Cover Letter Do’s and Don’ts

A cover letter should enhance your application and provide a different perspective than your resume. If it was just a rephrase of your resume, it would be pointless, right?

So what kinds of things can you talk about in your cover letter?

If you’re applying to a mission-driven organization, you can emphasize how their mission resonates with you and why you’d like to contribute your skills towards furthering the mission. This can work at both for-profit and non-profit employers – a mission could be saving children, or it could be minimizing the pain-points of HR departments. Just make sure to be genuine. If you don’t feel it, don’t say it. 

If you don’t meet all the job qualifications and lack a “no-brainer” candidate profile, this is a chance to sell yourself. (Hiring managers and recruiters often look for cookie-cutter candidates because they are a safer bet). So if you’re in, say, HR and are trying to become a marketer, you need to present a compelling case of why you are qualified for the position. You’ll want to leverage whatever transferable experience you have and explain how it will enable you to perform successfully in the marketing position.

If you have something else that makes you stand out from other applicants, and it isn’t included on your resume, you can use a cover letter to share it. Maybe you built your own side hustle that became a profitable business, and that showcases your sales/marketing skills, or maybe you’re a marathon runner and want to mention this to showcase your perseverance. Make sure you frame it in a way that is relevant to how you will be an asset to the company.

A few other cover letter tips to consider:

• Keep it brief. A few short paragraphs is all you need, and all a recruiter has time to read.

• Address it “to the hiring team” or even better, the recruiter who posted the job. (LinkedIn gives recruiters the option to show their profile publicly on postings - some won’t do this to avoid a deluge of messages, but for those who do, a personalized salutation will stick out).

• Whatever you do, avoid “to whom this may concern” - it sounds dated and formulaic.

Want personalized tips for your own cover letters? Set up a free consult!

Should I Write a Cover Letter?

Let’s be honest. Writing a cover letter is not a fun activity for most people. I’m sure the budding writers out there may enjoy the slog more than the rest of us, but there are more fulfilling prompts to wax poetic about than why we are perfect for a job.

So should you write one? In a perfect world I would say yes, but given limits to our time and energy I think you should consider several factors and prioritize accordingly:

• Is it a competitive job market? Look at the climate around you and see who has the power - employers or candidates. If there have been a lot of layoffs, chances are you have more competition for a given job opening. It is definitely worth your time in cases like this to write a cover letter.

• Are you a clear fit for the job? If you’re applying to a role within the same domain or job function, it should be pretty obvious from your resume that you’re a match. But if you’re stretching yourself and trying to land something new, you need to make a case for yourself. Why and how are your skills transferable? Why should the recruiter and hiring manager take a chance on you, when there are other “cookie cutter” candidates? A cover letter allows you to do that.

• How interested are you in the job? Match your efforts with your interest. If you REALLY want this job or to work at this particular company, write a cover letter to make yourself stand out. If you’re just applying to a wide swath of jobs and are not particularly invested in any of them (no judgment - we’ve all been there as job seekers), then it may not be worth the time.

Once you’ve given some thought to the above points, it should become clear whether a cover letter makes sense for a given job.

Let’s say you’ve decided, and you are going to bite the bullet and write the cover letter. What should you write? Check out this post for some guidance.

Looking for a new role? Check out your LinkedIn Feed

A lot of job seekers instinctively turn to job boards and start scrolling through opportunities. Click, apply, click, apply. Over and over. Job after job. And of course, this approach can yield some good results. I’ve certainly gotten interviews (and even job offers) from blind applications.

But if you only look at published listings, you’re missing out on a massive treasure trove of potential jobs. Your LinkedIn news feed is likely filled with shares and reposts about open jobs. I’ve noticed this happening especially frequently lately, in the wake of substantial layoffs in November/December. Some of these roles may parallel those on the job boards, but not always. Sometimes hiring managers find the perfect candidate through their networks before a job even gets posted formally. Recently, I’ve personally seen a hiring manager put out feelers, before a job description was even written.

If you’re seeing a job opportunity posted by someone in your network, that means you already have an “in.” You can reach out to the hiring manager directly if the poster is the one hiring, or if it is a repost of someone else’s job, ask your connection who posted about it to make an introduction for you to the hiring manager. That is a lot warmer of a lead than you get from “click, apply, click, apply repeat.” It even beats out referrals submitted formally through an applicant-tracking-system (ATS) - you immediately get seen by the hiring manager, instead of having to go through the recruiter first. So the recruiter isn’t selling you to the hiring team - it will happen the other way around. And as a recruiter myself, I can say with confidence that any profile a hiring manager is excited about will definitely have a decent shot in an interview process. The hiring manager will see to it.

