Hacker News Reader

Hacker News

Comment by siscia | Hacker News Reader

Full thread

siscia

I had the impression that companies in EU seldom require cover letter.

While it is very often the case for companies in the US.

And honestly it is a big turn off for me as applicant, and honestly I didn't see their value for me as selector.

Does anybody get anything out of cover letters?

View on HN

When I’m hiring and I expect to receive a lot of applications I’ll ask for a cover letter as a way to help filter out the first round. It’s basically a few hundred words to highlight which parts of their CV going to be relevant to the role, plus anything else they’d like me to know about their suitability.

It also helps give a really basic indication of someone’s written communication skills and can be a good indicator of whether they’ve actually read the JD or whether they’re just blindly applying for anything they find.

I live in an EU country and have not seen a job posting that didn't require a cover letter. Even low skill jobs demand one. There are workshops that teach you to write the perfect cover letter. Just another hoop to jump through now that the selection is so big.

I pick the very first company in my head, the very first open position they have, and they don't require a cover letter.

https://careers.protonmail.com/o/head-of-content/c/new

You can submit one, but it is not required.

Sometimes when they offer the option of the cover letter there is an implicit acknowledgment that you will submit one. I know hiring managers who appreciate cover letters, so those who don't submit one are in a worse position.

I was never asked for cover letter.

Hugely important for me, hiring for marketing. I need to know you can write. I need to know you can tell a story. I need to know you can be creative and seek opportunity where others don't. It amazes how many applicants either don't include one (to be fair, not all job posting sites require it) or just slap empty words on the paper and move on.

> Hugely important for me, hiring for marketing.

Exactly. Where I used to work we wrote tech reports aimed at non-tech readers so good written explanation skills were essential.

I was reading up on cover letters yesterday and saw someone on reddit use the following argument: You wouldn't send an email to someone with just your resumé and contact details. Usually, you would write something small to introduce yourself. This is what a cover letter is for. Typically, cover letters shouldn't be much longer than half a page and should be included with applications to provide context about who you are.

As an American o had the exact opposite impression -- every European company I've applied to has requested one. Interesting to see that it was just an outlier experience (and I suspect your experience was the same)

I haven't had formal qualifications for any of the few jobs I have been hired to do in the past 6–7 years, and my cover letters were almost always the reason I got an interview. I would like to think that my cover letters are not the standard, boring ones -- and I purposefully honest with a bit of humour.

In contrast, the accompanying resumes have been single-page, no-frills resumes -- I don't even bother saying anything about what I have done/achieved in previous roles because it seems pretty pointless when I don't have any certificates or practical experience to show.

I'm sure it's different from industry to industry, from company to company, and depends on the seniority of the role. It's just what worked for me to get interviewed at small-medium businesses and probably doesn't work for everyone.

As a final note, in some way I also treat the way I prepare my cover letters and resumes as an additional indicator for whether or not I really want to work at a company (particularly smaller ones with no HR departments): if they don't get back to me it's most likely that they are only looking for "the piece of paper" and/or they don't like my personality/the way I communicate.

Edit: typos.

I know I'm asking a question that is likely difficult to answer, but how do you make humor out of something so mundane as a cover letter for a job? Without knowing anything about the audience I can't imagine how to be funny on paper without coming off as inauthentic.

It's a numbers game. As you point out, without knowing anything about the audience, you have nothing to aim at.

When shooting blind, aim at the biggest target. It's a man's world. Write for men. Men are mostly puerile.

Try a fart joke. All men love these from the time they are kids, and most of them don't ever grow out of it.

To really distinguish yourself, go straight into a poo joke. tailor it to the position you are seeking.

Did you hear about the constipated accountant?

He couldn’t budget.

To demonstrate insightful virtuosity, combine farts and poos into the same joke.

What did the poo say to the fart?

You blow me away.

What’s the true definition of bravery?

Chancing a fart when you know you have diarrhea.

https://thoughtcatalog.com/january-nelson/2018/06/poop-jokes...

I've been looking for work recently, and I've found I've been getting a very good callback rate compared to some of my peers. I assume it's because I write a good, customized cover letter for each application, sometimes going over the posting point-by-point. But I never know when people read them, I only get feedback about 1-2% of the time. I think that is why many may start with "I know no one will read this"...

Well n = 1 and the UK rather than the EU, but yesterday I saw a job description on the gov.uk website that required a 'personal statement' in addition to a CV and said that it would be crucial to the hiring decision.

Thinking generically, a cover letter makes sense for posts where written communication is an essential skill. It's an actual test of free form text writing by the candidate.

Exact opposite experience in the US. I don’t think I’ve even applied at a place where I could submit one. The only point of uploading my resume is to get past the automated screens.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com