Cover letter to be sent when applying for a job. Now I've been playing around with these, for years now, reading about how to write one, how it should look like, formatting, ect.
But now... I've found the ultimate one. It's rude. Crude, insulting, agressive, creative
You should send it to the HR manager directly if you can.

Subject: Job application

Attachment: CV in English

Cover letter: "Hire Me.
***** you."

That's it Thoughts?

I think the ultimate cover letter is not writing anything at all. Its stupid and pointless requirement, reminds me of school essays but with a hint of propaganda. I figure if a company wants me to spend my time writing bullshit about how I want to work for them and how great we are for each other then I don't want to work for such company.

thurd Wrote:. I figure if a company wants me to spend my time writing bullshit about how I want to work for them and how great we are for each other then I don't want to work for such company.

Are there many such companies who don't want the letter? :p

Cover letters are only stupid and pointless if you are bad at writing cover letters (most people are bad at it, judging from the applicants I see at my company).

Showing why you want to work at a company is important. If you are someone who is just after the paycheck, you will not get hired over a similarly skilled person who is actually interested in the growth opportunities the company offers or otherwise has a genuine interest in the company (and not just employment in general).

But the cover letter doesn't necessarily reflect level of interest in the company, but rather bullshitting ability (which may very well be a useful skill). An assessment of writing ability may be useful for certain professions of course but it seems quite sad to me that an otherwise qualified person might get passed up because the person reading it is a grammar nazi...

That is somewhat the point. A cover letter is a way of presenting yourself, your motivations and your personality. The resume is to present your skills and experience (which also involves some bullshitting). Both are important when selecting someone to hire and both require some level of self-marketing to write well.

The problem is that far too many people think of a cover letter as a mere formality and don't realize the point of it.

jettyke Wrote:

thurd Wrote:. I figure if a company wants me to spend my time writing bullshit about how I want to work for them and how great we are for each other then I don't want to work for such company.

Are there many such companies who don't want the letter? :p

There are, I've never written one and it didn't affect my career.

Jarvik7 Wrote:Cover letters are only stupid and pointless if you are bad at writing cover letters (most people are bad at it, judging from the applicants I see at my company).

Showing why you want to work at a company is important. If you are someone who is just after the paycheck, you will not get hired over a similarly skilled person who is actually interested in the growth opportunities the company offers or otherwise has a genuine interest in the company (and not just employment in general).

Oh so naive. Nobody in their right mind will write "I'm here just for a paycheck" and since everyone knows whats expected from a cover letter all of them contain the same crap about "growth" and "opportunities". Its a mechanism supposed to weed out all those unmotivated and unworthy but since everyone knows this they all act accordingly, thats why its broken.

Ability to write a cover letter usually doesn't tell you anything useful about how good is that person at his job. I can imagine in your position (translation if I remember correctly) it would be a desirable additional information but most jobs out there don't require you to write anything except for notes or simple emails, especially if you're an engineer.

Cover letter is a stupid habit of poor HR departments & HR agencies, they've read about it in a book but never really understood it, so now they blindly shove it in peoples throats even if the job is flipping burgers at McDonalds...

You can still weed out unwelcome people just by their resumes (the horrors I've seen).

Acting according to expectations is an example of bad cover letter writing in my opinion, as it shows the mindset of treating it as a formality. It is still better than a bad cover letter that doesn't meet expectations or no cover letter though.

Of course no one will write "I want money" on their cover letter. However, seeing the lack of effort given to an "according to expectations" cover letter makes it clear that that is the case.

Yes you can get by with an impressive resume (especially in more technical fields where you might have easily expressed unique skills or fields where there is a labor shortage) and a bland buzzword compliant cover letter, but a standout cover letter enhances the entire package.

I don't quite get why you wrote that most jobs don't require writing so a cover letter is pointless. While it can be a useful tool to judge someone's writing ability if that is a desired skill, that isn't the point of it. The content is the most important part, not the syntax.

I do agree that it's silly for unskilled manual work like flipping burgers or greeting at Walmart though. For that kind of job all you should need is the work history section of the resume to show that you aren't a flake.

Jarvik7 Wrote:Acting according to expectations is an example of bad cover letter writing in my opinion, as it shows the mindset of treating it as a formality. It is still better than a bad cover letter that doesn't meet expectations or no cover letter though.

Of course no one will write "I want money" on their cover letter. However, seeing the lack of effort given to an "according to expectations" cover letter makes it clear that that is the case.

Yes you can get by with an impressive resume (especially in more technical fields where you might have easily expressed unique skills or fields where there is a labor shortage) and a bland buzzword compliant cover letter, but a standout cover letter enhances the entire package.

I don't quite get why you wrote that most jobs don't require writing so a cover letter is pointless. While it can be a useful tool to judge someone's writing ability if that is a desired skill, that isn't the point of it. The content is the most important part, not the syntax.

I do agree that it's silly for unskilled manual work like flipping burgers or greeting at Walmart though. For that kind of job all you should need is the work history section of the resume to show that you aren't a flake.

The cover letter is to get the human resources manager to look at you resume. If you are being recommended for a job you could probability don't need one. The only job that I didn't have to do a cover letter for, I didn't even have to do a resume. Just the interview. That is only speaking for Japan, Canada, and America.