So before you hit the job boards, spend some time scrolling on LinkedIn. You might spot a great opportunity!

Leveraging a Layoff - How to Make the Most of a Hard Moment

Being laid off is not an easy thing. Whether you were in a job you loved or not, a layoff is a sudden change, imposed upon you by an external force that disrupts your status quo.

A layoff can feel destabilizing mentally and economically and throw you off balance. It can be a very scary time. But it also has the potential to be an inflection point, and an opportunity for change. We all go through the motions of our jobs and develop a sense of inertia, plodding forward. But being forced to stop, even for a moment, enables us to think and question. It gives us a moment to breathe, assess, and potentially change direction.

So once you’ve processed your emotions and the initial shock has lessened, take some time to reflect on these questions. You can even do it at the same time that you begin job searching, if you are feeling economic pressure to get on the market quickly:

• Was I (fulfilled/intellectually challenged/passionate) about my old job?

• Do I want to continue on the same path or make a change?

• What elements of my old job do I want to find moving forward, and what elements would I like to shed?

• What do I want to prioritize in my next job? (Money, quality of life, meaning/purpose, etc.)

These are only some of the questions I recommend you ask yourself. You may have been forced to stop, but that doesn’t mean you are disempowered. Take this opportunity to reflect and chart an intentional path forward for yourself. You have the power to decide which direction to go next.

How to Evaluate Company Culture as a Job Candidate

I talk to a lot of job seekers who care about company culture. They want a great culture that motivates them and makes them happy to go to work every day. But when I dig deeper and ask for specifics, usually things get vague.

What exactly is company culture? And how can you understand a company’s culture as a candidate who is an outsider?

At its core, company culture is the set of values and norms that dictate what matters at the company. Culture is deeply rooted in the beliefs and philosophies of the leadership. It signals to everyone the expected practices for working and communicating. Those that align with the culture will find success, and those that clash will struggle.

But how do you decipher a culture as an onlooker?

Keep in mind that companies are selling you on their environment. They are actively marketing to you, so that you’ll hopefully accept the offer they extend. So that means you need to be a subtext sleuth and look beneath the surface. How can you do this?

• Watch out for perks masquerading as culture. A lot of companies and employees confuse perks with culture. Perks are the cool things that you’ll find in tech companies that make your work life easy and pleasant. Comfy couches, free meals or snacks, and monthly Mario Kart tournaments are perks. They are nice to have, but shouldn’t be the reason to join a company. If all a company can tout is their perks, you’ll need to ask your interviewers about what the company seems to value. If you don’t get consistent answers, chances are nobody has given culture much thought. There will still be a culture - but not a culture that has been thoughtfully considered.

• Find out if a company walks the walk, or just talks the talk. Having stated cultural values is great. It means the leadership has distilled their guiding principles into something concrete. But even if that company’s stated ethos sounds great, how true is it? Talk to your interviewers. Ask them how they see company values playing out every day. Are people rewarded for acting in accordance with the company values? Do the values just seem like empty statements which sound good to outsiders like job applicants? Ask questions and listen intently to what you hear.

• Turnover is telling. Ask about turnover metrics, or do some sleuthing on LinkedIn to see how long people stay at the company. Sure, people move around a lot in tech, but if several employees don’t even last a year, or you see a lot of senior folks jumping ship - chances are something is going on.

• Glassdoor is gold. Checking out employee reviews on Glassdoor can be very telling. You want to look for trends and patterns. Do you see a particular issue coming up repeatedly, or a particular person being referenced over and over? Keep in mind that any anonymous sounding board is a hotbed for angry employees, but that repeated themes usually are rooted in truth. Don’t be scared off by anomalies, but look for consistent evidence.

Ultimately, you can’t be absolutely certain about a company’s culture until you’ve lived it, but if you do your homework, you’ll have a pretty good idea of what you’re walking into.

Find The Sweet Spot, Love Your Work!

Remember those Venn diagrams from elementary school? Reptiles vs: amphibians, Harry vs: Hermoine. The sweet spot was the middle, where you wrote what the two things had in common. That was the smaller area on the page, so less white space to fill in for all you kids who hated writing.

Learning to compare and contrast was an important analytical skill, and it can still serve you well even now, long after you stopped sticking crayons up your nose.

How so? Well, consider that many people fall into careers that they excel in, but don't like. Others try to follow their passions, but success remains elusive and they can't seem to get ahead. How do you set yourself up for a fruitful and fulfilling career?

The sweet spot, of course! Consider your passions and interests. Write them down in one circle. Now, list out your strengths in the other circle. Do you see any areas of overlap? Those are a good starting point to brainstorm, and begin charting out your path.