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Show HN: AI Cover Letter Writer

tally.work

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Re: Show HN: AI Cover Letter Writer

#12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It seems to me that research scientist is a post-postdoc in industry, so all these textboxes for cover letter (or "introduce yourself") are the way for a researcher to say "Here's how my extremely specific research area actually applies to your business objectives"

Depends on where you apply. Universities and national labs probably expect a research statement which can be seen as a cover letter. But that is not something that can be generated by a bot. It will be your personal research statement akin to a grant proposal.

Re: Show HN: AI Cover Letter Writer

#13

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.

I'm a big fan of cover letters. I'll ALWAYS read an applicant who has sent a cover letter, and so in my books it's a good way to stand out from 100s of applicants (that are likely to only get skimmed and thrown out just due to the pure volume). It shows me that you care about the job and haven't just applied to 50 random roles.. not saying that it's bad to apply to lots of roles, but if you're that keen on the job I've posted to write me a cover letter I'll always make sure I read it along with your resume.. and then you loose all the points you've earned if it's clearly an identical cover letter that you've sent to lots of companies and it has nothing to do with this particular role, my company or shows you've done no research on us :)

Re: Show HN: AI Cover Letter Writer

#14
post #2

I’m afraid that this is going to be dead on arrival regardless of outcome. Companies will begin to not rely on cover letters due to the rise of AI usage. Even if they do still use cover letters, the AI detectors are now (finally) going to be applied there. As a last resort, the employer might require the candidate to write the cover letter in person in the assessment centre with no access to the internet.

> As a last resort, the employer might require the candidate to write the cover letter in person in the assessment centre with no access to the internet.

That's a verbal interactive activity and it's called the interview isn't it? :)

Re: Show HN: AI Cover Letter Writer

#16
I broke it. Got back a raw error from the OpenAI API.

Edit: Looks like I had a character that wasn't properly quoted in the JSON from my resume, which I just copy/pasted from LinkedIn. When I got rid of all the LinkedIn cruft it worked fine.

Didn't seem to account for the job description though -- looks like it just summarized my resume.

Re: Show HN: AI Cover Letter Writer

#18
post #2

I’m afraid that this is going to be dead on arrival regardless of outcome. Companies will begin to not rely on cover letters due to the rise of AI usage. Even if they do still use cover letters, the AI detectors are now (finally) going to be applied there. As a last resort, the employer might require the candidate to write the cover letter in person in the assessment centre with no access to the internet.

Companies will begin to not rely on cover letters due to the rise of AI usage.

That depends on how much AI-cover-letter-app prices are. If it's expensive enough few people will use it.

Re: Show HN: AI Cover Letter Writer

#19
lol been doing this for the past few weeks. You can't just use a simple single shot method here. it needs to be refined with your own personality, writing style, and more.

This stuff will get you somewhat there, but won't go the entire distance.

A few things i like doing

- decrease wordage

- increase readability

- make pointed

- "I don't like the following: '...', change it out for one of the following, provide examples"

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