Ask HN: Writing cover letters for tech jobs • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Writing cover letters for tech jobs

#101

Post by eli » Sat, Dec 16, 2017, 1:18 PM UTC

gjjrfcbugxbhf wrote: post #85

eli wrote: post #20

I can't speak to every hiring manager, but I definitely read cover letters and value non-generic ones. (And in fact my job ad instructs you to include one. So I still look at resumes that come in without one, but it doesn't speak well to your attention to detail.) The tone doesn't matter that much, but I would avoid the extremes of very informal or very formal. It should be the first thing that I read, so if you're a…

Oth. If I don't include a cover letter and you want to find out more about me you have to interview me...

This is not good idea.

Re: Ask HN: Writing cover letters for tech jobs

#102

Post by expertentipp » Sat, Dec 16, 2017, 1:55 PM UTC

bob_roboto wrote: post #97

expertentipp wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When it comes to searching for a job, best to not waste cumulative hours of your life writing material that won't be appreciated. Cover letters aside, this includes take home assignments in particular.

Having had to go through public interview processes (i.e. not being approached by the company or referred) recently for the first time in a while I can't agree more. Take home assignments are fine _after_ an interview. Companies that send you a take home assignment before they want to talk to you are a waste of time and quite frankly, it's rude and shows a lack of respect. The ultimate insult being not getting back t…

> The ultimate insult being not getting back to you even though you scored the maximum on their silly CS undergrad tests.

The score is always too low and there are always some tests failing. Just submit the tasks blank or with dummy code. This way they waste time and money for the license - that's the only thing one can do in defence.

Re: Ask HN: Writing cover letters for tech jobs

#103

Post by _mrmnmly » Sat, Dec 16, 2017, 2:07 PM UTC

My usual cover letter:

Dear Sir/Madam, in reply for Your job offer placed at I would like to apply for a .

I'm with years of experience. I and .

My current tech-stack is:

I've included my CV as an attachment for this message.

Looking forward for a reply from You.

Best regards,

Enjoy ;)

Re: Ask HN: Writing cover letters for tech jobs

#104

Post by Angostura » Sat, Dec 16, 2017, 3:41 PM UTC

Maro wrote: post #90

I review about ~100-200 CVs per week in bulk, for Data Science. I actually treat a cover letter as a negative signal. Who has time to write one, and why you do think anybody cares? Show where you worked, what you did, link to some interesting stuff, all this in the regular CV structure, and that's it. I have about 10-20 seconds per CV, reading a cover letter is out of the question. The only thing the CV is for is to…

Your job sounds like it will cease to exist within a year or two, if all you are doing is scoring a standard document against standard criteria.

Re: Ask HN: Writing cover letters for tech jobs

#105

Post by jghn » Sat, Dec 16, 2017, 4:26 PM UTC

huntero wrote: post #10

Cover letters might get lost in the HR departments of larger companies, but they're incredibly useful to me when sorting through applications at a small company. Especially for entry level positions, a well-written cover letter is a much stronger positive signal than a bullet point style resume. Far too often the resume is a regurgitation of university class projects and career center templates. Think of it like a pr…

I review a lot of resumes and I see very few cover letters. Early on when I'd get one it'd get me excited and I'd make sure to read it. Then I realized that 99% of the few cover letters I received were so paint by numbers that it just wasn't worth my time. So now I don't read them. I understand that there's some tiny fraction of applications with a genuine, heartfelt, quality cover letter that I'm missing, but that's such a small number I'm ok with it.

Re: Ask HN: Writing cover letters for tech jobs

#106

Post by jghn » Sat, Dec 16, 2017, 4:28 PM UTC

tempestn wrote: post #86

huntero wrote: post #10

Cover letters might get lost in the HR departments of larger companies, but they're incredibly useful to me when sorting through applications at a small company. Especially for entry level positions, a well-written cover letter is a much stronger positive signal than a bullet point style resume. Far too often the resume is a regurgitation of university class projects and career center templates. Think of it like a pr…

These are my feelings exactly. I run a small, all-remote web company with six developers. When I'm hiring, I'm looking at least 80% at cover letter, 20% at resume. And even that 20 is mostly just to make sure they have the basic competence to put together a resume, and to check experience and education to get an idea of salary range. Most of the decision to interview is based on cover letter and the answer to our fiz…

Granted I just talked down cover letters in a sibling post but I completely agree with your second paragraph. When I apply I do create a cover letter but that letter is completely bespoke and totally oriented at that specific position. If I don't know enough about the company or position to do this, that's a sign that I shouldn't be applying in the first place.

Re: Ask HN: Writing cover letters for tech jobs

#107

Post by telebone_man » Sat, Dec 16, 2017, 4:35 PM UTC

Do it! You've got nothing to lose. Write stuff that wouldn't be appropriate in a CV. Such as, why you want to work for them in particular. Have a look at their job spec, try and understand their key motivation in wanting someone to fill that role, and sell that you can do that.

Re: Ask HN: Writing cover letters for tech jobs

#108

Post by lawnchair_larry » Sat, Dec 16, 2017, 5:24 PM UTC

kkoppenhaver wrote: post #49

scabarott wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks. Please do share

Full text below "Your posting caught my eye because I've been a reader of How-To Geek for years. In fact, I discovered your site through the article you wrote about setting up a Raspberry Pi as an always-on downloading box. Thanks to that article, I've now got 3 Pis sitting around my apartment doing various jobs. I'm currently a Technical Architect with doejo, a digital agency specializing in WordPress development an…

major tl;dr

Re: Ask HN: Writing cover letters for tech jobs

#109

Post by ragnese » Sat, Dec 16, 2017, 5:37 PM UTC

As someone who is currently applying to jobs, this is a very important question and the answers are, unfortunately, exactly what I expected: everyone's experience and suggestions are totally different.

Which sucks, because I really wanted to figure out what I'm doing wrong. I'm still fairly new to the field, and I don't have a vast network to tap into (which is what it seems like most people here prefer to do).

So here I am, thinking that my resume/CV is actually starting to look nice (PhD in a hard science where I spent the whole time doing/writing Monte Carlo simulations and analyzing data, plus 1.5 years at a tech startup doing backend and Android dev, plus proficiency in many languages, SQL, etc), and I'm getting almost no interest in my applications. I had one local guy contact me and one corporate job that made me take an SAT-style online test and a "personality test" that I guess I failed because I haven't heard back after that.

I think I've sent out nearly 30 applications in the last couple of months. I've been mostly sending them out via Indeed and WeWorkRemotely.com. Is this field really that competitive? I'm not even getting to the "perform like a trained monkey" interview questions- I don't get any responses at all!

I can't imagine that my cover letters are all _that_ bad. I mean, I try to customize them to each job. I try to keep them brief.

It's just all really, really discouraging.

Re: Ask HN: Writing cover letters for tech jobs

#110

Post by chis » Sat, Dec 16, 2017, 6:23 PM UTC

ravenstine wrote: post #64

I almost never need to write my own cover letter. The closest I get to a cover letter is if I have an opportunity to send an email to a company I like, and I know the email will go to someone not in HR. If I have no choice but to interact with HR, either I'll see it as a red flag and won't bother applying or I'll apply with no cover letter. Yes, this does mean I won't get interviews at most companies. Writing cover l…

I agree. If your options are to apply to 20 jobs with blank cover letters, or apply to 4 jobs with custom letters, it’s obvious which one has a better chance of working out.