Why ARE cover letters still a thing??
Take cover
Submitted 3 days ago by titty_wizard@lemmy.world to [deleted]
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/089358b3-9112-4d53-9db7-f9116fed11db.jpeg
Comments
jobbies@lemmy.zip 3 days ago
JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 3 days ago
The more willing someone is to jump through hoops to get a job, the less likely they are to demand to be paid what it’s worth.
Zachariah@lemmy.world 3 days ago
☹️
fizzle@quokk.au 3 days ago
Confirms candidate knows what job they have applied for, can read simple instructions like “send cover letter”, also vibe / culture check.
Pika@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
this… is actually fair tbh, the current applicant applies to so many different jobs, some people I know just mass apply to every job available.
FudgyMcTubbs@lemmy.world 3 days ago
When I was a hiring manager, I treated it like a writing test to make sure people were basically literate. Reading and writing was super important in the field I was hiring for. I couldn’t get the same from a resume. That was before everybody was using AI to lie about everything to everybody else.
alsimoneau@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
But in that case it’s more like a technical exam.
blackberry28@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
Cos of the Boomer Managers. Boomers are allergic to changes lol
Pika@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
I really don’t understand why myself. It’s not like a person is going to look at it anyway. It’s all automated now, anything that is short of a perfect image of what the HR thinks they need for the role gets throw out way before any actual human sees them.
A cover letter was great at the beginning because it let the HR person be able to get a summary of what the person has to offer without having to go into technical details of the resume, but now its all automated anyway so if its made it to the HR desk then they can just look at the details.
stickyprimer@lemmy.world 3 days ago
I have no idea what anyone else does, but I look at them as a chance to explain why my resume is a match for the job. Some people rewrite their whole resume every application to tailor it to the job, but that feels like more work and they’re going to know I did it when they see my LinkedIn and it doesn’t match. So I highlight the stuff that’s specific to that job because my resume wasn’t necessarily written just for that job opening.
criss_cross@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Now it’s just more AI text to shit out and hope their AI scanners pick up the correct keywords.
CobraChicken3000@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
With Claude my cover letters take all of 15 minutes to “write.” It’s like the old Soviet adage (slightly adjusted): They pretend to read them, so we pretend to write them.
cyclonedusk@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 days ago
funny how literally the only thing i consistently see AI being useful for is the pointless bullshit tasks that don’t accomplish anything but the further complication of shit that didn’t need to be so complicated in the first place. such as busywork. They’re jerking us around to waste our time so i see no reason to treat their time as though it’s particularly valuable either; turnabout is fair play, after all.
cyclonedusk@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 days ago
‘hey losers. looks like you need shit to get done. hire me or stay sucking. peace out’
Flower@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
3 reasons you need an employee
-
You can’t do it yourself
-
You don’t have time to do it yourself
-
You really don’t want to do it yourself
Your move boss-man.
ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 3 days ago
- You need to increase your head count or your budget will go down next fiscal year
-
yermaw@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
“I noticed you need workers and have money. What a coincidence, I have work and need money. Trade?”
musubibreakfast@lemmy.world 3 days ago
No, of course not. I also need you to be miserable. A fair trade won’t help me break your spirit. Maybe beg a little and kiss my ass and I’ll consider it.
MutantTailThing@lemmy.world 3 days ago
As a EUrangutan I had to google what a cover letter means and now I am depressed.
lovely_reader@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Are your CVs typically just bullet points about experience and education?
balsoft@lemmy.ml 3 days ago
I think it depends on the country and industry. I never ever had to write a cover letter, but then again most of my jobs the company recruiters found and messaged me instead of the other way around. On the other hand one of my friends had to recently write a detailed cover letter and heavily customize their CV for every job they applied to.
InFerNo@lemmy.ml 3 days ago
Yes, makes it easier for the recruiter. that’s how it’s taught at school, too. At least was, haven’t been in school for a while but have applied for jobs using this format.
Sometimes they ask to write a small letter about how you think you are right for this job. I thought that was the cover letter. It’s not supposed to be very long.
MutantTailThing@lemmy.world 3 days ago
I honestly don’t know. I found my job through an employment agency, I worked there a few months and they offered me a permanent contract. I said yes and that was nine years ago.
Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it 3 days ago
pipe01@programming.dev 3 days ago
I’ve definitely seen cover letters in some job postings in the eu
zaphod@sopuli.xyz 3 days ago
Very common in Germany.
NABDad@lemmy.world 3 days ago
My first job out of college was back in the days when you bought a newspaper and looked in the classifieds.
I set up a mail merge in word to generate cover letters for hundreds of jobs. Each entry in the database had a single sentence related to the job to make the cover letter look like it was written just for that job.
Years after I was hired, my boss told me that they received hundreds of applicants, but I stood out because I took the time to write a cover letter to go with my resume.
It was an IT job, so I always figured it was less cheating and more a confirmation of my skills.
