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 he…
Where do you live? Would you mind to tell more about you?
If you do heavy maths like what you appear to do, I'd suggest you go for a finance company to become a quant.
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…
> 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.
I can somewhat agree with that sentiment. When we've interviewed for developer positions at my work, a take-home assignment is optional and requires no specific language or tools besides the web. The alternative is to demo some work you've already done personally or professionally. I think that's fair because not everyone should be expected to produce code from a previous job or have side-projects. I used to have the opposite opinion until I learned the hard way that having side projects, even for their own sake, is a drain on one's life-force.
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…
Don't send a blank cover letter if there is one requested. Just write a single line of text to say that you are a X with N years of experience and you can help them.
Too many companies will reject applications with a blank cover letter.
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…
When I spot a resume I like, I then read/look for the cover letter. I imagine you do the same. So there is probably some value in writing a decent cover letter at the very least.
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 he…
Where do you live? Would you mind to tell more about you? If you do heavy maths like what you appear to do, I'd suggest you go for a finance company to become a quant.
Well, my location is definitely a limiting factor. I live in Florida- and not even Miami. That's why I've been mostly trying to find remote postings. I'm a great remote worker- my PhD work was as part of an international collaboration where I mostly worked with a few people in California and Texas, and my current job is remote.
Finding a quant position is probably what I need to do. Any suggestions on how to break into that?
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…
Maybe I'm just antisocial but I don't envy the person on either side of that situation. Also, if this is such an established pattern for professional jobs, why even bother having proper channels for applications? Are online applications just a honeypot to blacklist me from actually getting hired?
Here’s the thing, sometimes it seems like the HR department’s job is to weed out exceptional people. If you can avoid going through the front door (HR) it’s often to your advantage.
As an aside, it may seem unfair to the less socially outgoing that others don’t use an existing process that might be in place. Take dating for instance - just because a girl is on a dating site doesn’t mean that the dating site is the only way to ask her out on a date. Finding a job is similar to dating in some ways.
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.
Yes, this whole process could be automated with ML, I don't know why no startup has done this yet in a good product. I'd definitely pay for it. HR is actually not my job, I'm hiring Data Scientists for my team; the reason I'm doing the screening is because I'm doing a gig in the Middle East and the HR people here don't know much about DS or how to screen for it (plus, looking at all these CVs is quite the cultural experience). It has occurred to me several times in the last 1-2 years to take some time out and work on this. Friends at Google told me Google has this internally; I wish the guys doing it would spin off a startup!
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…
> Who has time to write one, and why you do think anybody cares? How did you get your current job, and what is your opinion about the summary or cover letter space in almost every job application form? Assuming of course that you don't have an alternative means into the company.
Last 2 jobs I was headhunted. But that's because I'm "old" in this industry (10+ yrs of experience) and have the right signals on my Linkedin = worked at good companies (Prezi, Facebook). The biggest signal is what company you worked at, second biggest what school you went to (if it's a big one).
I guess there's some segments where cover letters are a thing, eg. academia. But I've never seen anybody care about cover letters at tech companies.
Where do you live? Would you mind to tell more about you? If you do heavy maths like what you appear to do, I'd suggest you go for a finance company to become a quant.
Well, my location is definitely a limiting factor. I live in Florida- and not even Miami. That's why I've been mostly trying to find remote postings. I'm a great remote worker- my PhD work was as part of an international collaboration where I mostly worked with a few people in California and Texas, and my current job is remote. Finding a quant position is probably what I need to do. Any suggestions on how to break in…
First thing first. It's time for you to consider moving to a larger city. There are only a few places in the world that have companies in need of these skills.
I'd recommend you try to get in touch with finance companies through either your university network, job fair or acquaintance. If not possible, try to go through recruiters or apply directly.