> Please don't do this. I spend time going through the resume, the various links in it, and then responding to everyone who applied. But this time, with so much AI-generated verbiage I simply don't want to.

Congratulations, now there's one more company "that uses automated emails for rejection". And rightly so, if you ask me.

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with OP or their employer.

I also love that the way things have worked for decades is applicants have to do everything by hand, but employers can automate as much as they want. Now suddenly applicants can automate just the writing of the cover letter and suddenly automation is bad and it’s all about being personal and what happened to the human touch lmao. This is just over a cover letter, by the way.

Also this is likely not applicants that are filling out one job application. We’re talking applicants that have probably spent weeks trying to apply for jobs. Spare then the 5 minutes of writing a cover letter for a job they’re probably not going to get for the 50th or whatever time.

Your record is far better than mine! I don't think I've ever been informed when I was rejected for a position. I just don't hear from the company again.

Those fields are mainly for Workday's data gathering anyway vs what hiring managers review.

This is such a brilliantly good point!

Before getting my current job, I think I had applied to around 180 companies (getting about 10 callbacks -> 3 on sites -> 1 offer).

And I totally used an automated script I wrote for creating cover letters. It was basically a general template about me, listing relevant skills and interests, a blank variable for company name, and then an area where I could say why I wanted to work for XYZ.

Made that part of the process so much easier.

Interestingly, being on the other side, when I’ve reviewed candidate applications before phone screens or interviews, I always enjoyed reading cover letters.

This can filter out candidates that aren't really interested, and companies that aren't really hiring.

The cost to an employer to accept (not review) 100 applications is about 1/100th of the cost to the candidate.

Employers have more information about the applicants individually and in aggregate but candidates don't about the companies.

Employers don't give much basic feedback to candidates, like underqualified, overqualified, not sure, something else.

A rejection letter is meant to convey a single fact. A cover letter is meant to convey important information that is relevant to the hiring decision. The two things are not equal.

When I've been hiring, cover letters have often been really critical to making these decisions. If an applicant omits a cover letter or uses one that is clearly boilerplate (or AI generated), that applicant is reducing my ability to assess their suitability for the position. As a result, they're less likely to land the job.

And you are less likely to hire someone that is a good fit for your role but couldn't put an insane amount of time to apply to your job post and a 100 more.

And it’s your pickle to put however much stock you want in the cover letter. That’s not what this is about at all. If I were applying to jobs and I know a significant percent of my cover letters will never be read by a single human on earth, I might be tempted to have an AI write it. If you happen to read it and reject me based on whatever likely-subjective metrics you use to determine it was chatgpt that wrote it, that’s just the way the cookie crumbles. You could also reject me on a million other factors I don’t control. Either way, I saved however many minutes.

I assume you mean the general "you", not me specifically, because I do, in fact, do that.

Please tell us with a straight face that you craft a personalized response to each of your 300-700+ applicants.

Dear lovehashbrowns,

We are unfortunately decided to proceed with other applicant this time because even if you have roughly the required work experience for the position, based on your cover letter and resume you seemed to be generally unpleasant people to be around.

Regards, HR, Honest LTD.

But I only bother with putting that kind of care into a cover letter like that if I think I have very good odds of getting the job. In this case, I knew my chances were good because one of their top employees was recommending me.