Jyek@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
Now we use AI to write resumes and cover letters for every possible eligible job listing that will all get read by AI thousands at a time. And it will still be a shit job that doesn’t pay you enough to live on.
DarkFuture@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Even better, each job app asks for something specific so you have to alter or re-write your cover letter hundreds of times for the hundreds of apps you have to submit to get a single shitty job.
Or they have a questionnaire, so instead of just submitting the cover letter and resume you’ve painstakingly constructed (and probably having to alter those), you have to type a paragraph long answer for each of the questions, amounting to at least another page or two you have to generate with every. single. time.
I work in IT and essentially every job app had a questionnaire.
That way when you get a job you feel like you’ve won some sort of dystopian lotto and are just happy you aren’t starving in a gutter. Feels intentional.
SendMePhotos@lemmy.world 3 days ago
But how will they know that you want the job?
harmbugler@piefed.social 3 days ago
An unfathomable mystery
OwOarchist@pawb.social 3 days ago
Because my ChatGPT cover letter has a direct shortcut to their AI-addicted brains.
MBech@feddit.dk 3 days ago
I’m tempted to just straight up use AI without proofreading next time I’m in need of a job. If anything, just to see wether or not it works. Judging by a quick 2 minute look at Linkedin, it must be what they want.
vane@lemmy.world 3 days ago
I once send single empty page pdf file and during call hr assumed their pdf viewer was broken. I haven’t denied it.
kuiskaaja@lemmy.ml 3 days ago
did u get the job?
vane@lemmy.world 3 days ago
I don’t remember it was very long time ago and I was desperate so I was applying in masses.
anon_8675309@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Please find attached my AI generated resume in response to your AI generated job listing.
tigermountain@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Then your cover letter should say that.
BladeFederation@piefed.social 3 days ago
I wouldn’t mind at all, if I had any hope whatsoever that they would give a single shit about what I wrote other than to check if I actually did it. In fact, places that require it are less likely to accept me, in my experience. They just want to seem exclusive and important.
starman2112@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
Last year I applied for my second job ever. My resume was comprised of 12 years working the same unskilled minimum wage job. I had a high school education. No technical certificates or anything like that… Wtf do I even do for a resume, besides
Name
phone number
email address
Professional experience: can read and follow simple instructions, can stack boxes
Thankfully the place was desperate for more employees and reading/following simple instructions was enough to get me through my probationary period. Turns out being of roughly average intelligence is enough to make it in life
PotatoesFall@discuss.tchncs.de 3 days ago
And that’s why I’m still unemployed!
Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
Is this an actual option?
Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 3 days ago
If you can eat it in hour, it’s free and you get a t-shirt!
Zachariah@lemmy.world 3 days ago
stickyprimer@lemmy.world 3 days ago
I’ve had to eat a whole bus tire in a job interview.
toxicbubble@lemmy.world 3 days ago
funny story: once i sent a generic cover letter to a bunch of entry-level jobs. one responded that i didn’t tailor the cover letter to the position, so i changed the title and sent them the same cover letter. they didn’t respond lol
ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 3 days ago
i didn’t tailor the cover letter to the position
You should have printed it out and cut it into the shape of a shirt.
mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
that’s fine, I never wanted to read them, it was just more work for me. no need to eat a bus tire, fam
Noodle07@lemmy.world 2 days ago
My cover letter is fire because I genuinely want to work where I apply, mostly because I dont apply at for profit companies :D
aceshigh@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Doesn’t ai make it easier? Create a template and just copy and paste shit.
starman2112@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
Confession time: that’s literally what I did. I do not have the creative ability to add flavor to the ability to stack boxes for 10 hours a day lmfao
aceshigh@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Why wouldn’t you use ai for it? This is exactly the kind of work it can do. No one reads those things so having one is just a formality.
sam_the_tech@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Now THATS a spicy meatball!
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 3 days ago
If I thought anyone was going to read it, I would feel less bad about writing them.
SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.world 3 days ago
I just use AI to summarize it for me so it takes less time to read it.
SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
2026 is all about burning gasoline to drive into an office instead of using the infrastructure that was proven to allow WFH, while forests are burning from global warming and countries are running out of oil. All so you can read and AI summary of something written by another AI.
Not judging you, ya gotta do what you gotta do to pay the bills. Just remarking at how absurd the world has become.
spicehoarder@lemmy.zip 3 days ago
I wish I never looked at your username.
boobookittyfrick@lemmy.zip 3 days ago
Holy shit lil nepetiz. Dude says something about AI and doesn’t get downvoted. What the fuck Lemmy
chiliedogg@lemmy.world 3 days ago
We absolutely read them at my place, and they make a huge difference on who will and won’t get an interview.
We have to write multiple professional letters daily that all end up being subject to Open Records requests. If you can’t handle a simple cover letter you aren’t worth interviewing.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Exposing the terrible inefficiencies of the blasphemous Public Sector.
Obviously, all of this work should be done by AI.
revelrous@sopuli.xyz 3 days ago
I read them 🥲. Not a corpo tho.