I agree with everything except the part about the cover letter. Call me crazy, but I really dislike companies or hiring managers who require or expect a cover letter. In fact, I never submit a cover letter just out of principle. (and I've gotten plenty of great jobs)
People spend hours on their cover letters to apply for jobs... and 95% of those applications are ignored or thrown in the trash. I personally find it a little insulting to have people invest so much for nothing in return. If you want to see why a candidate is interested in a certain position, give 'em a call if their resume piques your interest.
Thanks a lot for your insight. I personally also never wrote cover letters, to be honest. And I didn't mean a separate document that you send next to your resume. Not sure if the term cover letter was correct!?
What I thought of is for example when you apply via email. Just write a couple of lines that show that you actually researched the company a bit and are really interested in the position. Many candidates just send a generic text like "Dear Madams and Sirs, my name is XYZ and I'm interested in the job as XYZ in your company. I'm bla bla bla". An application like this will easily go on the trash pile right away. But if you have a bit more customized message that proves that you're interested and not just sending out mass applications.
The risk is, of course, that nobody reads it, as you already said. So also here I would be very focused and not spend too much time. I'm also not sure how this works with large job platforms and companies that use applicant tracking systems to be honest...
I agree with everything except the part about the cover letter. Call me crazy, but I really dislike companies or hiring managers who require or expect a cover letter. In fact, I never submit a cover letter just out of principle. (and I've gotten plenty of great jobs)
People spend hours on their cover letters to apply for jobs... and 95% of those applications are ignored or thrown in the trash. I personally find it a little insulting to have people invest so much for nothing in return. If you want to see why a candidate is interested in a certain position, give 'em a call if their resume piques your interest.
Thanks a lot for your insight. I personally also never wrote cover letters, to be honest. And I didn't mean a separate document that you send next to your resume. Not sure if the term cover letter was correct!?
What I thought of is for example when you apply via email. Just write a couple of lines that show that you actually researched the company a bit and are really interested in the position. Many candidates just send a generic text like "Dear Madams and Sirs, my name is XYZ and I'm interested in the job as XYZ in your company. I'm bla bla bla". An application like this will easily go on the trash pile right away. But if you have a bit more customized message that proves that you're interested and not just sending out mass applications.
The risk is, of course, that nobody reads it, as you already said. So also here I would be very focused and not spend too much time. I'm also not sure how this works with large job platforms and companies that use applicant tracking systems to be honest...
"Just write a couple of lines that show that you actually researched the company a bit and are really interested in the position"
In that case, then I agree with you :)
I'll reframe that in the blog post :)
I improved the post thanks to your feedback. It now says that I don't mean a separate document as cover letter. Thanks again for the help :)
If companies are throwing out your application, they'll throw out your resume, too. That's not a good reason to not write one. Same for cover letter.
Write one cover letter and change it slightly for the job. Use it to reinforce your resume and highlight your accomplishments.