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Ask HN: Writing cover letters for tech jobs

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Re: Ask HN: Writing cover letters for tech jobs

#21

Post by wtvanhest »

You should never 'apply for a job' in the traditional sense unless it is an hourly job at a mall or something like that.

For professional jobs, the pattern is as follows:

1. Locate professionals at the company you would like to work at.

2. Email them through a friend if that is possible, and if not, cold email them and say you are interested in learning more about XYZ company. Ask if they can grab a coffee or do a quick call.

3. During the coffee, ask them good questions to learn more and if you think you would still be interested, ask them if they have any advice on how to apply.

4. Do their advice, which typically means giving them just your resume and having them insert you in to the HR recruiting process.

Any other strategy is a gigantic waste of time.

Re: Ask HN: Writing cover letters for tech jobs

#22

Post by schneidmaster »

My company wrote a blog post a while back with some tips for a good cover letter -- it's not specific to engineering but I think it's super helpful anyway: https://blog.aha.io/the-best-cover-letters-that-ceos-love-to...

Two key takeaways (in my opinion):

- If you care about the job, do a little bit of research about the company. What does the job posting focus on and how do you align with that? What's their engineering stack and when have you worked with those technologies? This isn't "required" (i.e. you can certainly find jobs by mass-sending the same generic intro) but investing a little time in finding out about the company goes a long way towards telling them that they should take the time to find out about you in return. I also think this helps with the question of tone -- you probably won't go wrong matching the tone of the job posting itself.

- Make it easy for them to see if they want to hire you. Include your resume and make it easy to read (a short, well-formatted PDF is great). Include a direct link to your GitHub/portfolio/etc. If you don't have any public work, just say so and give them a Cliff's notes instead -- "Most of my recent GitHub contributions are private, but for the past six months I've lead a team of four developers in developing a new widget using React, Redux, and ES6, which I see is a close match to your tech stack."

Re: Ask HN: Writing cover letters for tech jobs

#23

Post by walshemj »

pruthvishetty wrote: post #12

Always write a cover letter from scratch. It's better to invest time in five most relevant positions and apply with a complementing cover letter (and resume), than to apply for fifty positions without any background research (AKA generic cover letter/resume.) If you are applying online to a big tech company, it almost always goes into an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). The ATS scans your resume and cover letter for…

Sucks for dyslexics even high performing dyslexics like myself find writing cover letters hard and I would only do that for some very specific and life changing jobs - some run of the mill startup not so much.

Re: Ask HN: Writing cover letters for tech jobs

#25

Post by starwind0 »

Personally I have never really seen the point in writing one. My resume has all my abilities and even a bit about me. The recruiter is going to scan the resume and let the computer decide if I get the interview. That said the smarter thing you can do is copy the job posting, attach it to the end of your resume. I usually do it in micro print and white, as it's just for the machines.

Speaking as someone that has interviewed a lot of senior level engineers in the last 2 years. The fastest way to get a black mark is to hand me an 6 page resume. Frankly as a lead, with 10 resumes on my desk.. most of whom don't have the right skill set. The last thing you want to do is make me hunt to see if you can do the job. Cover letters in the rare case I got them, I didn't read at all. If your resume interests me I'll look at your linkedin.

That said, I am a senior / lead android dev. So I don't exactly hurt on the job front.. I have noticed the smaller the company the more they want you to know about them. Especially start ups (the more obscure and small the higher the expectation)

Re: Ask HN: Writing cover letters for tech jobs

#26

Post by auntienomen »

I hire data scientists, machine learning specialists, and the like, and I definitely value cover letters. Hiring is an intrinsically noisy process, and any additional information I can get helps me make better decisions.

I don't particularly care about tone, though. I'm looking to see if the applicants can string thoughts together, and if they understand what sort of position they're applying for.

Re: Ask HN: Writing cover letters for tech jobs

#27

Post by shusson »

wtvanhest wrote: post #21

You should never 'apply for a job' in the traditional sense unless it is an hourly job at a mall or something like that. For professional jobs, the pattern is as follows: 1. Locate professionals at the company you would like to work at. 2. Email them through a friend if that is possible, and if not, cold email them and say you are interested in learning more about XYZ company. Ask if they can grab a coffee or do a qu…

> Any other strategy is a gigantic waste of time.

Sounds like you value networking but I wouldn't call other strategies a waste of time. I got a lot of jobs in my career by simply writing a cover letter and directly applying.

Re: Ask HN: Writing cover letters for tech jobs

#28

Post by latenightcoding »

No one is interested in reading a generic cover letter, they can be extremely helpful if you "keep it real".

I always write very short cover letters that say who I am and what are my interests (e.g: ML, Distributed systems) Then I write why I think I would be a great fit for this position (e.g: I worked on something very similar)

Re: Ask HN: Writing cover letters for tech jobs

#29

Post by Balgair »

qznc wrote: post #16

I repeat parts of their job description and explain why I fulfill it. Example: Job ad says "we look for a proactive and self-reliant person" then my cover letter says "to successfully finish my PhD, being proactive and self-reliant was important". This technique works even better for the technical parts. I'm not sure if it was worth the effort. In the german job market, employers are quite desperate these days. A fri…

I second this approach.

Many job ads will have a bulleted list of what they are looking for and responsibilities. Just copy-paste that list and then re-write the bullet points in a way that shows how you have that skill. EXP:

- Candidate must have 5 years experience with FooBar

- Candidate must have good knowledge of ZooCar

Turns into:

- Via my 5 years at class/volunteering/job at McEnroeCorp I used FooBar and made FooBarApp with it.

- I have used ZooCar for class/job/side-project and got-a-B/made-$$$-for-company/went-to-FGH-conference

Just go down the list and put in whatever you can.

ProTip for 'shyer' people: Don't worry if you only have 3 years and they need 5, apply anyway. Also, if you only have ~40% of the listed requirements, apply anyway. Hell, if you think the logo is kinda cool and you have an inkling that you can code and fog a mirro, apply anyway.

Re: Ask HN: Writing cover letters for tech jobs

#30

Post by horsecaptin »

Understand that applying to jobs where there are many other applicants is a bit like playing the lottery: only a few will be picked up from the pile of applicants.

Now say that you get past this round and that your application gets picked up by someone in HR or the Hiring Manager. They have a pile of others they need to look at as well. What would they prefer to read? This is a bit subjective: some would like you to not waste their time - keep it short and sweet. Others would like to read a love letter.

So, what do you do? I'd say keep it short and sweet for most jobs that you apply to. Two, maybe three paragraphs with two to four sentences each with the last paragraph being an invitation to read the resume and get in touch with you for a meeting. One in ten.. maybe one in twenty jobs get a love letter. It has to be a job that you feel strongly about. But even the love letter - don't waste words - edit it well.

Good luck!

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