Electronic signature Form for HR Simple

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Using electronic signature forms can signNowly reduce the time and costs associated with traditional signing processes. It increases efficiency, enhances security, and ensures that all parties can sign documents from anywhere at any time.

Absolutely! With airSlate SignNow, you can customize your electronic signature forms to match your brand's look and feel. This includes adding your logo, colors, and specific fields required for signing, creating a professional and personalized experience.

Salesforce itself and many tools created for it have nothing to do with the ease of use or the “user friendly” term, so I am on the same page with you in this regard. Based on your question, you are not looking for an online documentation tool and the documents you would like to auto-generate are not user guides. Am I right? If I am, then some of the tools people try to recommend are irrelevant, which means that your question would benefit from some details. Let me ask a few questions that will help you find the answer:Is it MS Word documents that you try to generate? Would using MS Word macros suite your needs?Are you ready to write code/script to automate the process?Should the docs be generated as a part of an automated process through API?Should the tool be installed in your network, or cloud-based would work?Should the tool be platform-independent?Will you need advanced formatting (images, backgrouns, header, footer) or settings specific to printed formats?Do you need to auto-update a document once it has been generated once?By answering those questions for yourself, you will better understand what you need, and will easier find a solution.

Document the current process as it is. Include everything from the moment you’re ready to make an offer.Is there an offer letter template? Who sends it? Where is the signed letter saved and who needs to know it’s been accepted?What information is needed from the employee (I9, Benefits, Direct Deposit, NDA, etc.) What forms will be needed?What will the employee need on their first day and their first week (Security badge, PC, phone, desk, cube, etc.)? Who needs to supply it?Who will be training them and what is the training process? How will you track their progress?There’s likely a lot more you’ll need to document, but that gives you a general idea of what questions to ask. Once you have that all sorted out, run it by a few people who are part of the process and validate it.Once it’s all validated, you’re ready to automate. Find a workflow management system that fits your needs and budget. These systems allow you to create workflows that include all the tasks that need to be performed and assign them to the people who need to perform them.Processes can run in parallel or sequentially. For instance, someone may be setting up their security badge at the same time someone else is requisitioning a chair.You’ll be able to set up reminders and alerts to make sure that everyone is doing what they’re supposed to be doing. As tasks are completed, they are checked off as completed by the task owner and the process moves to the next step.Meanwhile, the entire process is visible to all stakeholders so there is never a question about who needs to do what next. Also, the time from beginning to end can be tracked to find bottlenecks in the process.Before launching the automated process it, get feedback from all stakeholders, which could include HR, Payroll, Purchasing, Finance, Operations, IT, Security, etc. If they have a part to play they need to provide feedback. There may be information they need that’s not already on any forms you’ve created.I put together a guide that walks you through the process of automating employee onboarding that has a lot more detail than I can include in this response.

While chatbots and AI are frequently talked about, there is more to HR automation than that. Automation doesn’t have to mean taking the “human” factor completely out of human resources. There are tools in hiring software, particularly, that are leveraging automation to, in fact, better candidate and employee engagement!Some automation can increase communication and personalization, if used correctly. Now, the “best” hiring automation tools are going to vary dependent on the company’s culture, budget, hiring needs, etc., but there are some tools and tactics in the field that I recommend checking out regardless of all that:ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems) are software solutions designed to streamline and automate certain aspects of the hiring process so that you can pay closer attention to what matters and save time/resources along the way. Here are some examples:Use email templates that you can send in bulk but tweak to be personalized, keeping up with candidate engagement.Use a sourcing extension to auto-fill candidate data and facilitate employee referrals.Post to multiple job boards from one platform.Hire collaboratively, with automated employee performance reports, event scheduling, and team notesAs far as the future of automation in recruiting is concerned, I wouldn’t worry too much about the negative effects. There are going to be pros and cons to every innovation. However, HR is one field that is so people-centric, the talented recruitment professionals won’t stand for AI or automation taking away their jobs or replacing real candidate engagement. As long as you are well-equipped to do your recruitment job now with help from your team, automation can only assist that!

