Subject: My Cover Letter for Jobs

From: Shlomi Fish <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2004 15:33:41 +0300

Hi!

Recently, a very attractive job offer came into my attention. I decided that I 
really want it, and so took the time to write a nice cover letter about 
myself to send with the E-mail containing the Resume/s. I'd like to get your 
comments about it: what I should add? What I should remove? What I should 
edit? Note that it is directed at a certain type of job, which I'd like to 
work at.

Here it is:

<<<
I am a very experienced programmer, who's been programming since 1987 (when I 
was 10 years) old. Throughout the time I've dabbled with DOS, Windows-16, 
Win32, Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris. Before enrolling in the Technion, I 
worked in three workplaces, all very different and rewarding. (details about 
that in my C.V.). I worked in one Win3.11 environment, one mixed UNIX and 
Win95 one, and one Win95/98, and have plenty of experience in Windows 
development. I have graduated from the Technion in Electrical Engineering 
(cum laude) recently and am now looking for a job.

I am a very active user, developer, writer, advocate and activist of 
open-source technologies. My most successful individual project so far has 
been Freecell Solver, which is an ANSI C library for solving games of 
Freecell and other variants of Card Solitaire. Throughout its programming I 
learned a lot about C programming, optimization, data-structures and 
complexity, algorithms, user-interface design, GNU Autoconf/Automake/Libtool, 
refactoring. As a result, I am much less dumber than I was when I started 
it. ;-)

I also developed other, more minor, but still useful, projects. Lately I've 
been contributing to large-scale international projects which I found 
important. I wrote some patches to Subversion (http://subversion.tigris.org/) 
and the GIMP, and also made the Perl 5 documentation more user-friendly. 
Aside from that there's also a lot of added experience of fixing simple bugs, 
which I ran into, or writing programs for my own use. I like to code for fun.

I'm actively using Mandrake Linux 10.0 at home, and upgrade it whenever a new 
stable version comes out. I also selectively upgrade packages or programs 
from RPM or SRPM or from source. Many times, I stayed on the bleeding edge of 
many programs. (I'm using it to write this E-mail as I speak)

As a contributor of documentation, I started several popular web-sites:
http://better-scm.berlios.de/
http://perl-begin.berlios.de/

and gave various presentations to various local clubs:

http://vipe.technion.ac.il/~shlomif/lecture/

As an activist, I am an active member of many online mailing lists and forums, 
a registered Member of Hamakor, the Israeli NPO for Free Software and Open 
Source Code, and formed several mailing lists of my own.

As an advocate, I recomendded using various software or technologies to 
friends and acquaintances, helped them learn or debug them, and also wrote 
various essays and documents about open-source.

More information about all this is accessible from my homepage:

http://shlomif.il.eu.org/

Please respond to the list (I won't be offended). If this seems like a 
hyperbole to you, you should note that modesty is one quality that you should 
temporarily weaken when writing a cover letter.

Regards,

	Shlomi Fish

-- 

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Shlomi Fish      [email-masked]
Homepage:        http://shlomif.il.eu.org/

Knuth is not God! It took him two days to build the Roman Empire.

---

From: Ori Idan <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2004 17:07:02 +0300

The only thing I can say about this letter is that it is too long...
I tried reading it as I would read it if I was looking for a programmer 
which I did many times
in the past so I have a lot of experience seating at the other side of 
the table... :-)

You are right that you should put modesty aside when writing such 
letters but not too much.
Your letter I think is good.
But...
Try to think as if you are a team leader looking for a new programmer.
You get about 10 mails a day only from programmers (I even got 50 a day 
few years ago)
You are very busy so I assume you wouldn't have read such a long letter.
The first 5 lines should give the reader an idea what you are looking 
for and thus he/she will know if it worth a while reading it.
Also keep in mind that in many cases your mail gets to an HR 
lady/gentleman an HR person
only knows keywords such as PERL, QA, Linux, BSD etc.
So for example if I am looking to work as a Kernel space Linux 
programmer I would write:

"I am looking for a job as a Linux kernel programmer, I am an experience 
programmer in
C/C++ Perl, Assembly, I have written several device drivers for use in 
analog measuremnt systems, in addition I have help bringing up Linux on 
various embedded based on x86 and PPC."

These where 3 lines that can give a little idea who the guy is, after 
that a little more details should come such as Open Source projects you 
are contributing too etc.
I would limit myself to up to 20 lines.

--
Ori Idan

---

From: Shlomi Fish <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2004 17:45:21 +0300

> letters but not too much.

Yes, my phrasing was similar to this.

> Your letter I think is good.

Thanks!

> You are very busy so I assume you wouldn't have read such a long letter.

Right.

> for and thus he/she will know if it worth a while reading it.

You are right of course.

> various embedded based on x86 and PPC."

That would be a good idea.

> I would limit myself to up to 20 lines.

