What even is a Cover Letter?
Professor Jessica Slentz graced IC WIC today, offering a quick, condensed presentation on cover letter tips. Professor Slentz recently finished her Ph.d., educated on the ins and outs of business and communications writing. Now an assistant professor in the writing department at Ithaca College, she led the WIC meeting on October 11th, providing her insight on the cover letter formula.
“It’s a weird genre,” she explained. “It has very specific expectations, so everyone expects your cover letter to basically look the same…so how do you get it to sound like you and not a form letter but actually still make it look like it has the same form as everything else?”
Sitting atop a table and leaning towards her engaged crowd, Professor Slentz began by asking us why we write cover letters and resumes. To show people who we are? To get hired? To simply get our foot in the door? She asked us to think about our purpose, audience, and…ourselves, when crafting these letters. Ultimately, she said, much like how a person may ask for that first date, we’re asking for that first chance at an interview. We think we’re pretty cool, and we think the company we’re applying for is pretty cool – so why not give ‘us’ a shot?
So, while a resume may list your skills and accomplishments, a cover letter provides context and an explanation for the occasion of this ‘first date.’ A cover letter’s structure, Professor Slentz explained, can be simplified as: Who I am, What I’m applying for, How I found this/Why I want this, and FYI – I’m awesome. Introduce yourself and provide proof of how qualified and cool you are through detailing a specific example. Then, discuss another reason you’re great in a slightly different way to display how well rounded you are.
“You want to give examples that are targeted to the job,” Professor Slentz said. “And that also show your unique voice.”
Quantifying tasks and describing, rather than simply stating, your usage of soft skills are musts for cover letters. Moreover, action verbs that demonstrate your proactive, determined mindset should be distributed throughout your writing. Use the same language the company wrote in describing the job and the qualities they’re looking for in an applicant. Most importantly, put in the work to research the company – because they’ll notice if there’s a lack of passion in your application.
Now that your examples have been detailed, it’s time to marry that experience with the company where you see yourself working.
“So, you want to say, here’s why I want this job…” Professor Slentz said. “And then link what you’ve been talking about back to that – we can be awesome together.”
The fourth paragraph, then, should mention how you admire the company and how wonderfully you both would work together. Perhaps if they like what the read, HR will contact you through the final few lines of the cover letter, listing your number and email (don’t forget to thank them for their time!).
“All cover letters should literally end with, ‘here’s my number, call me maybe,’” Professor Slentz concluded.
She also offered some extra tips specifically for women to keep in mind when crafting letters. She noted that women tend to dial down their accomplishments and desires, using ‘we’ instead of ‘I’ and ‘I believe’ rather than ‘I will.’ Professor Slentz offered an example of two versions of a sample sentence that demonstrated the effects this type of language creates. Following this, she presented an example cover letter which she edited to rid the text of these phrases.
“These are subtle differences, but they are differences in how you’re presenting yourself, how you’re holding yourself, and how you’re owning what you’re saying,” she said.
Once her talk ended, students asked specific questions regarding their own dilemmas for cover letters and resumes. How can we avoid accidentally misgendering someone? Professor Slentz laughed, saying she often went the awkward, but safe, route of addressing a person by their full name. How decorated should a cover letter and resume be? A cover letter should be simple, so if an unobtrusive detail is added to the top and bottom, that should be acceptable so long as the text is left untouched, she reasoned. Resumes, however, should be specifically curated for every job you’re applying for (and expertly decorated if you’re a graphic designer). What if the name you go by isn’t your formal name? As you enter the industry, now’s the time to define yourself, so chose the name you want to be referred to by – just don’t be deceptive or alter your name with specific, hidden, intentions in mind.
With the meeting coming to close, WIC thanked Professor Slentz for her time – thankfully, she’s teaching on campus if anyone wants to talk with her further about cover letter tips!
Feel free to check out Professor Slentz’s linkedin at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-e-slentz-179b8839/