Automated Attendance Timesheet Entry based on Employee’s ID card swipe details at doors.Automated workflow management system for leave Approal. The employee applies leave on the online portal even from his home and the automated system will take care of the approval work flow.Automated House rent allowance approval system.The employee uploads the rent receipt in the portal and the approver verifies the document and approves online. No need of physical documents sending and verification.Automated Medical claims. i.e Cashless Medical Insurance. The employee visits the tieuphospital and provides his employee ID and the company. The hospital will take care of the communication with insurance company and deal with the medical expenses. The employee don't need to pay cash from his hand.Automated online tool for including, changing Voluntary provident fund.Automated Updating for Profile information through online portals like Address, Mobile number, Bank account etc.If you are running a company with decent number of employee count , then digitising the HR processes will help you to minimising the cost,time so much.

Wow. So many awesome answers. I share much of what has already been described:*  Brighter than almost everyone around me*  Learn new things incredibly fast when engaged*  See deeply into problems--develop an abstract understanding of a new area so much faster than others*  Very, very good at anticipating problems and making a plan. Very, very bad at executing against it.*  Terribly easily distracted, always starting and abandoning projects*  Information junky LOVE to learn new things*  Incredibly verbal and charming when I want to be. Witty and funny.*  Viciously self-critical and sometimes viciously critical of others*  Hate to wait, always late, procrastinate.*  Finish people's sentences for them*  Only care about getting the information I need. Please don't tell me why that task isn't done. I don't care. I asked a yes or no question: Is it done? *  Being mistaken for a dick because my irritation over delay and distraction is mistaken for judgment about another's behavior or their output.*  C student in high school, didn't graduate college. Sometimes spent more time helping others with their homework than doing my own.*  Hated to attend lecture. The information came too slowly. Detested listening to others ask questions of the teacher. Why are they so stupid? This is a waste of my time. Learned on my own time in my own way.*  Undisciplined about health. Don't take care of my health for years at a time. Then flip-flop to hyperfocused. Eat carefully, exercise every day, drop 40 pounds or more, then peter out and back to sloth.*  No self-control around foods. Can't eat one cookie. The only way I can eat better is to not have the cookies around.*  Tried drugs as a teenager but didn't like them. I literally didn't get what others thought was exciting about being drunk or stoned. Would 100X rather waste time reading a fascinating history book or playing a strategy game than feel impaired.*  TV calms me if it is engaging. Enrages me when it isn't. Commercials usually make me want to tear my eyes out. Poorly written comedy makes me want to kill somebody. I can more-or-less only watch PBS and cable TV because the programs are commercial free. Documentaries are the BOMB. Who knew earth worms were so fascinating? And I feel so much calmer while I watch...*  Radio calms me if it is engaging, Enrages me when it isn't. The increased volume of radio commercials and makes me want to firebomb car dealers and other radio advertisers. I am engaged only when I get a constant stream of just the right music or engaging information from people I respect. I can pretty much only listen to PBS and internet radio today.*  Movies often bore me, unless they hit the right psychological note. Can't stand to watch shoot-em-ups, blow-em-ups, superpower-them-ups, hack-em-ups. Have to watch movies that show me nuance and psychological realities. When I do have to watch silly movies with my children, have to analyze the symbolism to death. *  Always felt different. Always knew there was something wrong with me. Always felt lonely. Couldn't put my finger on the problem with me.*  Couldn't achieve my potential. Couldn't even come close.*  Verbally Impulsive. Have great trouble concealing a negative emotional reaction.*  Will freely express a negative opinion of an idea. Can't understand why that would bother the other person. After all, I was only trying to help improve the idea... *  Am not strongly attached to my own ideas. They come and go fast anyways. If you shoot it down, I'll go back to the drawing board and comeback with another.*  Consistently underestimate the time I need to complete tasks.The only real thing I can add to what others have written is the depression and self-doubt. If you allow it to get to you, it can be so demoralizing to lose your wallet, phone or keys every morning. To once again leave the house without remembering that form you were supposed to return to the kids school. It sucks to constantly feel you are disappointing others. It sucks to feel you don't  know how to love other people because your attention wanders the moment their needs don't require your focused attention. It sucks to know you set a bad example for your children. It sucks to know in the moment you are becoming obsessed over something inconsequential and have pursued it far beyond the point of behaving productively. It sucks to feel that you are self-centered because your need to have your anxiety reassured is so important you often can't suspend it when you should.ADD is the best of times and the worst of times. Sometimes I feel so powerful because it is so easy to put that blowhard in his place by pointing out the myriad flaws in his argument. Sometimes I feel so self-confident because I don't give a fuck what people think of me so I can say what I want. Sometimes I feel so awesome because I can do things with my brain others find  incredible. Sometimes I feel hopeless because I can't get up off the couch to do the simple things that must get done today.