Hmmm.. that's only four times the opening paragraph. But I think I can manage. 
I'll see what I'm going to do.

Regards,

	Shlomi Fish

--

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From: Tal Rotbart <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2004 21:03:06 +0300

Hey Shlomi,

Firstly, take note that HR departments are getting SOOO many fucking
CVs in the eMail and Fax that they only look at the CVs for about 5
seconds before deciding if to discard them (the quick reject pile) or
keep them in the processing pile.

Secondly, you have a much better chance of your CV being viewed by
sending it as a Fax and not as an eMail. I've seen my former
employer's HR department, and I know what happens to a CV when it
takes just a tad too long to load in Word. i.e. "Whoops, eMail
accidently deleted. Oh well, the Internet is so unreliable."

Thirdly, make sure your cover letter is short, printed in large fonts
and contains upper case versions of the buzz-words relevant to the
position.

Good luck with the job!

Tal

On Mon, 16 Aug 2004 15:33:41 +0300, Shlomi Fish <[email-masked]> wrote:
> Yahoo! Groups Links

-- 
/************************************************

  Tal 'redbeard' Rotbart
  Software Wizard

  eMail:  redbeard of gmail dot com
  Tel:    +972-2-671-6178
  Mobile: +972-52-896-5025

  Snail mail:
          Klozner 7/2
          Jerusalem 93388
          ISRAEL

************************************************/

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From: Arik Baratz <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2004 23:55:41 +0300

> I am a very experienced programmer, who's been programming since 1987 (when I
[rest deleted]

Hi Shlomi, all

Take a look at:

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/ResumeRead.html

(Yes I know you probably read it, Shlomi, just in case someone wants
to refer to it)

I think your cover page is way too long. Shorten every paragraph to
one sentence and you'll do fine. If I had to read such a cover page
I'd just skip it and flip ahead to the resume.

>>>draft below 

Dear x,

I am a very experienced programmer, since 1987. I had a chance to work
in many, diverse environments. I have graduated from the Technion in
Electrical Engineering (cum laude) recently and am now looking for a
job.

I am a very active user, developer, writer, advocate and activist of
open-source technologies, and I have develped small to medium-sized
projects from scratch. Lately I've been contributing to large-scale
international projects which I found important, like Subversion, GIMP
and Perl 5's documentation. I've given several presentations in
various local clubs, and I'm active in many online lists and forums,
as well as a member of Hamakor.

I use Linux at home, and I like to code for fun.

More information about myself, code and documentation I've written,
links to project sites I have created and my lecture notes are
accesssible from my homepage:

>>>end of draft

-- Arik

---

From: Shlomi Fish <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2004 07:38:20 +0300

Right.

> sending it as a Fax and not as an eMail. 

Hmmm... faxes are Evil (with a capital E). I haven't configured the modem in 
my Linux workstation yet. (and am not sure I can because it may be a 
winmodem) A service like fixfax.co.il would be ideal, because then I can send 
the faxes through the Internet. Hopefully, my father will let me register. 
Recently, he has been overly cheap, trying to save on computer resources. He 
probably haven't read the Joel Test. ("do you have the best equipment money 
can buy?")

> I've seen my former 

My CV is very short, with very little formatting, and loads in a snap. There's 
also a short PDF.

> and contains upper case versions of the buzz-words relevant to the

Good suggestion.

Thanks!

Regards,

	Shlomi Fish

--

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From: Shlomi Fish <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2004 07:34:10 +0300

> (Yes I know you probably read it, Shlomi, just in case someone wants

I read it yes.

> I'd just skip it and flip ahead to the resume.

Hi Arik! Thanks for writing the revised cover letter for me. (:-)) I think I 
can use it as a basis with some modifications. 

Thanks again!

[snipped]

Regards,

	Shlomi Fish

--

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From: "Nadav Har'El" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2004 14:08:07 +0300

> the faxes through the Internet. Hopefully, my father will let me register. 

If I was your father, I wouldn't let you register to fixfax. Fixfax are slimy
spammers...

-- 
Nadav Har'El                        |         Tuesday, Aug 17 2004, 30 Av 5764
[email-masked]             |-----------------------------------------
Phone +972-523-790466, ICQ 13349191 |If you're looking for a helping hand,
http://nadav.harel.org.il           |look first at the end of your arm.

---

From: "Evgeny Gesin" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2004 11:46:26 -0000

Not all employers allow employees to share knowledge in free
communities or spend paid time in activities not relative to the
company's business.  If so, you may need to delete from the letter
about free contributions and funny stuff.

Also, unless you want to apply for a job in startup or similar
risk-unclear incubator, you can consider to remove text about your
children programming age.

That's first what come in mind.
I think this is my first post here. Hello Tal.. :)

Evgeny Gesin
Javadesk Owner

---

From: Shlomi Fish <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2004 15:15:28 +0300

> about free contributions and funny stuff.

