[tbarone]

All very fair points, I suppose it just comes down to whatever the particular company is looking for. At the time it was important to find people that showed enthusiasm and would fit well with the rest of the engineers. Taking the time to show that enthusiasm in a personalised way was a good start.

It's interesting though that there are such large differences in approaches out there.

> anyone can write anything about anything in a cover letter.

I could say the same thing about a CV.