YES Obviously,Six months ago, when Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft, visited Bengaluru and met the iSpirit team, he was curious about ‘India Stack’. He was also eager to know about the rapid pace at which the country managed to register 95 percent of its citizens on an identification database called Aadhaar. The volunteers of iSpirit—a software product think tank—obliged and a crack team consisting of Nandan Nilekani, Pramod Varma, Sanjay Jain along with Sharad Sharma, Founder of iSpirit, made a presentation to Gates about India’s digital revolution waiting in the wings.In the end, Gates saw the ‘India Stack’ as the shining beacon of technology to propel change. He is known to have used the words “cutting-edge” and was overheard saying, “there are few countries which can boast of a digital infrastructure as sophisticated.” He added that the vision of transforming India through application of technology had received new impetus.On India Stack, Nilekani, Co-founder of Infosys and former Chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), says, “This is a technology platform that delivers complete services to citizens transparently and is focussed on improving lives.”. He adds that it was a product of several years of innovation starting with the UIDAI’s Aadhaar platform. “This is India’s single most important innovation to formalise India’s domestic economy through digital services,” he says.What is India Stack?In simple terms, India Stack is:· A paperless and cashless service delivery system.· The stack is a new technology paradigm that is scalable to handle massive data inflows, and is poised to enable entrepreneurs, citizens and governments to interact with each other transparently.· It is an open system to electronically verify businesses, people and services.· It gives the data to the concerned individual and lets him decide who he can share the data with. The smartphone will be the delivery platform for services such as digital payments, identification and digital lockers.· It is the largest application programming interface (API) on the planet.· Poised to change the lives of 1.1 billion Indians.This open API policy was conceived around 2012, when the Central government realised that it cannot deliver citizen services on its own efficiently. So it proposed, based on its experience with Aadhaar, an open-data initiative supported by an open API policy, which would pave the way for private technology solutions to build services on top of Aadhaar. This was a signNow development because it was the first time that the government conceded it needed entrepreneurs to build on top of a stack to deliver services.Here are the 5 tenets of India Stack and the Startups leveraging itPaperless identification: Aadhaar’s 12-digit unique identification number, floated by the UIDAI in 2009, has more than one billion Indians registered who have became the basis for the India Stack. The government uses the platform to transfer subsidies directly into the beneficiaries' accounts. Today, Jandhan Yojana (the subsidy scheme) and Aadhaar, along with mobile, are termed as the JAM trinity for public services. The JAM has delivered direct benefits of Rs 61,000 crore in the form of fertilizer subsidies and other welfare schemes. Over 190 million accounts have been opened so far as per records available on Jandhan website. All these accounts have been opened after using Aadhaar, which has helped beneficiaries receive money in their accounts.“The advantages of such a system are that all leakages in the subsidy and welfare system disappear,” says Nilekani.This system of identification and delivery of services is already being used by the startup world. One only has to visit the 50,000 merchants aggregated by Novo Pay to understand how money transfers happen digitally for citizens with the aid of the local kirana store. Novo Pay uses the Aadhaar platform to verify citizens to enable them to open bank accounts or transfer money to any bank across the country, or make payments for bills or buy products through the kirana network.“We use Aadhaar to deliver banking services to citizens. Novo Pay’s network operating centre also tracks the business cycle of each kirana which gives them an overview of the financial services that consumers experience,” says Srikanth Nadhamuni, Co-founder of NovoPay. In the future, the company can also work with banks to verify and provide loans to people through the kirana network. “We are going after the long tail and it is a business that takes years to build, which when it signNowes critical mass can change financial services in the country,” says Nadhamuni. The smartphone can also become central to verification because all the information goes to the registered phone number.