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ultropolis 13 hours ago

I will tell you my cover letter secret*, which has gotten me a disproportionate number of interviews**:

Do NOT write a professional cover letter. Crack a joke. Use quirky language. Be overly familiar. A dash of TMI. Do NOT think about what you are going to say, just write a bunch of crazy-pants. Once your intro is too long, cut the fat. Now add professional stuff. You are not writing a cover letter, you are writing a caricature of a cover letter.

You just made the recruiter/HR/person doing interviews smile***. They remember your cover letter. In fact they repeat your objectively-unprofessional-yet-insightful joke to somebody else. You get the call. You are hired.

This will turn off some employers. You didn't want to work for them anyway.

* admittedly I have not sought work via resume in more than 15 years. ymmv

** Once a friend found a cover letter I had written in somebody's corp blog titled "Either the best or worst cover letter of all time" (or words to that effect). In it I had claimed that I could get the first 80% of their work done on schedule, but that the second 80% and third 80% would require unknown additional time. (note: I did not get the call)

*** unless they are using AI to read cover letters, but I repeat: you didn't want to work for them anyway.