The thing is: I don't want to be employed at such places. Workplaces that are 
secretive and don't allow people to tell some elementary things about what 
they are doing or did at their workplace, are not good for me, because I like 
to tell what I did and what I learned.

Workplaces that frown upon their workers being active in the free software 
community are also not my ideal workplace. I am proud of being a free 
software hacker, and also do not want to isolate myself from the community 
completely because of a job. I'm not saying I'm going to spend all the time 
in my job hacking on open-source code, but I want to be able to do it when I 
get home.

Many workplaces are impressed by involvement in the community. These are the 
workplaces I'd like to be in. While I may be able to tolerate working on 
Windows, or hacking on proprietary, marketplace software, I certainly don't 
want my open-source past and present to be frowned upon.

For other ideas like this, refer to:

http://www.paulgraham.com/hp.html

> children programming age.

That may be true. Still, I did program starting at the age of 10. But of 
course, it's meaningless, because many good programmers started much later. 
My friend and I once discussed the fact that some programmers are better 
after 1 year of experience, than many (or most?) are after 10.

In one of the software houses I worked in before I enrolled in the Technion 
(the last one, actually), I was considered the resident jack-of-all-trades, 
because I knew about so many different computer technologies. We were 
developing a soundcard-turned-into-software-based-modem and so it proved very 
helpful. I really enjoyed working there.

Regards,

	Shlomi Fish

--

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From: Omer Zak <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2004 20:36:58 +0300

Shlomi Fish wrote:
> Hmmm... faxes are Evil (with a capital E).

Tsk tsk...

Before cellular phones and the Internet took over, FAXes were the 
principal method used by the deaf in Israel for utilizing the phone 
network for communications.  The percentage of FAX ownership among the 
deaf is still much higher than the percentage in the general population.

                                              --- Omer
My own blog is at http://www.livejournal.com/users/tddpirate/

My opinions, as expressed in this E-mail message, are mine alone.
They do not represent the official policy of any organization with which
I may be affiliated in any way.
WARNING TO SPAMMERS:  at http://www.zak.co.il/spamwarning.html

---

From: Tal Rotbart <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2004 00:05:08 +0300

[snipped]
> I think this is my first post here. Hello Tal.. :)
Hey Evgeny, welcome to Hackers-IL. 

Enjoy,
Tal

  Tal 'redbeard' Rotbart
  Software Wizard

  Snail mail:
          Klozner 7/2
          Jerusalem 93388
          ISRAEL

---

From: Shlomi Fish <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2004 22:43:15 +0300

> deaf is still much higher than the percentage in the general population.

Well, I was referring to faxes _now_, when there's already E-mail. E-mail, 
being text and all, is more accessible, more user-friendly and less costy 
than Faxes. E-mail can be read by everyone, even people who are both deaf and 
blind. E-mail can also be saved for later use, while faxes are a mess to 
manage. And you can always scan images and send them as attachments. I think 
it's one case where one technology has mostly superceded the other one. I 
could prove to be wrong, and faxes may not diminish in significance or find a 
newfound age. Or there could be Internet faxes, that send it over the 
Internet.

Historically, faxes were very nice. But historically horses were an efficient 
means of transportation, and people wrote on clay tablets, papyrus and hide, 
and food had to be dehydrated to be preserved. But to quote Ovid:

<<<
Let others praise ancient times; I am glad I was born in these.

And Ovid lived from 43 B.C. - 18 A.D., so what he says is much more truer in 
2004.

Regards,

	Shlomi Fish

--

---

From: Omer Zak <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2004 12:09:13 +0300

Hello Shlomi,
I don't remember seeing references to horse&buggy or clay tablets as "evil".
Granted, they were obsoleted by other technologies, but this didn't make 
them "evil".
                              --- Omer

---

From: Shlomi Fish <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2004 14:57:25 +0300

On Wed, 18 Aug 2004 12:09, Omer Zak wrote:
> Hello Shlomi,
> I don't remember seeing references to horse&buggy or clay tablets as
> "evil". Granted, they were obsoleted by other technologies, but this didn't
> make them "evil".

<sigh />

Well, whatever. In any case, I think the people who lived in the transition 
between these technologies to something better did consider them as a thing 
of a past.

Please don't take the word "Evil" as issued by hackers too seriously. What I 
meant was just that it was superceded by something else. I think BASIC is 
Evil and stupid, but having learned how to program in it, I still have fond 
memories of it. 

Regards,

	Shlomi Fish

There is no IGLU Cabal! At the year 2450, all the IGLU Cabal were superceded 
by something else. This has made the people of the year 2480 consider IGLU 
Cabals as redundant and Evil.

--

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From: Shlomi Fish <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2004 15:13:29 +0300

> Hey Evgeny, welcome to Hackers-IL.

I second that. Welcome Evgeny!

Regards,

	Shlomi Fish

--