, take a broad view and tell me what domains
are interesting to you. If it doesn't align with your interests, you may get
rejected, but do you really want to end up in a role working with subject
matter you can't stand?

The cover letter as a writing sample is also great for me because we email a
lot. We write user stories. We document testing. We IM. I don't necessarily
need to hire Shakespeare, but I'd love for you to be able to communicate your
thoughts clearly and with an appropriate level of polish.

Now, on that HR filter, I don't know how common this is but I ask my recruiter
to pass through any application that includes a cover letter. So at least for
my vacancies, a cover letter guarantees the hiring manager will directly
review your materials. I think that provides an opportunity to candidates who
don't check all of the boxes, but might have some transferable skills to
consider.

------
scarface74
I only use recruiters and I have never written a cover letter. I also never
submit a resume blind through job boards or ATS systems.

As a person hiring, I would ignore them. I only care does the candidate have
the minimum skill set to be worth taking time to phone screen. I'll find out
everything else I think is relevant then.

------
pfranz
Don't waste your time on generic cover letters. If you're going to bother,
write a custom letter. Generic rewordings of your resume just waste everyone's
time.

In my experience, odds are good your cover letter won't get read or even make
it to the right person. So I don't spend too much time writing them. However,
a well written cover letter will help you and could be the difference in
getting a callback.

My recipe for a cover letter; rewrite their job description with your work
experience. Take each bullet point and tie it to something you've done. It
shows how your skills fit their needs in a way resumes don't. Bonus if you do
some research on the company (something not mentioned in the job description)
and also match that to your skills or interest. Also, keep it to less than 1
page.

------
_mrmnmly
My usual cover letter:

Dear Sir/Madam, in reply for Your job offer placed at <website> I would like
to apply for a <position>.

I'm <someone> with <x> years of experience. I <do stuff> and <do other stuff>.

My current tech-stack is: <my tech stack>

I've included my CV as an attachment for this message.

Looking forward for a reply from You.

Best regards,

<me>

Enjoy ;)

------
excogitationist
I think the best cover letter explains what you can do on day one, in three
months, six months, and 1 year for the company that may potentially hire you.

Attach the cover letter as a separate document. If you can, get the email of
the hiring manager and let them know that you've applied through the standard
HR interface. Tone should always be professional and cordial. If you can craft
this cover letter well enough you will stand out from others who don't
customize their cover letters. Do your research on the company and find where
your strengths can play to their business objectives and communicate why you
are the one they should choose (then you can link to GitHub projects
accordingly). Good luck.

------
jasonlotito
It literally doesn't matter. Every place and every person has their own
opinion, and because of that, the worst thing you can do is cater to any one
individual besides yourself.

I'm not joking. I haven't even read the comments here, but I'm willing to bet
people find them useful/useless. I bet people found it helped them/hurt them.
I bet people will talk about how they don't read them/read them, expect
them/ignore them, etc.

Personally, I'd write a generic one and submit it myself, and then I'll just
bring it with me (along with resume) to the interview to provide as necessary.
But that's me.

------
phaemon
I don't really customise my CV to a particular job, so I just use the cover
letter as a brief summary of why I'd be great for {advertised role}.

Not that this is advice. I have no idea either and would like to hear what
other folk do.

------
hacknat
I think in our industry a cover letter might send a negative signal. In other
fields a cover letter is a sign that you’re a “go-getter”. A good software
engineer is two things: in high demand, and a professional problem solver. A
cover letter sends the signal that you are the type of person who works harder
not smarter. I’d be much more impressed if you LinkedIn stalked me and sent me
a quick two sentence message about why you would be jazzed to work at my
company (I.e problem space and why or culture fit and why).

On the whole it doesn’t really matter though.

------
lgunsch
I always use the cover letter to sell myself to stand out with extra details
directly related to the position, or company. The resume doesn't give a lot of
detail at all.

------
Rapzid
Cover letter is email body, resume is role description and bulleted list of
accomplishments/value added in each role. I found a way to work languages used
in each role in without using a vertical list.

For the "cover letter" I try to match tone of whoever wrote job description
and convey excitement and cultural fit. I believe this to be very important in
hearing back when reaching out and will iterate until I get more responses;
though each is taylored.

~~~
kat
I agree! If you're including a cover letter, don't add it as an attachment to
your email, put the contents of the cover letter into the email body.

I think email messages are especially important if you're trying to
preemptively explain resume issues like career switches, geographical
relocation, taken a gap-year, etc

------
kkoppenhaver
I suppose my initial email outreach for my current gig (How-To Geek) could
qualify as a cover letter. It was in reply to a Stack Overflow Careers post.
Like some of the commenters here have said, just kept it light and mentioned a
couple things in the job posting that I really connected with. Happy to share
the full text if there's interest.