(from L-R) Sridhar Rao, CEO Novopay with Vinod Khosla, Chairman Khosla Labs and Srikanth Nadhamuni, Chairman NovopayPaperless payments: Novo Pay also allows mobile payments through the smartphone. This can become India Stack’s signature delivery mechanism to make India a digital cash economy. The paperless payment is a brainchild of the National Payments Council of India (NPCI), which is a consortium of Indian banks. This organisation along with iSpirit floated the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which will make mobile payments cardless and completely digital. It will break the back of foreign payment platforms or switches (MasterCard and Visa), which so far charged high commissions to settle rupee transactions.The UPI allows consumers to transact directly through their bank account with a unique UPI identity, which syncs to Aadhaar’s verification and connects to the merchant, the settlement and the issuing bank to close a transaction. In a single swipe the transaction is complete, without any middleman (like the Visa and Mastercard switch) to facilitate the transaction.Here is an explanation of how this system works.There are several companies offering paperless payments today, like PayTM, FreeCharge and MobiKwik. There is a startup called FonePaisa, which is aggregating all payment apps under one platform to pay the kirana or any business. YourStory reported first on how Flipkart can use PhonePe, a startup that it acquired, to enable payments through the UPI. Let us say that the consumer is browsing through a catalogue and he finds his favourite product. He opts to pay through the UPI method. Flipkart’s system asks the consumer for his or her UPI identity and the consumer inputs it. Then, a bank notification pops up on the Flipkart app or in the bank’s app asking the consumer to authenticate the transaction. The consumer inputs his fingerprint as authentication and the transaction is settled between the banks, the e-commerce company and the customer.“Most of us are building this form of payment for even retail transactions. Imagine that this system can bring 50 million mom-and-pop stores online and they can accept digital payments because of the UPI,” says Ritesh Agarwal, Co-founder of FonePaisa, adding that India will have a hybrid payments industry and that there will not be any one payment stack that will remain popular.FonePaisa's team is building seamless digital payments for consumes with offline merchants & can build on top of the Aadhaar framework to enable payments.However, the UPI will benefit Indians who have never experienced digital payments, and is clearly focussed on bringing 900 million Indians into the digital fold. “The only problem with the long tail is cultural. Will people begin to trust digital cash over physical cash? It becomes a hard habit to break. However, it is an opportunity nevertheless,” says Sarath Naru, Managing Partner of VentureEast.Paperless documents: Although digitisation is growing, India consumes the largest amount of paper. According to corporate ratings and research agency India Ratings, the per-capita consumption of paper is 9kg and is all set to double by 2020 because of the growth of the education industry. But with smartphone prices dropping, at least financial services and the healthcare industry can move to a paperless scenario in major cities with the help of India Stack. The Stack’s APIs allow startups to bring solutions that can make documents go digital.A large consumer goods company can use the India Stack to file taxes and track the filings made by its entire ecosystem, of distributors or dealers to reconcile taxes, to avoid legal complications arising from double taxation. This automated service provided by startups with the India Stack gives the corporate a dashboard and performance analytics on the right amount of taxes paid and owed. Startups like Clear Tax and Tax Mantra can provide this scalability by using India Stack. The platform can also be secured for each corporate with their own digital identity. The use cases for paperless documents are plenty.E-KYC: Today, many banks are yet to insist on an e-KYC (electronic Know Your Customer) on their platforms. However, when they integrate their infrastructure with India Stack, the Aadhaar number becomes the defacto KYC. Prepaid digital wallet Oxigen allows e-KYC. Axis Bank has allowed Aadhaar to become the e-KYC platform across all its 2,000 branches.“A key challenge for the customers while opening bank accounts is providing address proof, identity proof and physical copies of documents. E-KYC simplifies the customer experience for the Aadhaar-registered individuals to open bank accounts” says Shikha Sharma, CEO of Axis Bank. Only the top 50 banks in India have agree to make e-KYC a norm.Digital signature: This would be the last mile to cross, and can be made simple between two or more parties executing contracts over the mobile. Individuals or entities can use the Aadhaar ecosystem to send digital signatures on a certified or legal document. Today, most HR offers are online documents that contain digital signatures. But there is a single source of paper still. Imagine, if the entire document is a digital template. When an employee has to accept an offer, he sends the document duly signed by a digital signature. This has several applications too.A road not far awayIn many ways, India is a complex nation. It has cultural differences, yet technology seems to be the tool that can break barriers. Yet, England’s exit from Europe signals a new shift in the world. It is fast becoming a world that is shrinking back into nationalism and protected markets. India has a huge domestic market where services can be streamlined with the help of technology. Any delay on that front can be detrimental, in the form of lack of education and healthcare. “India is a nation of extremes. We are solving problems, but the services aided by technology must signNow a larger mass of people faster,”

