There are two big things cover letters are good for.
Show off your writing skills. A lot of larger organizations don't have technologists reviewing every resume. A lot of the time, there's at least one layer of either HR personnel or a manager who hasn't written code in a couple decades. Thus, communication skills get way overcounted. Fair or not, being eloquent and likeable is the only way through these people.
Connect your resume to the specific role and organization. For example, I recently transitioned from web dev to data engineer. In order to do that, I highlighted my database and architectural experiences among the web-heavy subheadings. When I was applying to roles in the agriculture industry, I talked about my family farm and my belief in the importance of agriculture. Applying to healthcare? What sick person in your life inspires you to help the healthcare industry? You get the idea. Again, keep asking yourself: how would I evaluate candidates if I didn't know how to evaluate technical skill? Your perceived passion and likeability is important in that sense.
Now, the other side is that while there can be a significant payoff to writing a very good cover letter, there's basically no upside at all to writing a mediocre one or a general purpose one you could send to most roles. You need to pretty much start from scratch for every role you apply for.
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There are two big things cover letters are good for.
Show off your writing skills. A lot of larger organizations don't have technologists reviewing every resume. A lot of the time, there's at least one layer of either HR personnel or a manager who hasn't written code in a couple decades. Thus, communication skills get way overcounted. Fair or not, being eloquent and likeable is the only way through these people.
Connect your resume to the specific role and organization. For example, I recently transitioned from web dev to data engineer. In order to do that, I highlighted my database and architectural experiences among the web-heavy subheadings. When I was applying to roles in the agriculture industry, I talked about my family farm and my belief in the importance of agriculture. Applying to healthcare? What sick person in your life inspires you to help the healthcare industry? You get the idea. Again, keep asking yourself: how would I evaluate candidates if I didn't know how to evaluate technical skill? Your perceived passion and likeability is important in that sense.
Now, the other side is that while there can be a significant payoff to writing a very good cover letter, there's basically no upside at all to writing a mediocre one or a general purpose one you could send to most roles. You need to pretty much start from scratch for every role you apply for.