Ask HN: Ever been hired through a “who's hiring” post?

Re:Ask HN: Ever been hired through a “who's hiring” post? by nogbit on Wednesday November 02, 2016 @01:31PM (#12857267)

And the most recent whos hiring from yesterday I only saw one "cover letter required". I do that when I hire. I love reading them. So many are obvious boilerplate copy/paste that the applicant is sending to everyone, or, poorly written (these go to the trash can). The ones that are keen have a story to tell about how the position aligns with their experience.

On the applying side, I choose only 5 companies last time and wrote very strong cover letters. Got a call from all of them. HUGE time saver when job searching, be picky with who you apply to and craft a good cover letter.

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Re:Ask HN: Ever been hired through a “who's hiring” post? by carussell on Wednesday November 02, 2016 @02:10PM (#12857649)

Confirmation bias? How do you know those companies were actually responding to your cover letters, and not your other strengths? Do you have evidence that if you'd sent out no cover letters (or a single sentence copy and paste job), that you wouldn't have gotten the same response rate?

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Re:Ask HN: Ever been hired through a “who's hiring” post? by TheMog on Wednesday November 02, 2016 @02:22PM (#12857748)

I'm not sure it's confirmation bias, but if it is multiple people have had the same experience.

For the last two jobs I got by actually actively seeking out an opening rather than being contacted by a recruiter, I only send out 2-3 applications each, but with a cover email that was custom to each company.

On one occasion I had a 100% interview rate, on the second one a 66% one (1 out of the three companies had an automated screening system and I'm pretty sure I was too expensive for them).

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Re:Ask HN: Ever been hired through a “who's hiring” post? by user5994461 on Wednesday November 02, 2016 @08:46PM (#12860709)

You need both.

Whatever experience you have, it won't get you through the door if you give less than a single sentence as a cover letter.

Whatever cover letter you have, it won't get you through the door if you have no experience in your resume.

Have some experiences + have a few sentences cover letter. That's the magic recipe. If you have any less than that, you're going with a disadvantage.

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