Regrettably, it’s not possible at the moment to join the Borg Collective in the literal fashion that would confer the full benefits. The reason is temporal: because our first contact with the Borg is still a world war away, or several hundred years, depending on which timeline we’re looking at.The crew of the USS Enterprise, NCC-1701D, ran into a lost teenager once, a dude who just happened to be Borg. Accepting the name Hugh, the boy soon learned that he could still retain a Borg identity while also coming to enjoy the perks of personal freedom. Hr would be a good role model.However, I am pleased to tell you that there are steps you can take to become a proto-Borg. Who knows, you might be destined to become their founder!Let’s talk about how you can begin walking the walk.The first key characteristic of being Borg is becoming linked to countless others by participation in a vast electronic communications network… some kind of, oh I don’t know, a world wide web.But wait - that’s the internet! OMG, we’ve already got the beginnings of the Borg Link today! Many of us live part of our lives online in a vast collective (actually many overlapping collectives, like Quora, Facebook, and Reddit). In another proto-Borg move, we are using technology to enhance ourselves (laptops and smartphones today, Borg implants day after tomorrow.)So step one to joining the Borg: Participate now in the life of the internet, with a sharp awareness of the communities to which you belong; and while doing so, be consciously aware that it is more than technical apparatus: it is unification.Despite what Kermit the Frog may say, there is no particular difficulty being green. Note that even Kermit is on a drive toward perfection through study. You must emulate his example.The second thing to know is that the Borg experience a high degree of satisfaction, belonging, and fulfillment from being in the Collective. The Borg Queen herself even said once that it was “fun.”Why is it so great? Because the Borg are part of something greater than themselves, and that fulfills a basic human need. Just look at our tribal instinct: the desire to be an integral part of a larger collective is written into our DNA.We already have Borg software, Version 1.0.; it’s in every cell of our body, and that’s nearly as good as a flood tide of attentive nanoprobes. If you accept this fact, then you will realize that you are closer and closer to an apprentice Borg.The final thing I would regard as a critical characteristic of becoming a Borg is the drive for perfection.Study the Platonic solids and the philosophy behind them - they represent the way in which things are built up from simple forms to more complex. Mathematics as foundational to Borg thought, so explore the visual arts, which are an expression of geometric forms and topology; and music, which is mathematical in nature.The Borg work hard - single-mindedly might be a better way to put it - toward achieving this laudable goal: to improve themselves constantly. And if they use the technique of assimilation much of the time to do it, we can assimilate things too.Remember Naomi Wildman, the youngster aboard Voyager who befriended Seven of Nine. Together they formed a mini-collective of two, and Naomi regularly reported having assimilated a book, a lesson, or similar things that improved her as she worked toward perfection.Seven of Nine learned the important truth that family is the most basic collective of all. Appreciate yours and make affiliation a component of your life as you realise your decision to be Borg. There is only one Collective, but it finds expression in many smaller collectives you will encounter in your explorations.It’s a good philosophy, setting perfection as the goal and then assimilating whatever is needed to achieve it over time -knowledge, training, experience, philosophy, remembering Mother’s Day, etc. Mind your relationships within each collective to which you belong.In summary, then, joining the Borg Collective is possible, even in this primitive era, albeit in an early stage of Borg development. (It’s not generally known, but the earliest Borg cubes were coal-burning.) The following steps are recommended:Be an active user of the internet, including a variety of software that millions of others will be using as well; recognise that there are collectives all around you and affiliate yourself with them when appropriate.Enhance yourself with such technology as is available in your era (computer, smartphone, digital watch, MP3 player, bicycle with LED technology, clock radio, flat screen TV, gaming system, stereo, in-line skates with advanced composite wheels, etc.)Display the colour green on your person as you go about the world, assimilating knowledge in your drive toward perfection. Green is the signature colour of the Borg and an important symbol of who you are; and finally,Enjoy yourself and create your own alcove experience - down time - through whatever hobbies, pursuits, and pleasures appeal to you most. The Borg are not the Vulcans. Well, maybe a few are but ears are irrelevant. Don’t worry, be happy - you’re a Borg.

