Slate Magazine: Over the last five years, I’ve read something like 500 applications for entry-level media jobs. Over time, I’ve spotted many talented people, including a number of recent college graduates who are now valued Slate employees. Slate is a small company, so when it’s time to make a hire, a list of three great HR-approved candidates does not magically appear on my desk. I write the ads (like this one) and read all of the responses myself—and after scaling mountains of cover letters I’ve developed some opinions I can no longer hold back.
8 comments:
Writing about yourself is hard. Selling yourself is difficult. We all went through some iteration of college applications, with essays and forms and more things to fill out. We're familiar with the balance between confidence and bragging, detail and overview. But unlike applying to college, job applications are specific to the company. Larger companies have different requirements and expectations for candidates than small companies do. As we know, networking can be one of the best ways to know about openings, but that won't get you though the door. Your degree, education, and people you know will get you there, but it's still up to you to show your skills and land that job. This article has specifics catered to applying for mid-size companies, but says nothing about resume screening, keyword skimming, and other admittedly lazy techniques larger companies may use to determine which candidates are worth focusing their time on. There's much more to cover than a single page-long article, but I think it's good advice when applied to the right targets.
The fact that the article says that the college you went to is unimportant is a bummer. I like the fact that this seems to say that if you market yourself correctly you will be given a shot but I agree with Doci that networking is the key here. For our industry it is very often who you know that will get you the interview not what you know. I wonder how this list would change when looking for a higher level position as opposed to an entry level job.
Some typical points listed in the article, but as Doci said writing about yourself is extremely difficult. Especially deciding how much to write. It is always interesting when people say to keep covers letters short, because I think that it all depends on what level job you are applying for. When applying for an internship you try to sell yourself as much as possible because you are new to the game, but when you are applying for a manager position you hope that your name and maybe contacts would speak more for you.
It is always very interesting to read an article on something such as resumes or cover letters. I think we go through this time in our lives hearing many things on these topics, many of them differing from each other, and sometimes get confused as to what exactly we should include in these pieces. I too agree Doci in that networking is extremely important in this day and age, 9/10 it is who you know that will get you that position, not what you know.
I think this article does a good job of laying out some very important, basic points when writing a cover letter. As everyone else has said, we all know that it's incredibly difficult to write about yourself, and to strike a balance between seeming too cocky or too self-deprecating or apologetic (about lack of experience, lack of focus, etc).
I think one of the most important points in the article (even if it is probably the most boring to talk about) is the importance of following the instructions. Especially if the person hiring has hundreds and hundreds of applications to get through, sending a few extra pages of designs or other work might just be annoying enough that they toss your resume into the Do Not Call pile. It's much more important to be able to pare down your skills and talents to what they want and make it just as impressive as sending them 10 of your favorite designs or paperwork.
Nothing in this article surprised me. Sometimes I get a little flowery with my cover letters, but mainly I keep them focused and to the point. What this article did make me think about it, is that especially for those who are still in the college mindset; Being verbose is kind of the normative. Applications to get into school, and internships, we are just consumed with the push to be loquacious about our struggles and our experiences, how we've grown, blah blah blah. But when you get into the professional world, it's not the case. People don't want your life story, they want to know that you're going to do a good job. Sell yourself, but most importantly know yourself. Know how to present yourself as someone who not only will fill the position, but will be an investment.
I think one of the keystones of all good writing is to know your audience. Hearing from someone at the top of their field who has had the opportunity/punishment of going over hundreds job applications is extremely valuable. But I think it would be a mistake to follow these rules for all cover letters. Coming from a background in journalism, Ms. Goldstein is going to have some different opinions about what should and should not be in a cover letter than, say, a Managing Director at a LORT B regional theatre. Regardless of the audience, though, for me it was good to hear three main points reiterated:
1) Keep it short - 2 minutes is all you get (I have particular trouble with this one, as one might easily deduce from my comments).
2) Remember that on an initial pass, the reader is LOOKING for something wrong so they can pass on you. I think when we write these things we think the point is to shine, to stand out and by the flaming beacon of worthiness that the reader is looking for. But really the whole job is to weed you out, so for me it seems the trick is to be memorable without standing out (and to not make stupid mistakes, which is easier).
3) Lastly I liked what she had to say about making the letter about the reader, not yourself. This goes back to knowing your audience. What do they want from the perfect applicant, what experiences and skills specifically relate to the job in question. Everything else is just fluff.
A lot of the advice given here isn't the most relevant for our purposes, as Doci and others have stated. However, the idea that what classes you have taken or what you did before college isn't relevant is something that we discussed in class just last week. The author does a good job explaining just what he is looking for in the 30 seconds that he spends reading a cover letter, and makes it clear just why those things aren't relevant to your abilities to do the job. selling yourself is better done through how you write than what you write about in a lot of ways, and maintaining an approachable tone is something that i am going to keep in mind the next time i have to write a cover letter.
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