Cover letter, yes or no?

Good morning AusCorp. Half of hiring managers bin any application that arrives without a cover letter. The other half don’t properly read them. We asked the community which is more common and recruiters, talent acquisition and HR couldn't agree.

In this week's edition, we're looking at when a cover letter should matter and why your lunch is getting more expensive along with everyone's protein shake.

Plus Coles took its site offline after a viral Reddit post found a pricing glitch, a sacked Aldi worker's AI-generated unfair dismissal claim was ruled "just plain wrong" by the Fair Work Commission, and Aldi is cutting a fifth of its own product range as profit dropped almost 20%.

THE BIG CONVERSATION

The cover letter is a coin toss.

Some of the people hiring you bin every application that arrives without a cover letter. Others have gone a whole career without reading a single one. While both screen the same job listings, there’s nothing on the job ad that’ll tell you which one is filtering your application. When we put the question to the community, there was a line right down the middle. That applied even to recruiters, talent acquisition and HR, and each side were very adamant about what you should do.

Roles that pull a few hundred applicants need an easy way to filter out applicants, and the cover letter is one of the cheapest ways to do so. No letter when the ad asked for one, out. Same for the wrong company name at the top, or a file still named after the last job you applied for. It goes without saying that what’s really being checked is whether you read the advert and have basic attention to detail. Fair enough. Someone who skips the one instruction in the ad probably skips other things.

There are still circumstances where a cover letter is important. Government roles lean on it, a career changer needs somewhere to explain a jump the CV can't, and when it comes down to a shortlist stage, a good cover letter can be the difference. The real problem is AI. When every letter comes out of the same model, they all read the same, and when you’re filtering through hundreds of applications every day, you’ll start forming a bias against anything that smells AI-generated. There’s only so much personalising AI can do without you providing some substance behind what makes you different.

So why do we still ask for cover letters? Because its the cheapest hurdle to add to a job listing. The hours all sit with the candidate, sometimes a full day of tailoring for a portal that says a cover letter isn't required. Based on what we’re seeing, attach a cover letter if they ask for one. Keep it to half a page, and make sure you say something your resume can’t. And don’t forget to check the company name and the file name twice. No point trying to go to all that extra effort if you’re not going to follow through properly.

PICK & SCROLL BY THE AUSSIE CORPORATE | LAST WEEK'S TOP PICKS

• Coles took its website and app offline on Saturday after a Reddit post about a pricing error went viral, sending 24-packs of premixed drinks to as little as $27 down from $130, not before punters price matched them at Dan Murphy’s. LINK

• The Fair Work Commission has ordered a sacked Aldi store assistant to pay $1,230 in legal costs after his AI-generated unfair dismissal claim was ruled “just plain wrong”. LINK 

• Australia's government debt has passed $1 trillion for the first time, though at 32% of GDP we're actually well down the list next to the UK at 95%, the US at 125% and Japan at 250%. LINK 

• Aldi is slashing around one-fifth of its product range, including the middle-aisle specials it became known for, as profit fell almost 20% to $337.4M in the year to June 2026. LINK 

• AUSTRAC's Fintel Alliance found thousands of suspected fraudulent applications involving inflated incomes, misrepresented employment and fabricated business activity, with most of the activity concentrated in Sydney. LINK

Flat White lands every week. The news doesn't. Every weekday morning at 8:00am, we send you everything that happened across Australian business and corporate news in a 2-minute read. Same team. Same voice. Just daily.

THE INSIDE TRACK

THREAD OF THE WEEK - r/AUSCORP

A candidate used an AI interview assistant on a live video call today

“I conducted a video interview with a candidate today, and within the first few minutes of the call I noticed their behaviour was a little bit unusual (fair enough, we are all a bit weird in our own ways).

They would often repeat the question word for word before answering (not a single paraphrase or substitution of words), and would pause immediately after doing so before responding. This was even to very mundane stuff like "What's an area you're currently seeking further improvement or development in".

The kicker was I started noticing their eyes scroll while their head remained incredibly still, as if they were really focused on making sure their head didn't move like they were reading through a paragraph of text.”

Read the thread →

THE BRAINS TRUST

Beef and chicken prices are heading into double-digit growth over the next year, right while your average weekday lunch sets you back $20 per meal. Morgan Stanley reckon it’s tight cattle supply and the risk of bird flu as the two things driving the increase in price. Supermarkets are expected to absorb roughly half the increase themselves, while fast food operators face a tighter squeeze, with margins down an estimated 0.9-1.5%. It’s why the portugese chicken shop near your office is lifting prices even as it tries to hold the line where it can.

It's not just beef and chicken feeling it either. Whey protein, the stuff in your post-gym shake, has gone up fivefold in the UK and Europe to record highs, driven largely by people on weight-loss drugs like Ozempic being told to eat more protein to hold onto muscle while they lose weight. If you’re on top of the protein craze, you’ll know it's now turning up in popcorn, chips and even doughnuts, and some manufacturers are already sold out for the rest of the year.

Most adults only need around 0.8 to 1 gram of protein per kilo of bodyweight a day, and most people get those amounts without trying. One nutrition researcher has compared the current obsession to the low-fat trend of the 2000s, a halo effect where the label sells more product than actually improving anyone's health. Some of what's driving the shortage is the marketing that has convinced people they need more protein than they actually do.

The spending data suggests people are getting sharper rather than just spending less. Consumer discretionary stocks are down nearly 6% this reporting season, but fast-casual chains like Guzman y Gomez are up high single digits in same-store sales. Australians are getting more deliberate about where and what they order versus cutting back on eating out.

OFF THE CLOCK

GOING
23 splendid things to do in Sydney this September

Sydney is putting on a show to celebrate the arrival of spring with vibrant markets, cultural events, immersive exhibitions and more. LINK

EATING
Sydney's best new restaurants for 2026

The legwork has been done for Sydney's most worthwhile new openings, so you can skip straight to the ones that will actually get a booking. LINK

WATCHING
FromSoftware goes gothic on Switch 2

The Duskbloods is FromSoftware's multiplayer gothic horror built for Nintendo Switch 2. LINK

READING
‘The truth about Diana’: Charles Spencer to publish book about late sister

Earl says he wanted to ‘write down my own thoughts and memories’ with 30th anniversary of Diana’s death ‘on the skyline’. LINK

WEARING
23 leather handbags that will last you a lifetime

The most timeless bags that Australian customers can purchase - Vogue rounds up the best leather handbags to shop in 2026. LINK

AUSCORP EVENTS

• AusCorp Runs | Sydney | Coming Soon 👀 

• AusCorp Singles Event | Sydney | Coming Soon 👀 

ODD PICKS FROM LAST WEEK

• The only supermarket ‘spreadable’ butter this food expert will eat. LINK

• ‘Wired to tired’: New hack allegedly promises restful sleep. LINK

• An experimental melanoma treatment built from a patient's own tumour has stopped the cancer returning in a large trial, the first time an mRNA cancer therapy has delivered positive Phase 3 results. LINK

• Can a multivitamin slow the ageing process? LINK

• Major study casts doubt on ‘gold standard’ one-night sleep apnoea test. LINK

• Nick Kyrgios has been provisionally suspended from tennis after testing positive for cocaine. LINK

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