Unpopular opinion: cover letters are absolutely useless. Change my mind.

I don’t think they’re absolutely useless. I’ll just say that I’m never going to discourage a candidate from submitting one, but I’m also not going to disqualify a candidate if they don’t have one. If they can portray their experience clearly without one then awesome, but if they can also provide more context through a cover letter that’s double-awesome. Will I read it? Maybe, but I’m always happy to have one.

Really dumb, but I do have a short thing I keep in a Google Doc to either copy/paste or attach. For people stating “I don’t apply if they require blah blah blah”, keep in mind that this is a software that the recruiters and hiring managers don’t choose, so the fact that the company requires useless, unread info does not mean that the job and team won’t be a great experience and good money. This is especially true in academia, or companies who are using Workday to take applications. The cover letter field has an asterisk, making it a required item, or you can’t submit your app.

Can’t change your mind because I agree 1000000%. I don’t apply to jobs that require a cover letter and back in my recruiting days, I often didn’t read cover letters if applicants included them. Who has time for that??

Yikes… am I the only one that disagrees?? Although I do not make them a requirement , I’ve come across some very well written cover letters that made me reevaluate applicants. I’ve always appreciated someone who shows such enthusiasm and opted to take that extra step.

Any company that ABSOLUTELY requires a cover letter/you to manually input EVERY one of your jobs and dates over the last 10 years on their website, rather than just allow you to upload your resume = 🚩🚩🚩🚩 Cover letters are really only a way for super junior candidates with absolutely 0 experience to demonstrate their personality/writing skills on the off chance it somehow lands them a job.

Agreed! Have a resume and a website/LinkedIn. That should be enough to get someone’s vibe.

Requiring cover letter feel like red flags now 😅

I don’t even complete applications that require them anymore. if my resume is written correctly, and aligned to the job posting as it already should be, it speaks for itself.

I read them, but for fun. It’s like a finding a legitimate antique at a garage sale.

I read them. All of them. And often a good CL will contextualize a person’s experience and interest in a way that makes me bring folks forward I possibly wouldn’t have otherwise.

I have screened thousands of applocants for positions, about 1% of cover letters were read. I can remember however how many cover letters were addressed to the wrong company and wrong job title, those candidates should have not included a cover letter.

I would rather check out an applicants linkedIn over reading a canned cover letter.

This isn’t an unpopular opinion at all. They’re so ridiculous and I’ll never apply to a company that requires one.

Agreed.

They are, and I stopped creating them.

Agreed.

Agreed

Yep agreed

100% Plz don't send me a cover letter

The way I just laughed!! This is soooooo true.

Agreed 100%. I can’t remember the last time I actually read one. Lol

Agreed.