Fair, but you're always going to get a pretty bland paper. The honest answer is "so I get money and am not homeless and starving" and my background is "I do computer things so I'm not homeless and starving". Whether they'll write that out, that's roughly correct for most people.
Is part of being a good employee faking that you're probably at least primarily there because they're making sure you can pay your bills? Sure, I'd rather work somewhere interesting than not, but writing a nice cover letter about how I'm interested in your project and mission goes out the door pretty quick when you come back with how you want to pay me 60k under market rate.
I'm not exactly anti cover letter, but it feels like writing a dating profile. It's me putting on a bit of a guise and obscuring at least part of my true motives. Everyone involved should understand that or is hopelessly naive, but then what signal do you get from it? That I care enough to dissemble effectively to you? That you think I'm as interested in your company as you're going to tell me all about how you'll treat me like family?
> The honest answer is "so I get money and am not homeless and starving"
For a lot, if not most, programmers, there are other ways of making a living. If you are of the mindset that there aren't, I may have some roles for you, but they would not be growth roles and some may feel exploitative, but they are not because there are no shortage of engineers who are happy with such roles.
You picked SW development over other viable options for a reason.
> and my background is "I do computer things so I'm not homeless and starving".
The ask is what, not why. My background is that I am an engineering guy (non-CS), who pivoted at some point to SW. Your background may be different. If you've got 10 years at various companies, you do have a background other than "I do computer things".
But to get to your sentiment: Yes, we all know we're all trying to make a living. The cover letter is an opportunity to speak to why this job and not any other job. If you don't have a reason, that's fine. Over 90% of the times I do not either. But that means I and you are as guilty of contributing to the "problem" of this submission as employers are. More importantly, if I know the employer is going to be fussy about this, I will save us both time by not applying.
As an employer, if I get enough who do have a convincing reason, they get to the top of the pile. If I don't get enough cover letters to find a candidate, I'll loosen my requirements.
It is a bit like a dating profile, but so is the resume, so you can't avoid it. And speaking of dating, what would you think of a partner who says "I just want someone to have sex with, who'll pay for my expenses and let me not work (so should earn good money), and will take care of the children while also taking me to expensive restaurants. I really don't care about his personality."
> but then what signal do you get from it? That I care enough to dissemble effectively to you? That you think I'm as interested in your company as you're going to tell me all about how you'll treat me like family?
I think you're reading way too much into this. If you wrote a nice little script to solve an annoying problem at work that everyone was neglecting, it could be quite appropriate to put that in the cover letter. In 2011/2012 I independently learned pandas and spread organically to my team members such that the majority stopped writing annoying JMP scripts, that could go in the cover letter if I'm applying to a company that does numerical work. There just isn't room in the resume to highlight these kinds of things.
Of course, if you have nothing like that to show for yourself after N years in the industry, that's OK, but it makes you the same as every other applicant who doesn't.
I really do appreciate this reply. It's pleasant to get a response from someone who's not nearly as jaded about this as I am that helps me reconsider and be less hyperbolic about things.
I was certainly being a bit overly cynical with a lot of what you're replying to, but I think a lot of that is driven by not earnestly believing that most companies are as earnest and caring about this as you seem to be. I can write an earnest cover letter about what I love about computing and my job, and what I want to do, and how a new role I'm applying to excites me and speaks to what I find interesting about this sort of job. I've even done that 3-4 times in the last year. And you know what?
I got literally not even a rejection letter from any of the places I put at least half an hour of me spilling my soul and passions into a cover letter for.
I literally think I've had a worse track record of getting a first round interview when I provided a cover letter than when I didn't. Small sample size for sure, but I'm actually unsure I've ever had a cover letter even get acknowledged, let alone get me in the door.
To turn your analogy, most companies and job postings feel like them saying "I'll buy you nice dinners, take care of your kids, and cover your expenses as long as you have sex with me." And honestly, at some point, I've been mostly beaten down to the point where that sounds good, because the companies that promise me they care about me and want to learn about my interests and go on a nice date with me don't even acknowledge my existence when I send them a love letter.
I've been curious about this recently, and have been asking around my network, and I actually don't think anyone I've worked with who's done interviewing for their company has ever even seen a cover letter as part of an interview packet. You seem to work somewhere that cares and would actually read and process them, but if so, you really need to make it clear that it actually matters, because at this point, I've had too many companies even require a cover letter and then seemingly care less about treating me like a person than I treated their job as something I could be passionate about.
As I said in my original comment: I pretty much never include a cover letter. :-) I've discussed them in the past on HN where I argue they are a waste of time. Each time I bring it up I get comments supporting my stance, and comments strongly in favor of writing them. Amusingly, the last time this happened one responder admitted that he had screened out candidates based on things they said in their cover letter, but not those who didn't provide one (hence the cover letter working against the candidate).
If it is to work, the employer must require it, and must make some (verifiable) commitment that they read it.
> I've been curious about this recently, and have been asking around my network, and I actually don't think anyone I've worked with who's done interviewing for their company has ever even seen a cover letter as part of an interview packet.
If you read my comment, that's been my experience as well. I provide it, and if I get a call, I ask "Did you read the cover letter?"
Is part of being a good employee faking that you're probably at least primarily there because they're making sure you can pay your bills? Sure, I'd rather work somewhere interesting than not, but writing a nice cover letter about how I'm interested in your project and mission goes out the door pretty quick when you come back with how you want to pay me 60k under market rate.
I'm not exactly anti cover letter, but it feels like writing a dating profile. It's me putting on a bit of a guise and obscuring at least part of my true motives. Everyone involved should understand that or is hopelessly naive, but then what signal do you get from it? That I care enough to dissemble effectively to you? That you think I'm as interested in your company as you're going to tell me all about how you'll treat me like family?