Thanks for writing this, Dereck. And after applying for jobs in this field, knowing each one gets hundreds of applicants, I’ve been wondering about the cover letter. It’s so hard to know which companies actually read these (and who reads them — do they know the field, the job, etc.?) and which just scan applications and resumes for keywords. But that’s a great point about including why the company would want to work with me; that’s distinct from the “I’m so great [lists things]” or the “the company is soooo awesome because [lists things]” that we often fall into. I’ll go think on that.