Why Cover Letters?

Resumes are short and to the point. They tell me where you went to school, where you’ve been working since graduation and what skills you’ve picked up along the way. Unfortunately, a resume tells me nothing about who you are and why you are interested in the job position. For this reason, whenever I post an ad I explicitly request applicants to send a cover letter. Less than half actually do. Apalling! To some employers, this information may not be relevant, but to others, it’s almost as important as your credentials.  Don’t believe me? See Exhibit A.

Exhibit A – Cindy has graduated from college 2 years ago with a degree in Political Science. During college and since graduation, she has worked as a receptionist in a law firm and briefly as a paralegal. After months of filing the same cases over and over again, she decided law wasn’t for her; instead, she wanted to try her hand at home health care. She’d helped take care of her ailing grandmother in the past, and she liked the experience, so why not give it a try, she thought. So she jumps on Craigslist and starts sending her resume out to every home health care ad she comes across, but for the sake of saving time, she decided to forgo writing any cover letters.

Ms. Smith, a manager for a local home health office, receives Cindy’s resume. She glances over and shrugs her shoulders. “Yea, she has a 4.0 from her undergraduate institution, but it’s in Political Science”, she mumbles. “Where’s her experience working with patients?” Ms. Smith promptly swirls around in her leather swivel chair and tosses the resume into the trash can. “Next!”

If Cindy would have written a cover letter, she may have had a better chance of being considered for the job. Instead, Ms. Smith had no reason to hire her because there was no reason to think she was qualified, or even interested, in the job. So, if she had written a cover letter, what should she have put in it? I’m glad you asked.

What to Include in Your Cover Letter

You should use your cover letter to give the hiring person a better sense of who you are and what you are looking for in a job. This letter should be no more than one page long and should be separate from the resume. The only time it should be in the same document as your resume is if you know what a page break is and how to use it correctly.  There are 5 main things you should include when writing a cover letter.

1. The position you are applying for and why you are applying for it. When you include the specific name of the position you are applying to you’re telling me that you know what you’re applying to (rather than just sending thousands of resumes out to each ad you see) and that you’ve taken time to read the job ad. By telling me why you are applying to the job, you’re giving me reason to consider you over the other applicants. If you don’t have much/any experience, tell me why you’d like to gain experience. If you do have experience, tell me why you’d like to work with my company. Providing this information tells me that you’ve thought about the position and think that you’d be a good fit. Again, I don’t want to spend time considering a candidate who doesn’t care what he does as long as he gets paid. If the latter is true, you won’t be interested in the work load, and the job will probably not last for you.

2. Your education. I know you’ve already mentioned this in your resume, but you should take a brief moment to expand on this. What were some classes that you took that you felt are especially relevant to this position? If it took you six years or more to get your Bachelor’s degree, tell me why. If you went to a different school every semester, tell me why. By elaborating on something that may have a negative connotation (viewed in a negative light), you can keep your resume out of the circular file long enough to land an interview.

3. Your work history. As with #2, you should take some time to elaborate on any “uncommon” items that are on your resume. If you haven’t worked in 10 years, you may want to briefly mention why. If you’ve changed jobs often, explain. Be very careful not parrot back the information on your resume, as this indicates to me that you’re just giving me fluff. I don’t like fluff. Fluff is what you give your college professors when your report has a 10-page minimum; fluff is not what you give to hiring managers who have piles of resumes to sift through.

4. Why you feel you are a good candidate. This can tell me the most about a candidate. After reading a very brief summary about his educational and vocational highlights, I like to hear why a candidate feels he’d be a good fit. At first, this may seem like the same thing as #1, but it’s not. A common answer for #1 would be ” I am interested in the job because I’d like to learn more about immigration law and how it’s affecting our healthcare system”. A common answer for #4 might be “I feel I would be a good candidate because I have more than 15 years of experience in public relations and have developed a wide network of colleagues and associates that can assist in bringing revenue and clients to your firm”. See the difference? One focuses on what the applicant wants, the other focuses on what the applicant can bring to the new company.

