

The death of the cover letter - ILIKEPONIES
http://joshgoldstein.me/post/25374178697/the-death-of-the-cover-letter

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adrianhoward
If I received this I would be thinking that he author had spent a _lot_ of
words telling me:

* They like foursquare

* They've nearly finished an MBA

* They have ideas

* They used to play professional poker

None of which are useful in _any_ way in understanding whether the author
would be any good in a Business Development Manager role (well... maybe the
professional poker one... :-)

The cover letter is the sales pitch for the resume. It's only purpose is to
get me to read that resume in a positive frame of mind.

This cover letter says to me "I would really like to be a Business Development
Manager at foursquare"... and that's it.

It doesn't even let me know that the author has a good understanding of what a
Business Development Manager role _is_ (Not saying they don't - just that the
letter doesn't demonstrate it. You'll be shocked at the number of applications
folk get from people who do not understand what the job role entails.)

I don't care about skills. Everybody you're competing with will have the
skills. Give me an achievement or three. Something you've actually _done_ that
shows you're a good fit for the role.

The ideal cover letter should say "I would be a _damn_ good Business
Development Manager because I've achieved X, Y and Z" - where X, Y and Z are
all accomplishments that show how bloody excellent I am at Business
Development Management.

[BIAS WARNING: I was a tech reviewer of this book, and have an anecdote in
there somewhere about a terribly interview I sat through in the nineties]

I'd recommend getting hold of a copy of Andy Lester's "Land the Tech Job You
Love". Lots of good advice. It's aimed at devs more than it is other roles -
but the advice is general.

~~~
ILIKEPONIES
Appreciate the comment. I was always under the impression that the resume
listed most of the skills and accomplishments.

I did delete most of the skills bullets that translated to strengths in bd.
But I agree that I could do more to show why I rock and understand what the
hell bd even is...

I'll check out the book. Thanks again for the comment.

~~~
esharef
Josh, I'm the co-founder of HireArt. We've got a lot of pretty cool biz dev
jobs at start-ups on both coasts. You can apply to them through our HireArt
application and get to prove your skills. Email me elli@hireart.com

