With graduation comes the humbling, daunting grind of applying for gainful employment — unless that surprise trust fund or “modeling scout’s” number plays out. Resumes will be tailored based on several things: your life as lived to now, the requirements of your field and basic proofreading and formatting. This is the fact-based presentation of self we all must provide.
The cover letter can and should be your chance to tell a riveting story about yourself. Your act one has been your life up to now. Your act two will be the moment your preparation sends you on this — your first true adult quest. Your act three will be the final conquest of internal/external conflict, with you either surpassing obstacles to retire in a sea of glory surrounded by loved ones and riches or being crushed by the grind of life into a small and sobbing mass in an alley somewhere.
Let’s focus on act two for now. The cover letter for all intents and purposes in your life right now is the most important rhetorical document you can write. In dialogue with your resume, it allows a cross-contextualization of who you are and who you want yourself to be.
First, for God’s sake, get the format and the proofreading right. Your full name, physical address (even if that will be your parents' basement for the foreseeable future), phone number and email are all required. It does not hurt to mention a personal branding website (not Facebook), provided it does not in any way include or reference the upside-down keg stand you did.
The above things are also required for your addressee: “To whom it may concern” or “Dear sir or madam” will not wash. For this document to be effective, it must be personal. That means doing your homework in advance. Find out exactly who will be in charge of at least filtering applicants, if not making the final decision, and appeal directly to that person.
Doing your homework also means finding out how you fit the job beyond the basic information given in the job posting or tips your friend gave you. To your best ability, find out what the organization does, what the climate for its sector is and what challenges both the organization and the sector may face.
The place to emphasize education is in the resume. Your college degree and a nickel will buy you a big fat cup of jack squat. In the cover letter, you need to fill in the narrative of what you did in your years not only in, but also out of, education. Any role you have performed that involved you being personally responsible for some kind of usable deliverable or demonstrably solving a problem with verifiable results goes miles past your lowly bachelor's or organizational title of “party czar.”
Identify that you may know what the employee needs before they tell you. Show how your life up to now is preparation for exactly this opportunity that excites you. In showing how it excites you and what you feel you could humbly do to serve the organization, get them excited. They have an opportunity, with you, to write act two. By the end of the letter, they should feel like they would be fools to not hitch a ride on your meteoric rise.
Do not boast, but do not grovel. Do not exaggerate, but do not self-deprecate. If you have a personal connection to the organization or someone in it, thread that into your story without seeming like a person entitled to nepotism or reward for being a fan. Every good story has a protagonist and a supporting cast. Go about collaborating on the script of what your life could be.