Thanks for the A2A. The answer depends to a small extent on the place you're applying to, and to a great extent on the cover letter. I personally find them going the way of the dodo, and for the right reasons, but every once in a while I read a cover letter that genuinely benefits me as the interviewer. Remember the principal aim of the cover letter is to make sure we don't bin your application. We'll get to know you during the interview, so this isn't the time to tell us about your passion for breeding Wyandotte chickens. Rather, it's a way to add some context to things that would normally result in circular filing. Wherever I've conducted interviews, I've insisted we read all cover letters and discussed them, separately from the CV, and after the CV. In quite a few cases, it's hurt more than it helped, but sometimes, especially for people from minority backgrounds in tech (women, persons with disabilities, African-Americans, Hispanics, etc.), a good cover letter showing ambition and hunger can make up for a lot of lacking experience or seniority. DO NOT write a cover letter if: * You're applying for a specific job via an online interface, and it's not explicitly requested and there's no separate upload slot for it. That means we don't want it. Some people STILL put one in front of their CV. I don't care, but to a number of data scientists, some fairly senior ones, this is a sign of an inability to follow simple instructions, and you're already starting from a disadvantage. * You have nothing of substance to say in it. If you're putting it in because you've learned that it's customary to have a cover letter, or because you see you can upload one (but it's not necessary) and you are just going to put in some two-line string of courtesies, save some electrons and skip it. * You don't know how to write a good one. A cover letter can hurt you, and hurt you real bad. Communicating insights is an essential and indispensable part of being a data scientist, and if your cover letter is formally ugly, badly written or full of grammar errors, fix it or skip it. If you have a recruiter, ask them to help you with the content and formatting, and use someone reliable for fixing your grammar. There are CV consultants who also can advise on cover letters, but these are often pricey services for that first DS job. * You get to submit a free-form CV, e.g. via PDF upload, and there are no other circumstances that justify it. A free-form CV means you get to talk about whatever you'd like to, in as much detail as is fit to print. So if you've written a Latent Dirichlet Allocation based text classifier in Brainf.ck, I'd expect to see that on your CV, not the cover letter. Don't repeat stuff. * You intend to lie. Someone at some point spread the weird meme that you can't lose your job for being less than truthful in your cover letter, as opposed to your CV. That's nonsense. Be honest. Always. ALWAYS. * You know, from your recruiter, that the place you're applying to doesn't like them, or doesn't read them. Your recruiter, if worth their salt, will know this. In general, startups prefer impressive CVs and no cover letters if they can at all be avoided. * You lack an essential skill. Emphasis on essential. These days, most job descriptions are a little over the top, sometimes asking for 5 years' experience in technologies that have been around for no more than three. So if the job description asks you for five years' experience but you've spent two years leading development on a successful, major project, the cover letter is a good place to explain this. But if we're looking for a PL/SQL developer and you can't tell your `SELECT` from your `UPDATE`, don't even try. Rarely, if you lack one of several required technologies, and it's a relatively small chunk, it might be useful to say 'I don't have a lot of experience with KNIME, but I have been taking online classes on it, worked through tutorials and I expect to be up to speed in a few weeks, plus, I've worked a lot with Orange, which is similar'. But when you offer alternate skills, make sure they're relevant. When looking for a SQL developer, not knowing PL/SQL but being good with embedded C is not really going to work – sorry. * You want to spend it kvetching. A year ago, I interviewed a young man for a data science role. His CV was ok – actually, well enough to hire. But his (optional!) cover letter was a long list of grievances about his current employer. Even if true, this is not the time or the place. The same goes for cover letters that tell a long sob story about being hard done by life. I don't mind mentioning adversity and how you overcame it and grew from the experience, but if the whole thing is a ten-page history of every misdeed of this universe against you, I will have some serious doubts. People who make it big in data science are resilient, because so much of our job requires us to be resilient. Models break, data quality is often bad, and so on. * You are banking on pity points. No good company hires out of pity. When describing less than optimal circumstances, be objective and neutral. Chances are, somebody on the interview committee did have it worse than