Cover Letters? Yes

Whenever I write about our focus on cover letters during the hiring process, I'll inevitably receive the "cover letters are still a thing?" or "people still read cover letters?" response from a cadre of characters.

Here's one from yesterday:
https://x.com/amfonte/status/1924996546896036278

Yes, cover letters are a thing, and we absolutely still read them. And require them. We put significant weight on them.

Cover letters are the first signal of effort, of care, of clear thinking, of communication ability, and of diligence. The fundamentals.

They're the very first thing we read when people apply. And when they're bad, they're definitely the last thing we read from that applicant. We just stop there. They're green lights or red lights.

A great cover letter tells a story about someone in a way nothing else quite will. A cover video could be another flavor, and I'm happy to see those as well, but we still want to see how someone writes. Most communication at 37signals is written, so being great on camera but poor on paper doesn't cut it.

There's another tell in the cover letter: Are they applying for this job or just any job? It's pretty obvious if it's a general purpose mail merge, or a personal letter written to us about their passion for that position. The latter are the kinds of people we want to hire. The former can try somewhere else.

A great cover letter is not too long, not too short. But them, in words we want to read. The kind of words we want more of.

So that's where we start. From there we look at all sorts of other things, but you have to start somewhere. And for us, it's the sacred cover letter.