Dear Sir or Madam, I am one of 165,000 people laid off in the U.S. last month. I saw you posted a job of some sort that will help me pay for a small portion of my mortgage while I work nights at the Quik-E-Mart. Attached is my resume, you’ll notice immediately that I not only have not updated it in three years but I decided to do free verse in the stylings of ee cummings. I look forward to arriving late to the interview so I can embaress us both to the best of my effort. Don’t call me and I won’t call you.
~ Unemployed America
PS if you do respond my email is hot4te4cher3x@msn.com
Or not.
When it came time for me to graduate from college I knew that getting a job wasn’t just about what I learned for my degree or what I did for work study. I knew that getting a job meant making a good impression on paper followed by a good impression in person. I took all the career center’s classes and workshops on resumes and cover letters. I read books. I studied. I practiced. Over time I came to interview people myself and I read more books and studied more. I’m not an expert but I have opinions (could be the slogan of PDX Critique!) So let’s start with cover letters.
Critiquing Cover Letters
I don’t have to see your cover letter. Given the discomfort most people have with writing you either have one very large paragraph that is a rough duplicate of your resume in story format or one very small one saying “interested in the job, resume attached.”
Instead of critiquing your cover letter let’s pretend that this is the cover letter of a friend of yours that they’ve asked you to look over before they send it off.
First paragraph
“Who is this company you’re applying to? Why do you want to work there? What makes them so cool?”
The first paragraph is to show the person you’re writing that you understand their company, that you appreciate their values, that they are super awesome cool.
This prepares them to like you. Do your research.
Second Paragraph
“What makes you right for this company? This job?” Add together the important details of your resume. Spell it out. Say the keywords: “while I’ve only dabbled in asp I am proficient in jsp and php, both languages similar in function to asp.”
They know that you like them. Now show them everything there is about you to like. This should be the bulkiest paragraph and if the job is big enough could be two small paragraphs, one highlighting one facet of skills and the other highlighting a different facet. (Technical know-how & customer service for example.)
Third Paragraph
“So how do your skills and their values mix?
This is the concluding paragraph. It says “you and me babe!” It has your optimism, your confidence, your hope and your belief. “With my relational database skills I think could maintain a flexible yet strong data model for you.”
Call me, search me
Always conclude with contact info and a note that you look forward to hearing from them in the next week or so. If you haven’t heard from them in a week or so that leaves an opening for you to show that you can follow through by calling and saying “I sent my resume in on the ____th and wanted to make sure it got to you.”
While you’re waiting for the phone call, or better before you send that cover letter be sure to search yourself. What can you find under your first and last name? First, last and university? Kegger pics? Call the frat and see if they can’t take them down for a few months unless you’re looking for work in a brewery. What about email? Huh, funny you forgot that spaceyCat978 on livejournal and myspace was hooked into the same email you use for contacting future employers…
to be continued…
What can I say? I’m late on getting notes up this month. On top of that, I have little to offer. There is a very good reason for this though, the meeting was incredibly engaging and we were all focused on the presenters and not on taking notes.