5. Salary requirements***. I put asterisks on this because it’s a little touchy. It has been said that the first person who brings up money will lose. That being said, you shouldn’t put your salary requirements unless (a) it is expressly requested in the job ad or (b) you absolutely cannot work for less than a certain amount. If either of these are the case, then state your salary requirements as a yearly figure (you can do hourly if you’re applying for a part-time position) and as a range (i.e. 35K-45K). Please keep in mind that putting a salary requirement can get your resume quickly thrown out, so if you’re trying to play hardball, I’d advise against it. For example, if I’m hiring for an entry-level position that initially pays 24K annually and you state on you cover letter that you have to be compensated between 35K and 40K, I have no choice but to pass on your application. I can’t afford you so why waste our time. For the unemployed person who just needed any job versus no job, keep the salary requirement off the cover letter and plan to negotiate pay after you’re offered the position.

So there you have it. The five main things you should touch on in your cover letter. You should also make sure to spell and grammar check your cover letter, then have a friend read over it. It pains my heart when I read things such as “I attended ABC College were I recieved my bachelors in nursing”. [This was taken from a real cover letter! Bonus points to anyone who can pick out the 5 errors in that sentence.]   So what should you NOT put on your cover letter? I’m loving your interest! Read on.

What NOT to Do with Your Cover Letter

- Don’t use the same cover letter for every job. It’s generic, it’s tacky and it shows. One cover letter that was sent in from an applicant who majored in Psychology stated in his cover letter “I would like to explore my career in a variety of fields such as sales, HR, customer relationship, management and much more.” What!?! This was a dead give away that he had no specific interest in the job I was hiring for and was just applying to every opening available (that and he applied to two of my company’s open positions with the same cover letter).

- Please don’t be careless with your grammar and formatting. Do not use phrases (that is, a sentence fragment that cannot stand alone). DO use 10/12 point font and DON’T use any other font color besides black. Please be able to distinguish between such words as where & were, their & there, here & hear, etc.

- Don’t name drop unless you are 100% sure that I know the person. If you are a friend of my close colleague and you want to mention in your cover that so-and-so suggested you apply for this position, go right ahead. My colleague probably gave me a heads up to be on the lookout for your resume anyway. But don’t say something like “Mr. Brown from Alaska Cornshucking University told me to send my resume to you”. (1) I didn’t know that university even existed, let alone know anyone that works there. (2) Why is your professor looking at jobs for you? This statement tells me that you were too lazy to look for jobs on your own and that your college professor had to motivate you to apply, otherwise you’d still be sitting home watching “Desperate Housewives”. To be safe, just don’t name drop. It’s tacky anyway.

So there you have it. What to do and what not to do when writing cover letters. Now stop searching Google for “cover letter” templates, open up your word editor and get ‘er done (the cover letter, that is)! If you found any of the above helpful, be sure to use the links below to share with your friends.

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For more than a year now she has been responsible for hiring and managing staff, in addition to taking care of all the other needs of a busy office. After her third round of reviewing resumes and being flabbergasted at the faux pas that were being sent in, she decided she had to do something. Had the job seekers avoided making such fatal mistakes, they could be officially off the job market right now. Instead their resumes ended up in the circular file.

So Angie decided to provide free guidance for job seekers in the form of a blog. She is creating a place where you can get information straight from the horse’s mouth. In today’s economic conditions, it’s way too risky to learn by trial and error; nail the interview on the first try and leave everyone else in your dust.

CRAIGSLIST

Craigslist is always a good starting point. Many small companies use craigslist because of the low to no cost associated with posting ads. If you aren’t looking to work for a major corporate firm, you will find most of the direct hire ads (read: skip the staffing company and HR departments) here. This is not to say that staffing agencies do not use Craigslist. They do. But your chances of being seen by the boss himself are pretty good if you are responding to a Craigslist ad.

Some things to look out for when using Craigslist:

- Anything that says “work from home”. This is usually a pyramid scheme, think Amway, and is based on how many items you can sell and how many people you can sign up to sell these items.

- Nondescript job descriptions. I have seen a few that are seeking “entry level administrative assistant”. The duties/tasks are normally in a bulleted list and say things like “light to moderate filing” or “secretarial duties” or “light to moderate data entry and typing” or “greeting visitors”. The same terms are used over and over in ads for other entry level positions. When you respond to them you almost immediately get a response email that instructs you to go to another site and enter your resume information and some other stuff. To avoid falling prey to this type of scam, make sure the job description has specific information. Is the filing light or is it moderate? (Most employers don’t give ranges like these.) Am I going to be working with patients, clients, customers? Each field calls their “visitors” by a different term, so an ad that uses the appropriate term is less likely to be a scam.