you. * You are going to make wild promises. Our job is to assess your potential. We do an ok job of it, and the HR professionals who back us up are consummate professionals at it. So when I see promises in cover letters that tell me you're going to revolutionise data science, double our revenue, bring in six hundred clients and create a new deep learning framework in the process, I get red flags. * You intend to write more than a page. Just don't. It's a cover page. Together with address bars etc., it should not be longer than a page. And please, please make sure it has a signature, and you get the addressing right. If you begin with `Dear Sir/Madam`, then you conclude with `Yours truly`, otherwise it's `Yours sincerely`. A good cover letter is addressed at a specific person, usually the HR contact person you've been in touch with. DO write a cover letter if: * This is your first data science job, and you don't have a relevant degree. This is a great time for us to hear a little about why you shifted to data science, and how you accomplished it. Don't turn it into a sob story, but I'll always be very sympathetic towards a candidate who tells an uplifting story about overcoming adversity to get where they are. * You have a signNow employment gap. It may be enough to just say 'I spent 2012–2013 on maternity leave with my first child' or 'Between 2015 and 2017, I had to take care of my terminally ill grandfather, but took the opportunity to return to full-time employment after his passing." There, now we know what was up. It's a little more complicated if you have been away for health reasons. As someone who was in this situation, I usually used a turn of phrase that worked quite well: "Between x and y, a rare disease forced me to abandon full-time employment and focus on my health. Besides overcoming my illness, I have during this time also taught myself Python." This is great because it points out that you're all better now, and you used your time wisely. For advice on dealing with such a gap in employment, please talk to your recruiter. * You have a serious issue, such as a felony conviction. We will find out, so this is your chance to mitigate. A less serious version of this is if you dropped out of university/college. Explaining why is going to make sure we won't assume. Use this chance to give us your position. To a much lesser extent, this goes for bad grades. * You have a lot of short stints. Recruiting is expensive. An interview with a senior and a mid-level to junior member of the average data science outfit, including prep, costs about $5,000 in lost productivity. We are not going to spend this on someone who is going to leave after three months. If you developed so fast that you went up the ladder each time, we may consider you, but if you have a good reason (and 'I still haven't found what I am looking for' might be tolerable song lyrics, but an insufficient reason to hop jobs), we'll understand. Tough economy, willing to learn new technologies, contract jobs, niche speciality, etc. – these will all work fine. * You have a unique or interesting motivation for going into the field. "It's interesting" and "curiosity" are good but not unique. When I ran interviews for my law school alma mater, I heard a young man from a Caribbean family recount how his older brother was falsely convicted of a burglary he did not commit in face of overwhelming exculpatory evidence, and how this made him want to become a lawyer to assist others in his situation. That's the kind of story I like to see. But keep it to no more than a paragraph. * You have some super cool achievements that you couldn't squish into your CV, such as being a Python core contributor or, to reuse an example from above, writing a deep learning engine in Brainf.ck. * You are a signNow open source contributor with some really high quality work, but there's no place to link to your Github profile. Just slip it in somewhere that you hope that in the meantime we'll peruse your Github account. * You're doing some signNow outsignNow in your free time, such as teaching disadvantaged urban youngsters to code. Again, don't go overboard with it, but this is your chance to weave it into your life story. * You need to send your application by post. In this case, it's customary. * The application expressly requires one. I hope these principles have helped you decide whether to use a cover letter or not. In general, I have maybe seen cover letters make a difference twice out of hundreds of interviews, but in some cases, they can explain some situations that would at the very worst get your application binned before an in-person interview. As always, a good, strong CV and a strong professional record, including a website where you write about data science, is more helpful. So is a 'show and tell' – I always bring some code to interviews, or a little app I've developed, or something similar to show off. It's a fun icebreaker and makes the whole thing more memorable. These are all great ways to show your individuality at an interview, but before that, if your CV doesn't allow you to do so, and you need to clarify something, the cover letter may be your best chance.