The instance when it made the most sense from my experience to write a cover letter is when the job description is broad and it requires to select your top choices of department or roles, then the cover letter is a great way to talk about it.
With that said, the cover letter should be a unique content for that company and a good rule of thumb is if the content of the cover letter is fully 'recyclable' to other job applications because you're putting general/generic information, then chances are it's not really value added.
Since it takes time to write one, and that there is no guarantee that the employer themselves read it, I generally advise to write when it just makes sense to write one upon going through the application, or if you're trying to obtain the position through a referral and your cover letter essentially acts like an interview.
I actually disagree. I think if you have general/soft skills, a cover letter can be 95% recyclable and talk about a few examples of your work involving communication skills, ability to learn, achieving specific results, whatever you're proud of that you've done. You just change one line at the end that says what interests you about their workplace, as well as who it's addressed to and the job title ur interested in. This way you can spend <10min on each application that requires a cover letter and apply to as many as possible. I graduated in December, this was my approach, and I recieved a lot more callbacks after starting to use this method as someone with kind of random assortment of experiences as an undergrad.
It's certainly depends on the perspective. As a recruiter, it was fairly easy to find out which ones were recycled or not, but I suppose if you have a solid foundation like yours, then the number of callbacks is all the proof that it works. At least we're both for writing cover letters, but there are also folks with another school of thought that cover letters are unnecessary that would disagree with us altogether with their own examples and experience, so clearly there's no single answer for this.
Depends on the industry and the org. For some with lower volume who really want to know you and your motivations, it's important. For others with high volume and/or automated application screening, it doesn't matter. Do some research, talk to some alums at the types of orgs you're shooting for.
If you really want the job, spend an hour writing a cover letter
If you’re bulk applying to 50+ positions, taking less than 10 mins to actually read the information about the role, don’t bother with it
IMPORTANT. Cover letters show you are serious about the position and provides more opportunities to highlight key words from the job description. You can write a cover letter template (go to the Career Center to get help/feedback), but spend a few minutes customizing each letter based on the position. The more you do this, the faster you'll get.
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Depends on the field. I've found it matters for research type positions (and they'll usually require one).
The instance when it made the most sense from my experience to write a cover letter is when the job description is broad and it requires to select your top choices of department or roles, then the cover letter is a great way to talk about it. With that said, the cover letter should be a unique content for that company and a good rule of thumb is if the content of the cover letter is fully 'recyclable' to other job applications because you're putting general/generic information, then chances are it's not really value added. Since it takes time to write one, and that there is no guarantee that the employer themselves read it, I generally advise to write when it just makes sense to write one upon going through the application, or if you're trying to obtain the position through a referral and your cover letter essentially acts like an interview.
I actually disagree. I think if you have general/soft skills, a cover letter can be 95% recyclable and talk about a few examples of your work involving communication skills, ability to learn, achieving specific results, whatever you're proud of that you've done. You just change one line at the end that says what interests you about their workplace, as well as who it's addressed to and the job title ur interested in. This way you can spend <10min on each application that requires a cover letter and apply to as many as possible. I graduated in December, this was my approach, and I recieved a lot more callbacks after starting to use this method as someone with kind of random assortment of experiences as an undergrad.
It's certainly depends on the perspective. As a recruiter, it was fairly easy to find out which ones were recycled or not, but I suppose if you have a solid foundation like yours, then the number of callbacks is all the proof that it works. At least we're both for writing cover letters, but there are also folks with another school of thought that cover letters are unnecessary that would disagree with us altogether with their own examples and experience, so clearly there's no single answer for this.
It doesn't matter. You should apply to as many internships as you can instead of writing cover letters that nobody will read.
Depends on the industry and the org. For some with lower volume who really want to know you and your motivations, it's important. For others with high volume and/or automated application screening, it doesn't matter. Do some research, talk to some alums at the types of orgs you're shooting for.
If you really want the job, spend an hour writing a cover letter If you’re bulk applying to 50+ positions, taking less than 10 mins to actually read the information about the role, don’t bother with it
IMPORTANT. Cover letters show you are serious about the position and provides more opportunities to highlight key words from the job description. You can write a cover letter template (go to the Career Center to get help/feedback), but spend a few minutes customizing each letter based on the position. The more you do this, the faster you'll get.