- Posts by Staffing Agencies**. I put asterisks by this one because many people began their careers with a company by interning or temping. However, many times you send your resume in for a specific job that you are interested in and qualified for but instead of hearing back about that position, your resume is “kept on file” and the agency will continue to contact you about other job openings that you are not interested in. While this may be helpful for some people, others may find this frustrating. Consider this example: If you are a paralegal and have gone through the appropriate education, training and certification to get to be where you are, you don’t want some staffing agency sending you job openings for entry level medical receptionists. Personally, I am very specific in the jobs I apply for and I’d prefer not to be contacted for random other jobs that do not match my interests and qualifications. When I’m ready to switch fields, I will contact you. Again, you can take this item with a grain of salt, as it really does depend on personal preference.

MONSTER

Monster is good for people with polished resumes. Most of the companies that use Monster are huge corporate firms or staffing agencies that can afford to pay the steep job posting fees. Given that these companies have money to spend it stands to reason that these successful companies are looking for the best of the best. If you went to a top school and/or graduated at the top of your class you should have a fairly easy time finding work from these posts. For the rest of us with so-so credentials, expect to be waiting a while. The only real job offer I got from Monster.com was for “Customer Service Representative” at Domino’s. Need I say more. But I digress. If you are looking to work for a smaller business with a family feel, Monster.com is not the place to use; if you are looking to gain pre-law school experience at the nation’s top litigation firm, you’ve come to the right spot.

Some things to look out for when using Monster:

- Posts by Staffing Agencies**. See above.

- Storing your resume on the site. If you decide to use this option and you make your resume searchable by employers, you may get a lot of calls for jobs you’d never consider applying to. As I mentioned above, as a recent college graduate I was looking for an entry-level professional position, last thing I wanted to do was take pizza orders. However, you can also get calls for decent job opportunities (I never did, so I can’t speak much about this scenario).

CAREERBUILDER

Careerbuilder is my least favorite of the major job posting sites. Every time I search for a job posting, 99% of the jobs are from staffing agencies (again, see above). Of that 1 percent that aren’t staffing agency posts, about half of those are ads for bartending. These ads have listed every single possible keyword to ensure that they show up in your search results. They say things like “Perfect for Students” and “Earn $100 to $600 a night”. In my young and stupid days, I responded to this ad and was suckered into paying a sum of money for a small book and a tumbler. I was told, “here’s your study guide, when you’re ready, take the Bartending Certification Test and then you can go apply at a job near you”. Wait, what? I thought this WAS the job ad? Apparently, not. Back to square 1. Again, that’s a tangent. Careerbuilder is good for people who may not be sure what their career interests are. Apply to each job, get your resume on file with each staffing agency and wait for the calls to come. You may get a lot of temporary work and after a few months to a year, you could be on your way to a suitable career.

INDEED.COM

I would highly recommend that every job search be started at this site. There are many sites that do the same thing (like SimplyHired.com), but I’m not going to review every single site. Indeed.com crawls the internet and looks through job postings from your local newspaper (i.e. NY Times and Washington Post), corporations (think: Siemens, Fannie Mae and Hilton), the government and staffing agencies to bring you tons of results that match your search terms. This is really helpful if you’d like to apply directly to a large company as the search results link straight back to the original posting site. For those pre-law students, think how much time this could save you from having to visit each law firm’s website to see if they have any opening for support staff.

Things to consider when using Indeed.com:

- Indeed.com does not post job ads (or at least it didn’t last time I checked). This is just a search engine.

- Search results do not include craigslist postings.

When looking for a job it’s best to utilize all resources available to you, so you may find yourself using all the above sites and more. You may even consider blind mailings (this is how I got my first real post-college job), but that’s a blog for another day.

If you have any comments, be sure to leave them below, and if you found the above helpful, share it with your friends.

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1. Follow the directions in the job ad. If the ad says to attach your resume and cover letter as an attachment, do not copy and paste it from Word to the email. There are reasons we ask for attachments. First, it almost never fails that the formatting gets lost from one mail company (e.g. gmail, yahoo, aol) to another; and we are left with a garbled mess of factoids about someone who is usually only partially qualified for the job. We know you have the programs, because you are using a computer to send the email and computers tend to come packaged with some sort of word processing program. Find it, use it, and attach it. If you don’t know how to do this, ask a computer savvy friend to show you (attaching files to emails is a good skill set to have even after you’ve found your dream job).

