On your journey to an excellent Cover Letter, you have found a promising job post, done your interpersonal and online research of the company and its culture, brainstormed your key skills and experience that match this position, and started to construct stories that describe your accomplishments in interesting and memorable ways. In this final installment on Cover Letter Basics, we’ll briefly review how you can piece the key components together to make your cover letter fluid, reader-friendly, and persuasive. We’re talking “Big Blocks” here: Answer these questions in your opening paragraph: Who are you? (“I’m a second-year MBA student at the Simon School, University of Rochester, concentrating in Finance.”) What do you want and how…
For those of you who may have missed it, here’s the recap of Phase 1 of the cover letter tri-blogy, Creating your Cover Letter, Gently: Read the job description carefully. (Very carefully.) Contact people you know. Contact people who know people you know. Contact people you don’t know at all. Find out more about life on the inside of your target company and/or the ins and outs of the target position. Study the company website. Become familiar with current events and news associated with your target organization. Identify 3 or 4 key characteristics that qualify YOU for this position. Sit back, relax, and brainstorm ways in which your educational, professional, and volunteer…
So…your resume is pretty solid, and you’ve found a job that seems like a potential match for your education and experience. Few tasks can seem more daunting than the next one on your list: writing the DREAD COVER LETTER (insert sounds of thunder, wolf howl, and possibly bone-chilling scream). Relax. I am here to assure you that, like eating your broccoli, writing a cover letter can actually be very good for you–whether or not you get the job. The good news is that you can start simply and gently, and this post is here to help: Study the job description carefully and do some due diligence on the company: Become…
Business students on the job search know the drill on the networking email: Tell the reader where and what you’re studying. Mention your career focus. Express admiration for the reader’s accomplishments. Ask for assistance, suggestions, connections. Invite reader for coffee. Now think of this drill from the reader’s perspective: Meeting you will take time and energy, two commodities in short supply for anyone you’re likely to want to network with. You may get a few contacts, some information about life in the company and industry, (and maybe some bragging rights about having a meeting on Wall St.) The reader will get…coffee. Even if the reader does respond positively to…
A lot of talk in the business school classroom, the boardroom, and on the job search is about “telling your story”–making your ideas, your concerns, and your accomplishments a compelling narrative though the use of classic story-telling structure, rich in relevant detail. Focusing on such topics as leadership, overcoming obstacles, failure, teamwork, and communication, the behavioral interview as part of the job application process rests upon the premise that your past actions and behaviors offer a pretty good window into your future professional performance; consequently, it is critical that you as a job searcher communicate that slice of your professional past in a brief (90 seconds or so), compelling, and clearly structured…