Tuesday, November 26 - "When Are Cover Letters Useful?"

Happy Tuesday!

Here’s what’s on the job description for today:

1. New roles from a European Fintech with a very international group of employees.

2. Jocelyn asks, “I’ve started adding cover letters to my applications given how difficult the current job market is. Even with ChatGPT they take time, so when are they most useful?”

IN HIRING

Moss

• A European fintech, the company provides all-in one services to financial professionals around the world.

• With over 40 nationalities, the company is not as awkward when it comes to working in either an international environment or sponsorship.

• Here are a few of the most interesting roles available

  • Partnership Manager - Click here for full details

  • Senior Marketing Analyst - Click here for full details

  • Senior Product Analyst - Click here for full details

Click here for the company’s career page

TODAY’S QUESTION

Jocelyn asks, “I’ve started adding cover letters to my applications given how difficult the current job market is. Even with ChatGPT they take time, so when are they most useful?”

Recommendation: Given that they used to be required for most applications but are now rarely mentioned, it’s a fair question. Here’s how I would deal with cover letters:

• First, I completely agree that time is one of the biggest reasons cover letters are a big pain. The time not only to write but to research, think about what to add, and formatting begins to add up.

  • For this reason, I don’t recommend anyone write cover letters unless they’re struggling to get interviews.

• Second, if you’re not getting many interviews, then cover letters begin to make some sense. If you’re already getting a decent number of interviews, then don’t change what you’re doing - that’s a success.

• Finally, if you’re not getting interviews or getting very few of them, the way I would think about cover letters is that you have a finite amount of time but within that time you have a finite amount of energy. If you set aside 1 hour a day to do applications, the first few will usually be better than the last one.

  • For this reason, rank the applications you want to do in a day by priority. For the jobs at the highest priority, add a cover letter.

  • As for the logistics of actually writing it, spend 15 minutes roaming the internet for a format that you think works really well and set a prompt in ChatGPT or one of the LLMs that can be repeated.

    • I tend to prefer something like this (page 5), which includes bullet points as they make it more readable. The key is to pick something that can be repeated or semi-automated.

Conclusion:

Cover letters are usually a waste of time but if you’re struggling to get interviews or have excess time, they can be a good way to separate yourself from the big stack of applications.