Sunday, February 22, 2009

Cover Letters

The advice on cover letters given by collegegrad.com was very helpful, especially for me as I am currently in the process of preparing resumes and cover letters for potential summer internships. Making a cover letter is something that I have not done in the past, so there I learned a lot of new advice that I am likely to use in the future. However, I can't say that I agreed with everything offered on the website.

In the "Reality of Cover Letters" section I only partially agree with the suggestion that the cover letter should not be about you. I agree that it is good to work in some information on the company you are applying to in order to show that you have researched them and are serious about wanting to work for them. However, the people at the company already know everything about where they work and are reading the letter to see what the applicant has to offer for the company. In that sense I think the cover letter should be primarily about yourself. Also, while I agree that your chances of finding employment increase dramatically when you spend a significant amount of time and effort researching a prospective company and creating a cover letter, you don't lose anything by applying other companies without such preparation. If there is a company you have a second-tier interest in, and you don't have the time to fully prepare a well-researched cover letter, you may as well apply anyway and the worst that could happen is that you will not be selected. Putting your name out there for a number of jobs you might only be partially interested at least presents the oppunity that you will be selected for an interview and you will still have time to do research and decide if you want to pursue that job.

I did find the metaphor of the cover letting being a sales pitch selling a product (yourself) to buyers (prospective companies) to be a particularly effective one. I think that is a good way to think about and approach writing a cover letter. I also think the advice to be proactive, calling potential employers and making yourself stand out, is very important. Your chances of getting a job are magnified greatly if you make an effort to contact the company, show your excitement for the opportunity to work for that company, and they remember your name.

No comments:

Post a Comment