Geek Job Guru: Geek That Cover Letter

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Letter Blank Writing

So I just spent about two months reviewing resumes. But there’s something I haven’t discussed as much that I’d like to talk about here – how to do a good cover letter. In fact, let’s talk about cover letters for we progeeks.

When people talk cover letters with me, I notice a lot of people just aren’t good at cover letters. Some people know it, some don’t, but in general they’re just not that able to create ones.

At least a lot of people know they’re bad.

Cover letters are extremely vital to your career search, but it seems that if people aren’t too hot at resumes (trust me, they’re not), cover letters are about equally abysmal. I think there’s actually less good advice on cover letters than there needs to be, frankly, so I’m amazed they’re not worse.

I think because cover letters are seen as kind of secondary, sleazy, deliberate lies, unnecessary, etc. It always seems that they’re a second thought to people.  They also seem frustrating when I talk to job seekers, which may be another factor in a lack of quality – people hate doing them.

Me I think they’re important. So let’s take a break from resumes (which, trust me, I am damn glad to do), and discuss cover letters – with our usual progeeky touch.

In fact, let’s talk about why they’re important – because that’s the key to doing them right.

They Establish Human Communication

Unless your resume is very engaging, unless your portfolio is very humanized, unless you have just the right media, a resume and such doesn’t always communicate in a human sense. It’s challenging because even if you love resumes, they’re still a summary. They’re like RPG character sheets in a way – pieces but not always the whole.

A cover letter, which is essentially a letter from you to the people reading your resume (albeit generic “people”) is a chance to establish that human touch. You’re not someone at a distance, not a pile stats – you’re a person reaching out to others.

It’s imperative a good cover letter sound like it comes from a person. Yes that person may be desperate for a job, yes there’s some salesmanship, but this is your chance to be a person to those who may interview you.

Progeek tips:

  • If you’re not always that social the cover letter, properly crafted, can actually help – it’s a chance to take time crafting how you want to be heard.
  • A good cover letter should give a sense of establishing communication. You’re reaching out.

They Show Personality

People hire people. You’d like to think it’s skills and abilities and experience, but personality, who you are, is a part of what people hire. In no small amount of cases it is a significant part because there are careers where a person suited for a job personality-wise with mediocre skills will succeed better than a more talented person that doesn’t fit.  Ever have a job you figured no one else would understand or tolerate?  That’s part of it right there.

People also have to know what not to hire. I still recall an interview where the interviewer and I realized at the same time I was just wrong for the contract. Not being hired when you don’t fit a job is a good thing.

Just as a resume doesn’t make a human connection as well as a letter, neither do they show your personality as well as a letter in most cases. Very creative and artistic and clever resumes can show personality, but we’re not all capable of those – nor are they always appropriate for our careers or for the audience we’re trying to reach with a cover letter.

But every job search needs a cover letter.

Your cover letter is a chance to show you. This helps establish a connection but this also shows who you are. It’s a chance for people to connect with you – wether you fit or not.

Progeek Tips:

  • Put your personality into your cover letter. If you’re worried that’s a bad thing, you may have to do some personal analysis there.
  • Expose the best side of your personality – your goal here is to get the job and so forth, and there’s nothing wrong wit casting yourself in an appropriately good light. People will learn your flaws in time.
  • Remember a cover letter can be crafted as well as a resume, so put in the time to make sure it’s “you.”
  • Even if your resume is bursting with personality, your cover letter is still going to be the first thing many people see.

Creates A Narrative

Resumes, as I often say, should create a coherent narrative, like any good work of media. Everything from your introduction to your publications should reflect each other. In reflecting each other it makes your career into a story that ends with the words “you’re hired.”

A cover letter is an indispensable part of a career narrative because it’s direct written communication.

The Cover Letter allows you to tell your story in miniature in a format outside the resume. You can explain:

  • Who you are.
  • Why you’re right for the job.
  • What you can do for your potential employer.

And all of this is done in writing, direct to people.  A great way to tell a story.

A good cover letter helps establish or enhance the resume you’ve created. Together they’re very powerful, because as the cover letter leads into the resume, each reflecting the other, your story is easier for people to grasp. When it’s easier to grasp, people then are more likely to understand you – and hire you.

(Or I suppose not hire you as noted, but at least for good reasons).

Progeek Tips:

  • A good resume helps explain things and tie it together. A good cover letter also explains you coherently and ties into the resume.
  • A cover letter is a chance to establish more open narrative that you can’t do in a resume. To an extent it is much more of a “regular story.”
  • Cleverly used, a cover letter can also head off any criticisms or gaps in your resume. Maybe you don’t have the industry experience but “you’re glad to have this chance to move into X industry” and so on.

Does Everyone Read Cover Letters?

In my experience, no – but it seems most employers do. I would definitely build a good cover letter just because there’s a chance they’ll read it. Might as well do it right.

Closing

So there you go – the reasons to perfect your cover letter and some advice to help you get going. I hope it helps.

And at least it’s not me looking at resumes . . .

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

 

 

Why I Eat (Mostly) Vegetarian

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As most people know I’m a “mostly vegetarian” – I have meat or eggs once or twice a week, for some reason usually in the form of pepperoni or sausage because pizza.  Also because I do like to “keep in touch” with meat on a culinary level, if that makes any sense, though that’s usually when I do some insanely unhealthy thing like trying to make pepperoni pizza dip.

