Turning a life lived in academia into something else can feel overwhelming. But there are strategies that work, and more resources than you can begin to imagine. Want to see all of the ones I’ve talked about so far? Click here for the job-search archives.

What’s harder than “hard”?

Writing job applications, especially cover letters, is painful and hard precisely because we have to do the one thing most of us hate doing: Showing other people how awesome we are.

The resume, while bringing along dozens of difficult questions (do I include my publications? What about that job I had doing interviews for a researcher? How do I explain any gaps?) feels, even when we list accomplishments, somehow objective. (Which is not to say it doesn’t make people feel shy, because it does.)

But the cover letter is a whole other kettle of fish, because it’s not just presenting information. It’s explaining why that information should matter to the reader, the person who is trying to solve a problem.

The cover letter is personal

While no two resumes are ever going to be exactly alike, they’re also not often going to be hugely dissimilar. To a certain extent, the world of work can sound a lot alike from job to job, company to company.

But no two sets of work experiences will ever be even that much alike, because despite common job titles and common job descriptions, everyone is going to have different experiences to draw on.

You’ll talk about the time you were working at the homeless shelter and got to learn how to negotiate with people who maybe weren’t all that easy to negotiate with. You’ll talk about the research you did for your dissertation and what you learned and what it enables you to do. You’ll talk about how you managed to invent a program that solved a problem no one even realized was causing them pain.

Even more so than the resume, in the cover letter you’re setting out your life, the parts that make you different than the next person.

Fear of judgment, table for one

It’s so hard and scary because it’s us putting ourselves on the line. It’s us opening ourselves up for judgment. It’s us saying, hey, I’ve got all this stuff that would be great for you, and potentially hearing back, well, actually, no.

And the reality is, we aren’t going to get to the next stage of every job we apply for. That’s just reality. But the reality that we aren’t always going to get an interview for every application doesn’t mean anything other than we don’t always move forward.

It doesn’t mean that you aren’t a good candidate.

It doesn’t mean that you won’t get a different, often better job.

It doesn’t mean that you won’t succeed.

But we fear that it does mean those things and worse. And so we contract – we write short cover letters with no detail. We leave out key bits of the resume because we forget them altogether. All of which makes it more likely that … we won’t move on to the next stage.

Hard and scary is okay

Transitions are scary. And a job transition, especially when it feels like a do-or-die (or at least a do-or-figure-out-how-to-borrow-more-money) situation, is super duper plus scary.

As much as possible, tell yourself that it’s okay that it feels scary. That it’s a function of the situation, not your qualifications or your worth or your hireability. Let yourself be scared – it’s scary. But don’t let yourself not write the very best job application you can.

If you’d like help with your job applications, I offer a resume and cover letter writing service. Click here to check it out.

Turning a life lived in academia into something else can feel overwhelming. But there are strategies that work, and more resources than you can begin to imagine. Want to see all of the ones I’ve talked about so far? Click here for the job-search archives.

Hiring equals solving a problem

No one hires anyone just because hiring is a good and nice thing for the economy. Companies hire people because something needs to happen to meet some goal they have and it can’t happen with the existing skills or headcount.

But more than that, they want to find someone they actually want to work with, and that’s at least as important. You can have all the skills in the world, but if the reader can’t imagine you fitting in with the company or with the team, then you won’t be getting an interview.

So you have to do two things

First, you have to explain why your particular portfolio of skills and experiences solves their main problem: getting something done. As I talked about in this post, your cover letter should be making an explicit argument.

But second, you have to give the reader the impression that you’re a good fit for the company, and that’s a more subtle task.

You accomplish it by mirroring the tone, formality, and culture of the company as best you can.

Clues to what that will be like

Your first clue is going to be in the job application itself. What kind of language is it written in? What kind of tone or formality does it have? I once answered a job ad that said the company was looking for the human equivalent of a spork or a Prius – and you can bet your bippy that my cover letter was irreverent and playful at the same time that it explained why my crazy worklife would be a plus for them.

Your second clue will come from the company’s website. What does it sound like? How does it present itself relative to other companies doing what it’s doing?

And you’ll find other clues by searching online for “[company name] + culture,” trolling sites like Glassdoor.com, and asking around.

Don’t cross the line

That being said, it’s always better to err on the side of less crazy, more formal. I’ve read cover letters that boasted about the writer’s ability to chug a keg, and while that particular workplace wasn’t offended by beer drinking, it also wasn’t exactly the job description.

