If you apply to work with me, please don’t let an AI write your cover letter. I’ve gracefully ignored a thousand hymns praising the universally admired company profile and the high standards of software engineering that just happen to perfectly match your passion and destiny. I’m also rarely interested in the spiritual awakening that made you abandon Inner Mongolian studies to pivot into web development. Instead, give me one concrete example from the code of our website. It’s right there in the open you can inspect the source in your browser. Tell me what you like about it, what you can infer from it, and whether you’d have solved it the same way or completely differently. Keep the cover letter short.
Be clear about what you bring to the table and what makes you different. Because React, TypeScript, Next.js and Tailwind… everyone knows those. Yes, everyone. Except maybe me. Figure out why (consider to google “ZEIT Engineering”), and then explain in your application why you still want to work with me. If your stack doesn’t match ours: no problem. Just say you’re willing to learn new things.
Also, please don’t make your CV look like a 2010 website. Everyone does that. You know, with the sidebar layout. And absolutely do not include little skill charts with scales from 1 to n. And if you do — don’t rate yourself 10/10 everywhere.
Actually, better: skip the charts entirely and show me code you wrote. GitHub is fine, but not required. CodePen works too. But just linking an undocumented repo with some code in it isn’t enough. If you send me a GitHub link, assume I’ll look beyond the specific project for example your profile and contributions. If that graph is empty, maybe don’t send a GitHub link at all. Send a photo it shows up everywhere in the process and helps people remember you. Tell me what you want: salary expectations, working hours, and preferred location. Also: google what a “hybrid working model” is.
