[rgbrgb]

Well if that last step is what made it feel honest, many of these tools are basically a way to bypass that. I think it crosses into dishonesty when you include an AI cover letter that says you want the job/would be good at it but you haven’t even looked at the post or evaluated the company. For example if you don’t actually want the job (have seen this).

[scarface_74]

I think you misunderstand what most people want out of job. Like I said, I’ve had 10 jobs. All of them were targeted because they had money and I needed to exchange labor for some of their money.

I didn’t have “passion” about any of them. I “wanted the job” because they had money. The only evaluation I cared about was was would I get paid on time.

I’m exaggerating slightly. I did care about other things. But I wasn’t desperate like many people are in today’s market. That is the attitude I would have if it came to that.

No one reads cover letters by the way. They barely read resumes.

[rgbrgb]

my hypergrowth hiring days are a few years behind me but fwiw I did read cover letters. Including one was an easy way to get to the top of my ATS pile. At the time, there was no AI generation so it was a decent signal someone actually wanted the job vs was just spamming. I was sifting through thousands of applicants for the few who would give a shit about our product and customers. That signal is no longer useful and you now have to use some AI countermeasures to cull the stack of applicants (or as you mention, ignore the stack and only interview referrals... 100% agreed that is the most effective way in).