Generate a Cover Letter by Pasting the Job Post and Your Resume • Hacker News Board

Re: Generate a Cover Letter by Pasting the Job Post and Your Resume

#61

Post by hartator » Sat, Mar 25, 2023, 10:40 PM UTC

vkou wrote: post #30

rosywoozlechan wrote: post #25

So AI resumes and AI cover letters are now being auto-submitted to AI generated automated job postings then parsed by hiring AI. What an absolute circus this is becoming.

Has anyone hiring for a company with more than 10 employees in the 21st century even read a cover letter? And if they have, are they stupid enough to actually believe it? For most people looking for work, rent's due next month, and they are machine-gunning applications, they aren't actually deeply passionate about getting a job at .

I do read cover letters, but more especially cover emails.

Re: Generate a Cover Letter by Pasting the Job Post and Your Resume

#62

Post by Swizec » Sat, Mar 25, 2023, 10:41 PM UTC

pclmulqdq wrote: post #36

vkou wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has anyone hiring for a company with more than 10 employees in the 21st century even read a cover letter? And if they have, are they stupid enough to actually believe it? For most people looking for work, rent's due next month, and they are machine-gunning applications, they aren't actually deeply passionate about getting a job at .

My old manager at a 150-person company used to do it for experienced candidates. It was shocking to me. I think his idea was that he wanted you to be at least thoughtful enough to say something specific about the job and your experience.

On the other hand my SO got a job at a fortune 200 company out of 1000+ applicants because she was one of the two people who could speak intelligently about the role and what she’d do with it in the initial phone screen. The recruiter was surprised to find someone who even knew what the job posting said.

Re: Generate a Cover Letter by Pasting the Job Post and Your Resume

#63

Post by Ozzie_osman » Sat, Mar 25, 2023, 10:41 PM UTC

vkou wrote: post #30

rosywoozlechan wrote: post #25

So AI resumes and AI cover letters are now being auto-submitted to AI generated automated job postings then parsed by hiring AI. What an absolute circus this is becoming.

Has anyone hiring for a company with more than 10 employees in the 21st century even read a cover letter? And if they have, are they stupid enough to actually believe it? For most people looking for work, rent's due next month, and they are machine-gunning applications, they aren't actually deeply passionate about getting a job at .

I read them. I don't expect applicants to write them, and if it's a formal letter that they copy-paste around, I skim it and don't really factor it in.

But a lot of times the candidate will say why they are interested in the role (they are passionate about the space, they use the product, etc) and it does give higher intent than just a normal application (which candidates often just spray out).

(I'm at a 20 person company now but read them even at larger companies)

Btw, I do the same when I'm reaching out to a candidate. I'll explain why I'm reaching out and why I think they are a good fit.

Re: Generate a Cover Letter by Pasting the Job Post and Your Resume

#64

Post by karmelapple » Sat, Mar 25, 2023, 10:41 PM UTC

pclmulqdq wrote: post #36

vkou wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has anyone hiring for a company with more than 10 employees in the 21st century even read a cover letter? And if they have, are they stupid enough to actually believe it? For most people looking for work, rent's due next month, and they are machine-gunning applications, they aren't actually deeply passionate about getting a job at .

My old manager at a 150-person company used to do it for experienced candidates. It was shocking to me. I think his idea was that he wanted you to be at least thoughtful enough to say something specific about the job and your experience.

As another commenter said, it clearly points out many people shotgunning job apps.

Maybe that will change with AI. But I bet there will be pretty easy ways to detect that - if nothing else, during the first step in the hiring process.

Re: Generate a Cover Letter by Pasting the Job Post and Your Resume

#65

Post by kube-system » Sat, Mar 25, 2023, 10:42 PM UTC

vkou wrote: post #30

rosywoozlechan wrote: post #25

So AI resumes and AI cover letters are now being auto-submitted to AI generated automated job postings then parsed by hiring AI. What an absolute circus this is becoming.

Has anyone hiring for a company with more than 10 employees in the 21st century even read a cover letter? And if they have, are they stupid enough to actually believe it? For most people looking for work, rent's due next month, and they are machine-gunning applications, they aren't actually deeply passionate about getting a job at .

