There are good cover letters and then there are cover letters that are a waste of time. From what I can tell, this tool generates mostly the latter. It's basically just reformatting the resume and job description, producing an inferior version of both.
A good cover letter
- reveals some of the personality of the applicant (I once had a software engineer describe themselves as caring and thoughtful -- that was a nice touch to complement their resume which lists technical achievements)
- gives the recruiting team a sense of passions, priorities, and style of cooperation (again, beyond the technical which is on the resume)
- lets the organisation know a little about the reason for switching jobs.
Of course, it says nothing about whether the applicant is any good at the job, but it can give a sense of whether this person is someone the team would enjoy hanging out and working with every day. I haven't verified it empirically, but I believe cover letters have been signalful for me in the past.
A good cover letter
- reveals some of the personality of the applicant (I once had a software engineer describe themselves as caring and thoughtful -- that was a nice touch to complement their resume which lists technical achievements)
- gives the recruiting team a sense of passions, priorities, and style of cooperation (again, beyond the technical which is on the resume)
- lets the organisation know a little about the reason for switching jobs.
Of course, it says nothing about whether the applicant is any good at the job, but it can give a sense of whether this person is someone the team would enjoy hanging out and working with every day. I haven't verified it empirically, but I believe cover letters have been signalful for me in the past.