Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: AI Cover Letter Writer

tally.work

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–77 of 77 posts

Re: Show HN: AI Cover Letter Writer

#71

Post by paultopia »

rootusrootus wrote: post #65
paultopia wrote: post #61

This is what large language models should be used for. Stupid busywork documents that serve no real function beyond demonstrating knowledge of some unspoken norms (i.e., class) or being fed directly into someone else’s AI.

Seems like short-term work, though. As soon as this becomes common (which appears to be, oh, right about now), what little value the busywork documents still had drops the remaining distance to zero.

Works for me. If some hacker with a few hours and an LLM can force employers to eliminate pointless and irrational pain points that only exist out of habit from their processes then we ought to give that person a medal

Re: Show HN: AI Cover Letter Writer

#72

Post by ghaff »

ep103 wrote: post #64
neilv wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you seeing companies requesting or expecting cover letters, in recent years? Lately, I occasionally see a job application Web form that has place for a cover letter (text field, or file upload), but if it's there, it's almost always clearly marked optional. I also more often see people on HN talking about not reading cover letters, and not having much time to review most applications at all. If someone sends me a…

As I said, I'm not against cover letters. I think they can be a reasonable tool that benefits both parties, if the interview process genuinely takes them into account and uses them honestly. I also think that the vast, vast majority of posts relating to interview processes in the tech industry on this website (and most others) show a staggering degree of lack of knowledge on how hiring works, and that interviewing in…

I think some of the divergence of opinion here is that a lot of people have primarily experienced filling out a form on a website--in which case a cover letter is pretty divorced from it's original purpose of going in an envelope with a resume.

On the other hand, an email to someone you know may be more important than your resume. For one job, I'm not sure if they ever ended up with my resume at all unless the business office wanted it for some pro-forma reason.

Re: Show HN: AI Cover Letter Writer

#73

Post by DenisM »

neilv wrote: post #42

I imagined receiving a pile of these cover letters, and having a negative reaction. I'd feel they were wasting my time with bulk -- drowning out the meaningful, genuine ones, from people who invested in the communication -- as well as being from people who saw no problem in sending me what I'd consider a "fake" text that they didn't actually write themselves. How about we try not to send LLM text that pretends to be…

I think most people wouldn’t mind writing a thoughtful letter if they knew that the recruiter will put thought into reading it. However most applications are discarded before that, which means one has to apply a lot to get a chance at hitting someone who will actually give you a chance by reading what you wrote. That in turn makes it impossible to put effort into every single one of them.

Have some compassion. Maybe try applying for jobs yourself and see how it looks from the other side.

Re: Show HN: AI Cover Letter Writer

#74

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

neilv wrote: post #42

I imagined receiving a pile of these cover letters, and having a negative reaction. I'd feel they were wasting my time with bulk -- drowning out the meaningful, genuine ones, from people who invested in the communication -- as well as being from people who saw no problem in sending me what I'd consider a "fake" text that they didn't actually write themselves. How about we try not to send LLM text that pretends to be…

Don't ask for bullshit and you won't get bullshit.

I am continually shocked by how willingly ignorant of this rule people are.

Re: Show HN: AI Cover Letter Writer

#75

Post by gs17 »

bubblethink wrote: post #7
goldemerald wrote: post #4

I am currently looking for ML scientist jobs (just about to get my PhD) and this tool is a life saver for me. I have been procrastinating cover letters for weeks, and I just wrote 10 letter tonight with this. Obviously the output is a little verbose and needs some tuning by myself, but it's significantly easier to edit down a already written cover letter than to write one from scratch.

At least in tech circles, I haven't heard of anyone requiring or preferring a cover letter.

There was a thread the other day where someone claimed to reject applications without cover letters. Although I'm just assuming they were in tech based on them posting here.

Re: Show HN: AI Cover Letter Writer

#76

Post by mdaniel »

ramesh31 wrote: post #29
ninjaa wrote: post #27

Try https://career-copilot.web.app for a really polished resume + cover letter writer. Blew my mind

Pretty confident you could automate this all the way to a phone screen. Insert resume and job titles you're looking for, auto-blast out a thousand applications, AI response to the recruiter, then adds it to your calendar.

Since most recruiters don't read anyway, it'll be like bots talking to each other. I look forward to the inevitable medium article "how I got ChatGPT employed at $whatever"

Re: Show HN: AI Cover Letter Writer

#77

Post by daniel_iversen »

infecto wrote: post #55
daniel_iversen wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Each to their own. I’d be more than happy to write something for you pre-emptively if I was really keen at exploring your company, but I’m quite picky and also I’m in sales (of sorts) so if I think I have a good pitch or angle/approach that will give me an edge I’ll take it (as opposed to playing the random lottery) - similarly I’ll also see if we have mutual connections on LinkedIn or if I know your investors etc :)…

I agree here. It can definitely improve the odds of landing an interview. In my opinion the cover letter should not be part of the standard form filled process though. If I am reaching out to you Daniel because I think I can add value to your company/team then it makes sense to write a custom introduction email. This can apply to an individual or reaching out to some startup via a contact email. For positions where o…

Agree it shouldn’t be mandatory to submit a cover letter in the process because that would indeed just be noisy and also defeat my process of checking who goes the extra mile - and as we all know too there are people with so interesting resumes or experiences that they’re likely to get a call/interview no matter whether they attach a cover letter or not! (I still suggest you don’t risk it for jobs you’re really keen on - watch one less Netflix episode that night and write that cover letter! ;)
Post reply on HN