~~~
scabarott
Thanks. Please do share

~~~
kkoppenhaver
Full text below

"Your posting caught my eye because I've been a reader of How-To Geek for
years. In fact, I discovered your site through the article you wrote about
setting up a Raspberry Pi as an always-on downloading box. Thanks to that
article, I've now got 3 Pis sitting around my apartment doing various jobs.

I'm currently a Technical Architect with doejo, a digital agency specializing
in WordPress development and one of only 13 WordPress.com VIP partners
worldwide. What that basically means is that we work on enterprise-scale
WordPress. (See also a talk I gave at a local meetup detailing some important
considerations for large WordPress sites
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB_e7yZ4MCM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB_e7yZ4MCM))

I wanted to reach out because the position that you and How-To Geek are in
sounds like the position that Investor's Business Daily, one of our former
clients, was in a couple years ago.

When we were brought on with IBD, they were deploying code to production late
at night or on weekends because they were scared their deploys would break.
There were pieces of the site that just plain didn't work. And there was
technical debt all over the place that kept their developers from doing their
jobs effectively.

I led the team that took WordPress and bent it to our will to produce one of
the most custom digital publishing workflows I've ever seen. After migrating
100k+ pieces of legacy content and completing and documenting the new
WordPress build, we handed it off to their internal development team and got
to work on their DevOps situation. I helped their operations team architect
and deploy staging environments so they didn't have to be scared of production
deploys anymore. We helped them replace their out-of-date source control with
Git and put in place processes that worked with them instead of processes they
had to work around.

This whole re-launch and re-build resulted in a site that loaded 25% faster
and brought in a ton more traffic. Couple that with the fact that they now
trusted their developers and felt comfortable pushing changes to production in
the middle of the day, and it was a win all around.

As far as tech stack, I exclusively use Nginx these days and I've never looked
back. Javascript and jQuery are squarely in my wheelhouse. I know WordPress
actions and filters like the back of my hand and I'm not afraid to use them or
trace through someone else's use of them to get things back on track.

To sum up, I'm really impressed you've grown How-To Geek as far as you have
while still deploying to production from your laptop. I think it's great that
you see the challenges you have when it comes to infrastructure and technical
debt. I'm excited by these challenges and look forward to taking them off your
plate so you can get back to running and growing one of the best tech sites
online today.

I would love to talk more about the position and answer any questions you may
have for me.

(And yes, I won't pull punches when I see some particularly terrible code. I
have a library of facepalm GIFs at the ready.)

Talk soon, Keanan"

~~~
lawnchair_larry
major tl;dr

------
shusson
I think the most important thing in a cover letter is stating your motivation
in relation to the company you are applying to.

------
latenightcoding
No one is interested in reading a generic cover letter, they can be extremely
helpful if you "keep it real".

I always write very short cover letters that say who I am and what are my
interests (e.g: ML, Distributed systems) Then I write why I think I would be a
great fit for this position (e.g: I worked on something very similar)

------
telebone_man
Do it! You've got nothing to lose. Write stuff that wouldn't be appropriate in
a CV. Such as, why you want to work for them in particular. Have a look at
their job spec, try and understand their key motivation in wanting someone to
fill that role, and sell that you can do that.

------
Bahamut
I've been laughed at by HR at one startup where I mentioned I did it for every
job whenever possible.

I usually use it to explain my background, and how it relates to the position.

However...I find myself not having to do it much anymore since usually it is
the companies that are seeking me out, or I have referrals.

~~~
kevindqc
Why did they laugh? Often the job posting even asks for one...

------
LoSboccacc
I've couple catch all cover letter variations, built with interchangeable
paragraphs unless I really, really like the posting.

Never ever worked however. Found all my job trough networking except one
employee that found me randomly trough a social network and just decided to
send me a contract.

------
jackietreehorn
I look at a lot of cover letters. The best explain why you want to work there.
The resume will show the experience and background. Show some passion. Say if
you use the product. What you admire about it. It is a chance to speak beyond
the resume and show how you stand out.

------
mindhash
I use cover letters to share a short brief on myself, why I am interested and
ask questions about position. Asking questions is important. Think of this
process as both sides negotiating what works for each, instead of one sided
application for a position.

------
cranjice
When appropriate I'll write a _concise_ but friendly intro and bottom quote a
few key parts of the job description with questions, ideas, or an anecdote.

Try thinking about what could peak the curiosity of the reader and interest
them in talking to you on the phone.

------
rbetts
So few resumes indicate why the candidate applied. When triaging resumes, I
really appreciate a paragraph explaining motivation. I rarely read past
paragraph one of a long cover letter unless the resume itself is compelling.
Then I’ll read it in full.

~~~
Idontknowmyuser
They apply because they need a new job.

------
dennisgorelik
In your cover letter write 1 or 2 sentences about why you are a good match for
that specific position.

Obviously, your cover letter should be adjusted to that specific position.

That also allows you to attach the same unchanged resume to [somewhat]
different jobs.

------
matt_the_bass
One important queue is they demonstrate the candidate can communicate clearly
and effectively (assuming they wrote it themselves and one can often gleen if
this is true after reading).

For my company, effective communication is very important.

------
alfiedotwtf
To be honest, I go straight to your CV's experience section. I don't care what
you're into or what school you went to, I just want to know if you're able to
do what we need you to do.

------
balls187
Google's application form has a section for a cover letter. It says something
to the effect of `We think your experience speaks for itself. A cover letter
is not required.`

------
Spooky23
It’s an excuse to get more information about you in front of an employer. At
worst it’s a minor waste of time, at best it provides a hook for someone.

------
sincerely
I only include a cover letter if the way I found out about the job opening
/isnt/ through personal recommendations

------
the_rock_says
Here's my two cents. I usually write a cover letter when applying for jobs and
expect one when interviewing. As once a recruiter told me, think of cover
letter as an extended resume and mention those points that you think are worth
elaborating.

Instead of writing a long email, turn it into a document (cover letter) and
talk about your skills (add github link) and what makes you passionate about
the job. I keep it formal but not to an extend where it wastes my time.

------
rco8786
I've never written a cover letter

------
tytytytytytytyt
I don't write cover letters. HR people just look for keywords, afaik.