It’s also important to make sure that, as you’re extolling your skills and the ways you could help the company in question, you stay firmly on the side of modesty and good cheer. I’ve read cover letters that told us we needed the writer because we were clueless schmucks, and that doesn’t exactly make the reader think you’d be a great addition to the 40 hours a week he or she spends in the office.

(Also? If you tell us how many typos you found on our website, don’t spell your last name two different ways in the application, i.e., misspelling your own name at least once. Just sayin’.)

You are a wonderful applicant, and you can present yourself as a wonderful applicant without going overboard.

This is where friends and family come in

Having friendly, open readers who are willing to tell it to you like it is can make the difference between an okay cover letter and a great one. And it can also make the difference between a cover letter with serious tone problems and one that gets the job done.

Whatever else it’s doing, the cover letter should show you as confident without being arrogant, friendly without being unprofessional, and knowledgeable without being a know-it-all. We know the difference when we read it, but it’s hard to parse out how the line gets crossed.

So swap cover letter readings with friends. Find a relative who knows enough and loves you enough not to just tell you you’re fabulous (although you are). Put it away and read it through after a day or two. Read it out loud. Do whatever you have to do to get an accurate reading of the tone, and then do it again until you get it to a place you’re comfortable with.

The cover letter is your emissary into the application, your chance to frame all of your experience and skills and talents. Don’t waste it.

If you’d like help with your job applications, I offer a resume and cover letter writing service. Click here to check it out.

Turning a life lived in academia into something else can feel overwhelming. But there are strategies that work, and more resources than you can begin to imagine. Want to see all of the ones I’ve talked about so far? Click here for the job-search archives.

It’s easier than you think

Cover letters, structurally, are much simpler than they appear.

They appear complicated because they’re terrifying, because we have to talk about ourselves and our strengths to a complete stranger, which is right up there with public speaking in the modern annals of fears.

We’ll talk about the emotional component of cover letters another day, but for now, let’s talk about what they should look like.

You know how to do this

The cover letter is the only place I’ve ever seen the infamous 5-paragraph essay in the wild. The good news is that you know how to write 5-paragraph essays.

The first paragraph has an introduction, a way into the subject, and contains a thesis. Paragraphs 2 through 4 have topic sentences that support the thesis and evidence that supports the topic sentences. The last paragraph ties it all together and restates the thesis.

That means that the first paragraph of the cover letter tells people what you’re applying for and why you would rock this job. Paragraphs 2 through 4 elaborate on why you would rock this job, complete with evidence drawn from your past experience. (Mostly the evidence is narrative, but it can sometimes be quantitative.) The final paragraph restates the qualities you’d bring to this job, thanks them for their time, and makes it clear how you can be contacted.

That’s it.

Yeah, I know it’s not quite that simple

There are two places people get stuck: explaining why they’d be good at this job and providing the evidence to persuade someone of the truth of that statement.

The first is solved by doing some brainstorming, freewriting, mindmapping, or anything else that takes you away from the computer screen (and thus the scary cover letter) to answer the following question: Why do I think I can do this job?

This question is not meant to be spoken in monster-tones. That is, it’s not an accusation, and it’s not sarcastic. Given that you’re applying for this job, the question is simply curious – why do you think you could do it? What would you bring to this job? When you’ve got a few reasons, you’ve got a thesis.

The second is solved by drawing on the details that surely ran through your mind when you solved for the thesis. Anything that came with the phrase “like the time that” should be written down and at least put into the first draft.

If all of those incidents have escaped your brain, go back and brainstorm, freewrite, or mindmap each bit of your thesis. How do you know you’ve got good communication skills? How do you know you’re an excellent teacher?  Tell mini-stories. Put them in your draft.

A few last cover letter tips

You will, of course, revise and polish your cover letter, but getting the argument and the evidence right is the crucial first step.

As you revise and polish, keep these things in mind:

• Make sure you write it as a business letter, complete with address blocks.
• You’re trying to persuade people that they need you – so focus on how you’re helping them rather than on how much you’d like the job or how great this job would be for you.
• If you can address it to a human being, do.
• Unless it’s really, really obvious, don’t assume a gender of the addressee, and whatever you do, don’t address it to “Dear Sir.”
• Match the tone of your cover letter to the corporate tone of the company you’re applying to. If they’re very formal, be formal. If they’re more laid back, loosen up a little while still being professional.

Above all, keep breathing.

If you’d like help with your job applications, I offer a resume and cover letter writing service. Click here to check it out.