Especially with the rise of “ghost postings” so quantity over quality is greater than ever these days
Never have done a cover letter. Just seems like pandering pretentious tripe
Same. They already have my resume and application for the job, I’m not writing a whole page groveling and begging them to hire me.
It’s worth writing a generic one.
So how is that working out for you? Genuinely curious.
For my industry, IT, pretty well. A nice upward career trajectory and an average of about a month from search start to offer over the past couple of jobs
Spray and pray baby. Getting the recruiter or HR department to like you only gets you in the door. You can’t shortcut actual connections with your actual coworkers.
That’s how plants do it. For a billion years. Must be the best strategy.
Bcc everyone
Stop putting cover letters on your resume. Recruiters spend 7 seconds or less on 1 resume. A cover page essentially is a skip button because we don’t see any pertinent information and move on.
Resumes should be 1 page with a layout that attracts attention but isn’t distracting. Sentences should be structured like bullet points, short, sweet, and to the point.
This is 100% true. But you should also include a cover letter, just as a second document. I mean obviously not if you’re applying for McDonald’s but you get the idea
Can we do bullet bullet points for extra creativity?
I felt the same way until a friend of mine helped me redo my cover letter before COVID. Gotten 2 jobs since then and have tripped my salary in a handful of years. The latest gig (that was a salary doubling jump) was through a recruiter who said the cover letter helped me get the interview.
I mean you say that, but I got my last amazing job because I mentioned pertinent info in my cover letter that resonated with the recruiter. I wouldn’t have got it if I just sent my resume.
I know it’s just anecdotal but hey
There are definitely different workflows for different recruiters, especially across industries.
Most of the places I applied to in my most recent job hunt had separate places to upload a cover letter and resume. If they didn’t ask for a cover letter, I didn’t write one, but I do see an argument to append one to your resume anyway.
Seriously, the job I have now requried a masters degree. My cover letter and my 10+ years of specfic experience got them to talk to me even though I only have an associates degree.
Now I am the go-to for search commitees in my department, and the only thing worse then no cover letter is when folks use a form one and forget to change ot or fill in the blanks.
I think they’re saying a cover letter is good. But some people’s “resumes” are more than one page with the first page being a cover letter. Almost all job apps have a separate upload for cover letters. If you’re applying in person or over email the rules are completely different.
My cover letter is just a picture of Rick Astley
In biology, the top one is called K-strategy and the bottom one R-strategy.
Both are valid strategies.But generally, K is better suited for highly developed, intelligent, cooperative and social animals.
R is better suited for animals that live alone in a hostile environment full of predators.There’s a message about the modern job market in here somewhere I guess.
This sorta applies to the way I typically do it (maybe). I spray-and-pray on 9+ out of 10, because most are mass-posted bullshit. I’m not redoing a cover letter for every bullshit posting.
But if it is clear an actual person is involved (e.g. there is a person’s e-mail listed as a direct point-of-contact or it’s on a small company’s website among only a handful of positions) and/or it is for a job I think I’d really like, I spend more time tailoring everything.
Best of both worlds (potentially).
Yeah, that’s the approach I use too. Eventually I’ll have 2-3 versions of my resume/CV, and a file of typical paragraphs to put in a cover letter. Ideally I’ll have some kind of connection to the company, like: “in a conversation with (Name) at (conference), I learned of your work in (whatever)” or “I am familiar with (product/process) from applying it to my work on (previous work).” Whenever I’m hiring, that sort of cover letter tells me that at least they’ve taken the time to learn about the company, so it’s less likely a waste of time to interview them.
Lol as someone from biomedical sciences I thought you were speaking about applications in the broad field of biology/biological sciences. I was so excited to ask you about what companies would accept an “R strategy” application because fuck this, even for a technical assistant job I need a fucking tailored cover letter every single time because otherwise my application doesn’t even land on anyone’s desk.
LPT for all of you job seekers.
You’re my hero
I was really hoping they offered a self hosting option.
One Lemmy gold for you, thank you kind stranger!
Holy shit I love it
I’m a huge Motörhead fan. Sorry, this one is cute, but the other one is better.
This sounds too good to be true. What’s the catch?
Overview
Reactive Resume is a free and open-source resume builder that simplifies the process of creating, updating, and sharing your resume. With zero user tracking or advertising, your privacy is a top priority. The platform is extremely user-friendly and can be self-hosted in less than 30 seconds if you wish to own your data completely.
It’s available in multiple languages and comes packed with features such as real-time editing, dozens of templates, drag-and-drop customisation, and integration with OpenAI for enhancing your writing.
You can share a personalised link of your resume to potential employers, track its views or downloads, and customise your page layout by dragging-and-dropping sections. The platform also supports various font options and provides dozens of templates to choose from. And yes, there’s even a dark mode for a more comfortable viewing experience.
Start creating your standout resume with Reactive Resume today!
Why is this good? Not being negative, just want to understand.
Easy to customize and have multiples with similar information in different layouts, easily tailor the same experiences to focus on specific types of positions, share your resume as a LI k, self hosted option with docker, etc.
Its really quite nice. I host my own.
Oooh, my partner is working on his resume; I’m going to share this with him. Thanks!
It lets you share as a link and you can self host.
Wait, is this live action Boimler?
Oh shit, it is!
It’s from Strange New Worlds.
Apparently I’ll need to watch that soon!
Huey smacking down those supes in space now?
Nice.
I still don’t know what a cover letter even is. never used one and don’t plan on starting. no one’s reading that crap anyway
The resume shows experience and the cover letter shows personality. If the job has any kind of soft skills a cover letter is a bonus, if the job is super technical it’s probably not necessary. It also depends on the workplace.
If it is a job you actually want though I would recommend writing something. I’m on a smaller team and read all the resumes of applicants. I actually read them because I’m going to be the one contacting, interviewing, and working with them. I absolutely read the cover letters and give a small bonus to people who include them.
It’s the thing that gets fed into an LLM to opaquely grade you before your resume gets looked at by a human
That’s why you use an LLM to generate it
Is the bottom one not what we’ve all been doing for the past 10 years? If you haven’t worked more than 5 or so places it should also look like that right?
Also fuck cover letters. Never making one, I don’t care who they send
Just do what I do and have an AI generate the cover letter. Saves me a ton of time, and gives me a personalized letter for every job while only writing two sentences.
(But then again Lemmy absolutely hates AI with a blind passion—just as much as you hate cars—so I don’t know why I’m actually suggesting this. It works, though.)
I do it like that, but it has backfired before. I posted a resume that mentions I can code to a teaching position (Highschool maths). Not relevant to the job at all. Got the job. Some random admin person remembered I can write code and that meant that every other teacher should address their IT questions to me. No extra pay and I had to explain Microsoft software a lot of the time, which I don’t even use.
Generating BS cover letters is one of the few good uses I’ve found for chat gpt
That might get you in the door but a poor resume built by AI with key phrases to fool the algorithm will be an insta delete by a human.
As someone who hires a lot of MBA types
I could give a shit about your cover letter
I could give a shit about your nice follow up email after the interview
I realize I’m a sample size of one, but I also don’t do cover letters or follow up notes for mydelf and I guess I am doing well enough that I have a bunch of energetic MBA types working for me.
Seems nobody sent the memo to all those career advisers, coaches, job seeking assistance places etc. because I still see it as “recommended practice” LMAO
I stan bottom sentiment.
if everyone would stop making and sending cover letters unemployment would skyrocket
I don’t understand what you mean. Please explain.
