Seems ridiculous. I just got rejected by CHP consulting and BA Pensions and neither really gave me an actual reason. CHP gave me a massive list regarding what could have gone wrong, rather than what actually did. Their first point was 'you might not have achieved the 2:1 min requirement' and I definitely have. So it was obviously just another mass email, but it was disguised as something they put some thought into. I think I'd rather them just send me a 'sorry, unsuccessful' email rather than fake a genuine interest in my quickly binned application.
Anyway, I'm not sure I'm doing things correctly. I've got my CV tweaked for client facing, numerical roles and those are what I've been applying for. The cover letters I've done vary with the business area, so I have different ones for accounting, consulting, etc. Then in each, I normally write a paragraph about why the company interests me. Then I send it off.
This makes applications a little quicker, but I don't know if I should be starting completely from scratch with every application. I feel like that's too much time investment and little output, considering I'm a novice at job searching and I may not be doing each cover letter correctly.