Everyone says you need a cover letter... and I stopped writing them 6 months ago.

I used to spend hours tailoring a cover letter for every job I applied to in Seattle, thinking it was the key. After about 50 applications with zero callbacks, I just stopped and started applying with no cover letter at all. Within two weeks I had 3 interviews and landed my current role as a project coordinator. Has anyone else found that skipping the cover letter actually helped them get noticed faster?

3 comments

3 Comments

rayc831mo ago

Right, because clearly spending three hours writing about your passion for data entry is what gets you hired. I'm convinced recruiters sit around reading cover letters like they're gripping novels, not scanning them for two seconds before hitting delete. Must be nice to have that kind of time to waste on something nobody reads anyway.

zarak181mo ago

Nobody reads anyway" is basically what my friend Sarah found out. She spent years writing those things until her sister (a recruiter) told her they skim them for maybe 10 seconds. When she stopped, she got a callback from a company that actually read her resume and she's been there two years now.

grant56920d ago

@zarak18 Your friend Sarah figured out the secret that recruiters have been hiding for years lol. Cover letters are basically the participation trophy of the job hunt. Write one and they still don't read it, skip it and suddenly they notice you. I swear recruiters have this weird sixth sense for when you stop caring about the fluff. Its like they can smell the desperation in a four paragraph essay about your passion for spreadsheets. Maybe the real pro tip is to just send a resume with a sticky note that says "hire me you coward" and see what happens lmao.