For what it’s worth, I think I’m unusually slow at this but I personally couldn’t come close to writing a cover letter in an hour unless I had already written one for a nearly identical job (e.g. in college I applied for economics research assistants at most branches of the U.S. Federal Reserve; the cover letter for the Boston Fed and NY Fed were ~the same).
For a job I really cared about, I think three hours would be about the median if you don’t count all the procrastination because I despise writing cover letters.
I’m *not* claiming this is typical. Just thought it would be useful to make it clear that there’s a *really* wide range in how long job applications take applicants (perhaps depending primarily on level of neuroticism :P).
~1h sounds like the time to make a CV and cover letter personalized for Charity Science starting from an at least semi-relevant CV and cover letter for a previous job application.
I second Howie’s observation that there is just a really wide range.
Not just depending on neuroticism and other job applications but also writing talent. I expect people from physical sciences to take longer and find it more of a pain. I take between one hour and ninety mins for a cover letter, and I have four CVs that I modify slightly. So I don’t often take more than two hours in total.
1 hour for Cv/cover letter seems extremely optimistic...
For what it’s worth, I think I’m unusually slow at this but I personally couldn’t come close to writing a cover letter in an hour unless I had already written one for a nearly identical job (e.g. in college I applied for economics research assistants at most branches of the U.S. Federal Reserve; the cover letter for the Boston Fed and NY Fed were ~the same).
For a job I really cared about, I think three hours would be about the median if you don’t count all the procrastination because I despise writing cover letters.
I’m *not* claiming this is typical. Just thought it would be useful to make it clear that there’s a *really* wide range in how long job applications take applicants (perhaps depending primarily on level of neuroticism :P).
Ok given multiple people think this is off I have changed it to 3 hours to account for variation in application time.
It came from asking ~4 successful employees who where hired
~1h sounds like the time to make a CV and cover letter personalized for Charity Science starting from an at least semi-relevant CV and cover letter for a previous job application.
My sense is they already had a CV that required very minimal customization and spent almost all the time on the cover letter.
I second Howie’s observation that there is just a really wide range.
Not just depending on neuroticism and other job applications but also writing talent. I expect people from physical sciences to take longer and find it more of a pain. I take between one hour and ninety mins for a cover letter, and I have four CVs that I modify slightly. So I don’t often take more than two hours in total.