Am I the only one who is too lazy to write a letter of introduction, when applying for jobs?
I feel like they should be excited that I even applied because I almost didn't apply. 😅
Discussion
Ask a robot to write one for you.
I'm probably the only one who doesn't do that. 😅
Like at college. I gave up, once I realized nobody else writes or programs anything, anymore. Pointless exercise to see who can massage ChatGPT best.
Hilarious, when you sit in a class and three people present their solution and their solutions all contain the same bug because they used the same AI result that had a bug in it. 😅
AI is just a dice throw remix machine
my consistent experience is that LLMs generate garbage 99% of the time, can't deal with multi-level abstractions, and ML systems actually work about 75% of the time, but that's a whole different tech to LLM
both of them are shit, ML is useful, LLM is irritating fad that will wear out by mid 2025 for sure
if i were HR i would pin your cover letter on my wall
Heh.
I'm trying to apply for Junior Tester positions and the AI is like, "Here is a System Architect position you seem ideal for. 😊"
Nah, too much work. I'm looking for an 8 hour job I can do in 2 hours effort per day, bro.
It wasn't that long ago we wrote programs by hand in school (or vhd hardware descriptions if you were in my program :)
Same. They do that on exams, but from memory. They don't actually know how to write a program.
I was terrible at handwritten code. When I took a class called "C for engineers" I had basically only hello-world experience with C at the time, and they way your code was tested, was it was input into the prof computer and compiled as-is. He had some sort of image-text thing.
Point is, if you missed a comma or a semicolon you got a 0 for that unit. The final had a questing for like a 100 something lines worth 25 points, no partial. I think it took up 2-3 pages for me. It wouldn't compile. The average for the final exam was a 50% IIRC.
I was the class advocate because I was a bit older and little behind and didn't want to fail, so I literally would stand up and argue with the dude and ask kids to raise their hands and make him repeat it until everyone understood. We regularly went over time by about 30 minutes. I was so fed up with some of those professors, I regularly had confrontations with the dean of the engineering school because she was such as damn bureaucrat about everything.
I can't do anything that requires arithmetic, so I've got no chance, anyway. As soon as there's a counter, I'm out.
And why would I put that much effort in, when they often can't even be bothered to respond?
This isn't the 90s, where we all had beautiful folders and parchment paper and stuff and we expected to work for one company until retirement. 😅
Now I just ask if they need it, most of the time they don't. But l'm at a point where I just tell my expected salary and discussion stop right there 99% of the time, so I go straight to the point, unless I really, really want the job, then I do my best letter and postpone the salary discussion as much as possible, but this is like 1 time on 20 or 50 job ads maybe.
I was just applying on a whim, so I was easy to discourage. But I quit the application workflow and they sent me a confirmation notice, anyway. Guess I called their bluff.
I think cover letters are awful and dumb.
They really are being written by computers, anyway. Especially in Germany, where they throw your application out if they find a grammatical error, but you have to apply to a gazillion companies, to get a job.
Tragedy of the commons. Videos showing you how to use AI to up your profile and game to get noticed by recruiters. Recruiters using AI to filter in the most high signal, from AI.
Self reinforcing race to the bottom. I'm staying away from it as long as possible.
>Self reinforcing race to the bottom. I'm staying away from it as long as possible.
Same
Do you think they even realize that the people they're looking for are the people most cynical about and turned-off by the automated application process because we know how to build the same type of automated application process? 😂
Like, eagerness to engage on this stuff is an application anti-pattern.
That's like, the sort of diversity hires they dream of will be grossed out by any position that mentions diversity hiring. 😂
I'm perfectly fine with being treated the same as straight, white guys, tyvm.
Oh you mean someone who's well qualified because they worked hard, showed results, grew their knowledge, and is willing to apply it?
>That's like, the sort of diversity hires they dream of will be grossed out by any position that mentions diversity hiring
I have to speculate this is a larger number than is generally assumed
Right! I remember reading blogs a month or so ago about how to add some hidden prompt engineering into your cover letters using AI to help get passed the BS AI filters. They had a ton of stats, something like an order of magnitude better response rate.
>Like, eagerness to engage on this stuff is an application anti-pattern.
100%. It's just throwing apps at the wall and seeing what sticks. It's terrible for "placement" if that makes sense.
I'll keep doing it, and working where I can as long as I can until I figure out what to do myself, or someone finds me. It's worked for me once before.
I'm so glad I can take a test for my jobs... LOL none of this BS
Dear ai write a cover letter for this job at address
I only write cover letters if:
- they are required
- I'm applying directly on the company's website
I only apply on the company's website directly if I'm very excited or interested in the company or opportunity.
Selective cover letters.
Yeah, my cover letters are special. Not everyone gets one.