Most of my diet is vegetarian with carefully-chosen milk products (low-fat yogurt).  It’s pretty much been the reason for over 2/3 of my weight loss from when I was 30 lbs over weight (and yes, due to my weird build it was hard to tell until the doctor pointed it out – both sides of my family can wear extra pounds well).  It’s also frankly left me feeling better.

(The rest was calorie control, careful eating, and walking more)

But there’s a lot of reasons I eat vegetarian.

Actually I wanted to discuss them.  I also wanted to discuss them as a “person” because it seems many people have this image of the vegetarian scold.  In my experience that’s an almost entirely-false image, but the idea is still there of some vegetarian being all self-righteous, snippy, and dull.  I think we project those days mom wanted us to eat our broccoli (pro tip for kids – point out to mom there’s many great ways to prepare it!).

So here’s the reasons in no particular order.

It’s Inevitable: Not your most noble point, but the thing is the food industry as we know it has a lot of unsustainable practices, issues with antibiotics, inefficiencies, and so forth.  Which is a shame, because there’s also some amazing technology out there that people forget about that let us do incredible things to raise food.  But in the end meat is pretty inefficient and is associated with some unhealthy practices, so I see it getting pricier and more troublesome, and going mostly vegetarian was getting a jump on an inevitability.

The Environment: Part of “the inevitable” is that a lot of our food practices are really bad for the environment and thus us.  I feel a lot better participating in that less – and I think as noted we’ll have less choice.

It Can Be Healthier – In A Lazy Way:  From everything I can find out you can eat meat and animal products in moderation and be healthy – it just takes a little planning and awareness.  On the other hand I found by going vegetarian made it just plain easier to cut out unhealthy food and opportunities because they’re less likely to be there – so I filled my plate with vegetarian stuff I liked.  Note however that preparing food yourself and being aware of nutritional value is a big part of this.

It’s Healthier – Processing: Also to be honest a lot of the meat industry makes me unsettled.  Between questionable practices, breeding, hormones, and of course misuse of antibiotics, I’m really not trusting a lot of meat right now that isn’t extremely treated and prepared.  Sure I have to be careful with milk and eggs but really, I get concerned.

Expanded Cooking Repertoire: There’s a lot of vegetarian cooking in the world and it’s delicious – but when you’re “meat-centric” you can miss it.  I think a focus on meat in our diets limits our culinary options.  Since I started cooking vegetarian I’ve discovered a much wider range of tastes and interests – some of that due to new experiences, some of that due to nutritional balancing.

The Examination: Going vegetarian made me ask why some things taste good – like a burger, or a steak, and so on.  Switching made me think and learn about what we like and how it tastes.  Another case where going flexitarian or temporarily vegetarian may be educational to people.

It Can Be Cheaper: I found that I save money if I use little to no meat and limited animal products.  It’s actually a bit less than I expected – also I think the gain occurs the more people you cook for.  As I expect costs of meat to go up, I expect the cheapness to be a factor in the future.

It Has Ethical Benefits: I don’t consider eating meat a bad thing; in fact, I don’t want people to give it up completely just due to culinary history and so forth.  But I’m really finding the way we raise meat is disturbing in what it does to animals, the environment, and ourselves.  The inefficiency of the meat industry as it is is something I don’t want to support.  So this feels more ethically appropriate.

It’s a Shock To The System: A switch to vegetarianism or mostly vegetarianism/flexitarianism really makes you think.  Like any dietary shift it can be educational, but as it has other benefits, I’ve found it very enjoyable to shake myself up – and I’m working to do it still with new ingredients or influences.

Ready For a Crisis: I figure if there’s ever a disaster (I do live in an Earthquake zone) it’s easier to know how to rely on vegetables than meat – and hey, there’s canned stuff.  Also if there’s ever a local disaster and I try to help out, I got the cooking skills to lend a hand feeding people.

Ready To Help: Any crises aside, the fact I can cook effective healthy food means it’s great for potlucks, charity events, and so on.

Peace Of Mind: I find that eating vegetarian or mostly so clears up so many issues it gives me more peace of mind.

High Fiber: Look, let’s get down to it.  Eating more vegetables means regularity and better health.  If you’re not thinking about such things, well, juuust wait until you’re older. Just wait.

So those are my reasons.  I hope they give you an idea of why I do what I do and give you some things to think about!

– Steven Savage

Steve’s Update 6/2/2014

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Hello everyone, hope you’re doing well.  So what’s up?

First, I’m glad to see more people reading my posts on #YesAllWomen because that is a very important subject to discuss – and to listen on.  I actually want to write more here in general, I think I just got out of the habit – and there are issues to discuss.

Secondly, got a few more posts on cooking coming. And yes, I probably need to post more – but as one of my goals is to roll up my recipes into a handy file, I hope to do more anyway.

Things are churning at Seventh Sanctum – I’ve got a Writing Prompt generator in the works, columns coming, and some social media experiments.  Stay tuned there, lots of fun things coming . .

Fanime was a blast – and I did only one panel.  Great con, great events, smartly run, really enjoyed it.  Then again I run stuff for a living, so go figure.

That’s about it for me – what about you?

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.