Along the lines of following directions, if the ad asks for a cover letter, do write one. I cannot count how many applicants I didn’t even look at because they neglected to write a cover letter. Forgoing this one task shows the potential employer that you 1) can’t follow directions well and/or 2) don’t care enough about the job (if you aren’t willing to go the distance to get the job, what’s going to change after you’re hired?) When writing your cover letter, make sure you mention the position you are applying for and why you want that specific position in that specific field. If you use the same copy and paste letter for all your job applications, we will know. It’s obvious and it’s tacky. Now this is not to say that you can’t copy and paste that one paragraph about your experience and education, but you do need to cater it to the company you applying to.

2. Do not keep forwarding the same email when applying for jobs. I know it’s tempting. You see a job you’d really like to apply for so you go into your sent messages and find that email you sent to some potential employer last week. It’s a perfect letter. It’s well written, the resume and cover letter are attached (see above). Why re-invent the wheel? you think. You click the “Forward” button and enter the new email address and send it. For a moment you feel good about yourself because you’ve just saved yourself hours of re-writing a new cover letter and email. I know this seems like a genius idea, but don’t do it. As an employer, when I receive a forwarded email, there are a few telltale signs. 1) The subject says something along the lines of “FWD: Application from an uninterested job applicant who doesn’t like to do work”. Okay, it may not say that exactly, but it does say FWD 9 times out of 10. 2) At the top of the email it will have a little note to the hiring person explaining that the sender would like to be considered for whatever position we have available. Then I scroll down and I see:

How appalling! The applicant was obviously more interested in the previous  job position than in the one I’m looking to fill. And what’s more, I know now every person this email has been sent to since there are about 5 of these forwarding notations at the bottom of the email. If it’s not explicitly obvious to you at this point, this tells the employer that you are not interested in working for his/her company specifically, rather you’re just mass mailing people that you think might hire you. And while this may be the case, you don’t want to give that impression to a potential employer.

3. Provide only relevant information. If I am hiring for a Medical Assistant position, I am not interested in reading how you worked at your local grocery store for 6 months and have experience handling cash. It’s not relevant and honestly, I don’t care. When creating your resume, you should expect to have a few different versions. (Back when I was looking for any job I could get, I had a resume for administrative jobs, health care jobs, and retail jobs.) Each version should be catered to the position you are applying for. If you are applying for a journalist position, list the time you spent working for your college paper, or that award you got for writing that paper on the comparison of Communism vs. Democracy. Add relevant special skills like your typing speed and your ability to navigate a blog. Don’t list that you volunteered at your uncle’s car wash and that you’re good with kids. I don’t care. Of course, if you are just graduating and have had little to no real-world experience, it’s only practical that you list every job you’ve held since you were 10, but if this is the case, you had better spend a lot of time on your cover letter explaining why I should hire you over someone with real experience.

4. Don’t keep calling the office to “follow-up”. It’s usually acceptable to call once just to make sure your resume was received. You might also take the time to let the employer know just how interested you are in the position, but don’t start babbling on and on. The employer is at work and has a lot to do. Listening to one applicant talk for 30 minutes doesn’t necessarily help your chances and could actually hurt them. If you do call or email to follow-up, then you are done as far as the application goes. Do not continue emailing and/or calling. This quickly becomes annoying to the employer and if someone else has been hired for that position, it just becomes awkward. If your resume shows that you are qualified for the job, we will call you. Simple.

5. Keep your references up-to-date. Some employers check references, others don’t, but it really doesn’t help your case if your potential employer calls your references only to find out that 1) you haven’t worked with/for that person in over 10 years and 2) the reference no longer works there either! Please use references that you’ve worked with/for within the last five years, the more recent, the better. And make sure that your references know that you have listed them as a reference and make sure their phone numbers are accurate and current.

Long story short, just take a deep breath, think about the job ad and create a beautiful work of art that will make the employer proud to call you in for an interview. Hope these tips help you in job hunt! Feel free to leave any comments or questions below.

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The first video is planned to be released later this month.

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