I highly support writing cover letters. Once you get into the groove of having a heavily iterated cover letter template it becomes rather quick to swap things around and customize details to the job posting. In my opinion it really sets you apart from those who don't bother writing one at all, even if their resume is shinier. A little bit of extra effort at the early stage gets a strong multiplier.
Having spoken to those on the other side, "easy apply" positions get absolutely flooded and sifting through so many applications makes the hiring manager gloss over people, skipping them entirely no matter how effective your short blurb is in the condensed list. Imagine how easy it is to scroll past an HN post you're only mildy interested in at a glance. So don't let that be your main method even if you apply to a bunch a day that way. You don't want to fight uphill against probability and human attention span.
I should also add - being early to apply to a position is HUGE. I can't overstate this enough. Once the position has a certain number of candidates each person gets less and less attention until the behavior I mentioned earlier is exhibited.
Having spoken to those on the other side, "easy apply" positions get absolutely flooded and sifting through so many applications makes the hiring manager gloss over people, skipping them entirely no matter how effective your short blurb is in the condensed list. Imagine how easy it is to scroll past an HN post you're only mildy interested in at a glance. So don't let that be your main method even if you apply to a bunch a day that way. You don't want to fight uphill against probability and human attention span.
I should also add - being early to apply to a position is HUGE. I can't overstate this enough. Once the position has a certain number of candidates each person gets less and less attention until the behavior I mentioned earlier is exhibited.