[dikdik]

I thought this too. But I am in the middle of my job search (applied for several on the ASK HN thread) and the calls I have received back are for jobs I did not write a cover letter or at most a paragraph that I sent with my resume.

The two companies where I spent almost a week each writing a cover letter and editing it until I thought it was perfect, have not even bothered to send me a "not interested." Obviously anecdotal, but not sure if I will continue to put in that effort as it does not seem to make a difference for me.

[soared]

I've had the same experience. Written ~10 unique cover letters (for positions I really wanted), done a couple 'practice problems' but the only positive responses have been from 4 sentence long emails I sent out to people who posted on Ask HN.

[pinewurst]

I'm in the midst of the same process and have observed exactly the same.

[dikdik]

Well now I have to eat some crow. I ended up hearing back from one of these companies a couple days after my original comment. It was very positive, too! Hang in there, my friend, need lots of patience for this.