Depends on the position. 90%+ of the people I interview for an experienced software engineer role are currently employed.

Re: Generate a Cover Letter by Pasting the Job Post and Your Resume

#66

Post by ncr100 » Sat, Mar 25, 2023, 10:44 PM UTC

amrb wrote: post #49

rosywoozlechan wrote: post #25

So AI resumes and AI cover letters are now being auto-submitted to AI generated automated job postings then parsed by hiring AI. What an absolute circus this is becoming.

This was already the grift.. ATS system doing keyword match building short lists from scanning resumes.

It's a bad usage of technology, in part. What's the ethical violation, here? Opposite of Consequentialism, at the least.

Related tangent, harming the sick:

Healthcare expense reimbursement denial by software, decisions "blessed" by Doctor at 60,000 diagnoses rejected per month.

- https://www.propublica.org/article/cigna-pxdx-medical-health...

Re: Generate a Cover Letter by Pasting the Job Post and Your Resume

#67

Post by karmelapple » Sat, Mar 25, 2023, 10:45 PM UTC

frob wrote: post #24

morkalork wrote: post #7

Bullshit like this is why hiring processes are so insane now.

Agreed. In my most recent round of hiring, I used the presence of a relevant cover letter as a point in favor of the applicant when deciding whether to invite them in for an intro call. It showed me the person actually looked into the company a little bit and wasn't just spamming. It also helped weed out the spam since I'd get cover letters telling me how excited the applicant was to work at a web3 fintech while we'r…

Bingo. If your cover letter has a lie in it detected during the first phone call, you’re out as a candidate.

If your cover letter is so generic that it doesn’t have any personal connection to why you’re interested in the position, it’s probably not a good cover letter.

Re: Generate a Cover Letter by Pasting the Job Post and Your Resume

#68

Post by FpUser » Sat, Mar 25, 2023, 10:45 PM UTC

billsmithaustin wrote: post #42

plants wrote: post #28

This is so funny, I was just doing this with ChatGPT to apply for jobs. If you make me fill out a bullshit form where I fake being passionate about your company, I’m going to get a chatbot to write it for me. End of story. I just need a job, why do you care if I’m passionate about building CRUD apps for you?

What would be an example of a non-bullshit form?

Her is the example:

We at company XXX are building a solution that does a,b,c.

We want senior level programmer with a preference given to a candidates having these specific skills / domain knowledge.

The job is in the office, (no) need to travel. Requires (or not) clearance / degree / license / etc.

We pay this much (range is ok) and offering such and such benefits.

Please explain why you are a good candidate for this job.

Skip enthusiastic, passionate, hard working, woke, tolerant, etc. etc. bullshit because everyone is asking the same crappy questions here and gets the same crappy answers and it is all meaningless.

Re: Generate a Cover Letter by Pasting the Job Post and Your Resume

#69

Post by Avicebron » Sat, Mar 25, 2023, 10:46 PM UTC

chpatrick wrote: post #48

rosywoozlechan wrote: post #25

So AI resumes and AI cover letters are now being auto-submitted to AI generated automated job postings then parsed by hiring AI. What an absolute circus this is becoming.

Until both the recruiter and software engineer become obsolete.

Then we can reach the real end game, RecruiterGPT hiring SoftwareEngineerGPT to work at StartupGPT building the next generation of cover letter generating AI.

Re: Generate a Cover Letter by Pasting the Job Post and Your Resume

#70

Post by frollo » Sat, Mar 25, 2023, 10:49 PM UTC

lucb1e wrote: post #12

I wonder what I would think of a candidate who submits a computer-generated text for me to read, especially when the input is not even human bullet points but just the job post and the resume. We don't have any formal process for hiring (we're expect this is not going to go over well. As an IT person, I do have to commend the automation, though. There are pros and cons to weigh as you use this.

I'm not involved in my current company's hiring process, but in past companies I just skipped the cover letter.

It doesn't say anything useful anyway.