They're _art_ .
Just use AI and be done with it. They most likely will be using AI to filter you anyways.
That's what I'm assuming. I never seem to make it past AI filters, so it's like, why write a letter they won't even see?
I wished that's how it worked. Although I've gotten 1 response out of 40+ applications, so I could be doing something wrong...
Wait, I have to redo the math, because I was sending about 7 a week for a while there
Yeah, starting to feel increasingly pointless to even apply for anything.
Any meaningful work I have done has been either physical proximity (sure you can relate) or I made enough noise in my area of interest (online or in person) and attracted people. Things have been different this go around though
I tend to do really well in interviews, but my resume is bizarre. Formal qualifications are excellent, but in a different branch than the experience. The experience starts when I'm 17, there's a 10-year break, the photo MUST be catfishing, and the experience is like, No fucking way that is even true.
Whatever.
Can't disagree. I think I usually do well in interviews too, but I haven't had any big corporate interviews yet. But I think most people could say the same
90% of the positions aren't real. They're just marketing.
I'm applying for 100% remote positions and there are like 8 of those in Germany. And they get 500 applicants apiece, probably.
Have you seen https://bloomberry.com/remote-jobs/
These jobs are all over the place, but since your still kind of a US lady the majority of the postings seem to be in the US, but maybe 1/4, and I usually get 140-200 new listings per day. Only about 2 worth applying to per day
That's a pretty standard response rate, based on my experience and that of people I know.
I've seen plenty of "research" blog posts saying even 1/40 is pretty good. Expect something like 1/100. I didn't even know that many positions existed. I don't understand large scale corporate economy
I tend to be more like 3/5, or so, because I'm so limited in which jobs I can apply for that I'm always overqualified and don't expect much from the salary.
Of course, then I'm lacadaisical when I work because I'm underworked and underpaid, but whatever. Mom jobs. Hard to even bother.
Working is really hard when you can't leave the house and return at the same time every day. That's like 90% of having a job. 😂
It's great you've been able to find mom jobs! Not all employers are amenable to those flexible hours and split attention.
A friend and I had an idea to make a small time, recruiting service for moms. A little more than recruiting, but essentially like a work dispatching service of sorts.
We call those "janitorial services" around here.
I actually prefer menial labor. I can think about whatever I want all day and don't have to sit in stupid meetings or kill time.
i spent a year working as a cleaner for a highschool
it was hard sometimes but my chest swells with pride that the art teachers had never seen such clean rooms before, and i typically finished my shift 30 minutes early
I used to clean the bakery and the coffee shop and the toilets, after working all morning rolling pretzels.
That was my favorite job, so far.
i love my dev work but doing derivative bullshit wears thin pretty fast, and i have to keep my sats balance in mind as i idle out for much of a second month now
hoping that in a week or two this bit of "fun" i'm doing will finally fix some shit i was struggling with in the paid work and and open more doors to building more with it... i know that i can get some traction just by making replicatr production ready so i can start thinking about something beyond this will be good
like, i really really want to be able to plug a legit GUI client together, but only have to mainly deal with the actual code and not the mysteries of node_modules
If engineering fails for me, there's a good chance I'll jump back into a labor position of some sort. It's often quite rewarding in the short term, as long as you build a path to an air-conditioned office. Although the only successful people in construction I've met, is generational.
Unfortunately the baking family trade stopped with me after my father passed. He always wanted me to use my head, not my body. Although there is a good chance I would have taken it over like he did at my age.
I wanted to take over the bakery, but he wanted to retire and not have to deal with an apprentice.
Hmm. How about a home issue board with sat rewards for completion. Agile Chores and allowances.
That would motivate me, right now, to go cook dinner. 😂
Fair, but does it work for some or most?
It seems that most job postings are generated for some other purpose than to actually find a candidate.
So often I hear friends talk about how they send an application and don't receive a response of any kind until months later.
That indicates companies aren't actually serious about filling roles.
Maybe the postings are to signal a growth position to investors or such like.
yeah, I'm thinking the same thing
The earliest response I got was in June about an app I submitted in early march. It was a denial. "Sorry but were headed in a different direction"
They keep the postings up, even while doing layoff rounds.
I expect applicants to show they did a little research about what we do before I waste my time with an interview.
That just means you don't really need anyone.
No, it means I am trying to surround myself with the right people. What I do is driven by first principles. It takes work to find people who share them. If I don't know them already, I expect them to explain why I should include them in my operation.
That's what a telephone interview is for. Resume sending is just first contact, to see if they've even got the skill set you're interested in or if you only want someone within a 5-mile range or etc.
I don't do telephone interviews. Everything is face to face. I'm not giving you my time unless you show my you're worth it.
