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The Art of the Successful Cover Letter

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by NickMordo, Feb 11, 2011.

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  1. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    One more tip, since I am thinking about this. It has nothing to do with cover letters and resumes, but it is another key to getting a job. And that is to think of the whole process as a sales job. The better -- and more subtly -- you sell yourself to their needs, the better your chances.

    That one real job I referenced (my other jobs were reporting and writing under contract and freelance writing at the same time, and then starting my own businesses [one still publishing related]) was to launch a magazine for a publishing company. I heard about their idea, it was right up my alley, and I was itching for a new challenge. I had never had any experience editing a magazine, let alone starting one from scratch (what really appealed to me).

    I contacted them and I treated it like a sales job. Always think about this as you selling yourself. When I got my first interview, I wasn't complacent about it. I researched their whole company and knew all about their various titles. But more importantly, since it was going to be a magazine launch and I knew the topic well, I walked in with a detailed editorial plan in hand, and told them exactly how I was prepared to execute it. It accomplished a number of things. It quickly turned from an interview into a conversation. One that wasn't stiff and actually made me feel like I was an equal in the room. And it impressed them. I was the only person they met with who went to those lengths. In fact, as it turned out, they had an idea, but had no one there yet who even had a clue about the subject matter of the magazine. So they were actually looking for someone who could take control and make them feel confident. They never even asked me the right questions -- ones I would have asked. But it didn't matter because I came in like a guy with a plan.
     
    The Big Ragu, Feb 11, 2011
    #13
  2. mustangj17

    mustangj17 Active Member

    I've seen a lot of advertising gigs that don't require cover letters, but that is a very laid back industry. I work in an advertising capacity for an insurance company now and they didn't make me submit a cover letter.
     
    mustangj17, Feb 11, 2011
    #14
  3. littlehurt98

    littlehurt98 Member

    Well Ragu what you have said certainly makes much more sense then what I have been told a cover letter should be. I can certainly relate to the person you are trying to help as well. I hate selling myself and talking about things I have done or awards or any of that nonsense. Most of it doesn't mean a whole lot to me. I can write all day long about someone else and all the things they have done, but when it comes to talking about myself, you might as well be talking to a rock.

    I understand you have to sell yourself I guess, but I also kind of believe that your work should speak for itself but I guess we just don't live in that type of world. I just know I very rarely receive any callbacks or even feedback on my resume and/or cover letter when I have applied for jobs in the past. It is a frustrating process because I feel like I know something is wrong, but what it is I don't know.

    I know part of my problem is that I have kind of lucked into the job I currently have and never went through that formal resume and interview process. One of my professors in college knew the editor at the shot I'm at now and I worked part-time here through college. Then once I graduated I was offered a full-time spot and this is where I have been the last 6-7 years. So I never made a resume or cover letter during college or since because I didn't have to. Now that I've been looking to move closer to home of late, I've found it a difficult process.

    And Ragu, helping out with Resumes and Cover Letters could be a lucrative business because people like me struggle with it and I know I'm not the only one.
     
    littlehurt98, Feb 11, 2011
    #15
  4. littlehurt98

    littlehurt98 Member

    I have several friends in the banking and business industry and when I asked them about cover letters they just stared at me as if I had asked them to solve a calculus problem.
     
    littlehurt98, Feb 11, 2011
    #16
  5. Stitch

    Stitch Active Member

    I can point out why some posters have trouble with cover letters from their posts in this thread, and it's not aboutt the content of the posts. Punctuation and grammar matter.
     
    Stitch, Feb 11, 2011
    #17
  6. WildBillyCrazyCat

    WildBillyCrazyCat Member

    All covers letters these days should start with the following:

    "Dear Mr. Harris:"

    (Hi Mike!)
     
    WildBillyCrazyCat, Feb 11, 2011
    #18
  7. littlehurt98

    littlehurt98 Member

    That is my community college education at its best.
     
    littlehurt98, Feb 11, 2011
    #19
  8. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    little, it's not that the type of world we live in is all that bad. It's been this way since I was 21, 20+ years ago.

    As someone who has posted job listings and hired, you'd be surprised how many responses you get. In today's job market, I'd bet nearly every posted job gets a flood of resumes. It's hard to sort through them. A good cover letter -- one that gives the person reading it an idea of how you fit uniquely into the job, really can separate you -- with the caveat that journalism, unlike many other careers often comes down to clips, clips, clips. But the trick in any job competition is to get noticed in the first place. And you should approach the cover letter that way. Not by being showy. But by making the case why you are a better fit than all those other people in the pile.

    Spelling (I am not a total grammar freak, because it is not my strength, but you should get grammar correct too, because you don't know who will read your letter) does count. When I get a letter with spelling errors, I toss it. And I am someone prone to making them. Just never in a cover letter, if you are serious about the job.

    And don't make your cover letter a list of awards. As I said, be very subtle. You can reference an award, even though I'd try to point to experience, not accolades. I'd leave awards for a section on the resume. In the letter get to the meat of why you are right person for the job. That is how it differs from the resume.

    If they are looking for specific skills or qualities in a job listing, write a letter that relates your experiences to to those skills: "During my 5 years at XYZ, I initiated ABC, which successfully resulted in DEF." That sort of thing. Although with more detail, obviously.
     
    The Big Ragu, Feb 11, 2011
    #20
  9. SF_Express

    SF_Express Active Member

    The online application process has messed with the cover letter concept a bit. But I still read them, and I'll make a simple point.

    Everybody who knows me here knows I hate absolute rules. But I'm pretty firm on this one:

    Cover letter should be one page. If you can't say it in one page, then edit it.

    I can't say I've completely disqualified competent candidates if they've gone over a page in the cover letter. But it doesn't help.
     
    SF_Express, Feb 11, 2011
    #21
  10. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    Listen to SF on that one. Any cover letter that goes more than one page is too much. It's a sales job. But an initial one. Enough to pique their interest. Save the detailed answers for the interview, if you get one.
     
    The Big Ragu, Feb 11, 2011
    #22
  11. HanSenSE

    HanSenSE Well-Known Member

    Be specific, not only in the cover letter, but the resume. If someone oversells themselves in either, it sets off alarms with most HR types. Been a while since I've had to write one (a couple of computers ago, come to think), but I always tried to keep it somewhat generic and fill in the blank for the name of the paper.
     
    HanSenSE, Feb 12, 2011
    #23
  12. TheHacker

    TheHacker Member

    This!

    The last time I hired, I had more than 100 applicants and I read a lot of drivel in cover letters. At one point I started compiling a list of excerpts -- sentences/statements that I found especially poor. If I ever finish it I may post it, with all identifying info removed, of course.

    So many of the cover letters were full of people talking about how much they'd always dreamed of being sports writers and trying to puff up less-than-impressive experience into something that sounded more important than it really was. Most of it was meaningless. I read over and over again about how "hard-working" and "dedicated" and "passionate" people were. Remember when you write these things in cover letters, journalists are going to read them. Journalists are skeptical. Tell me how and why you're dedicated and passionate? And try to make it something that's not also true of a bunch of other people.

    I'd refer to the cover letter -- the way it was written, how much of it seemed like BS -- after I looked at the resume and clips. And if the writing in the cover letter seemed like a dropoff from what was in the clips, that would make that person a "maybe" at best.

    The thing you can't account for is that this is all subjective. Some people might not find problems with the stuff that bothered me. You just never know.
     
    TheHacker, Feb 12, 2011
    #24
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