Entirely depends on the company your applying too. A cool tech startup might like an informal note, however a company steeped in tradition might not. TBH if it's the way you wanted to write it, and they say no then perhaps it wasn't right company anyhow.

 

That might work in a limited number of fields and certainly bar you from further progress in the majority of them.

Context is important so it'd be useful if you could share what the role is.

 

I'd assume they'd not care too much - they're more likely to be interested in your skill set and whether you can get through the initial screening

 

That makes sense and you've probably done the right thing

 

No one reads cover letters anyway.

 

It all goes on file, but it's the first half of the first page of your CV that gets them to read everything else.

 

To be fair this isn't true with all employers. I'd never advise anyone not to consider their covering letter. I'd say the nice thing about a covering letter is you can say why you want a job, not why you should get it. CV's are dry, full of your experiences and your skills, a covering letter for me always demonstrates a candidates desire to join.

 

I'm a fan of application processes that do as much to show you that it's a company worth working for as let you show that you're suitable.

I was recently successful in an application where one of the steps was write a programming exercise and upload it to github.

 

I was told by a friend of mine that software engineering job applications now are a few sentences about why you want to work there, a CV to show job history, and a link to your GitHub.

 

If the cover note is a document then I write formally and at reasonable length. If it is an email with CV attachment, less so.