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July 31, 2026
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I've gotten a lot of interviews without writing cover letters when optional. My feeling is it doesn't really matter and nobody reads them. That said, whats the downside to writing one?
Yeah, that's true. The only downside would be the time spent per cover letter if I'm applying to various jobs at a time. Thanks for the input!
My suggestion is to get a template going for each industry. That way if you're applying for 20 banking jobs for example, you just have to fill in the name of the company for each one.
If it's optional I'd just suck it up and write one. Keep a few templates around and double check that everything matches (right dates, company names, etc.), but you don't want to risk the chance of that specific recruiter valuing cover letters. If they don't care they'll just ignore it.
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