[karmelapple]

Yes, I read cover letters.

If you think a successful cover letter talks about being deeply passionate or otherwise over-the-moon about the company, your understanding of what signal they give is misguided in my opinion. I look just for some indication that it’s a human who has even the smallest understanding of our company, and maybe had some connection from their history to our mission. That is still helpful, including for the new developer I just hired two weeks ago.

The cover letter and free-form two questions I ask are, somewhat surprisingly to me, one of the strongest signals in figuring out whether to talk to someone or not. Resumes can list lots of similar skills, but a plain English writing customized for my job application, even if it’s small, tells me oh so much about their priorities, their writing ability, and more.

And I fully understand they’re looking for a job anywhere to pay the bills. Even as a cofounder of a small company, that’s part of why I work, too :)