February 1, 2023 • 16 mins
If you are joining the tech field you have had to write a cover letter which can often bring anxiety. It’s important to remember that you are looking for a career, but the company is also looking for a new teammate. Join Ellen as she shares strategies to ensure your cover letter demonstrates your value and encourages the company to pursue YOU instead of you pursuing the company.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to the techie podcast, episode
number 158.
(00:26):
So many moms returning to workhave asked me how to get hired
in a job that pays well, butalso allows them to be the mom
they want to be.
And I've seen so many women makethe mistake of taking a job
teaching English at 3:00 AM for$15 an hour.
That's just backwards becauseyour skills are highly valuable
(00:47):
and so is your time.
That's why I put together thisfree training to help you
jumpstart your tech career bylearning about the fields of UX
design and front-end developmentso you don't waste one more side
hustle that isn't a career anddoesn't give you the flexibility
and income your family needs.
I only offer this training twicea year, and it's available right
(01:09):
now at the release of thisepisode.
So sign up now for the helpfuland interactive free training.
Three strategies to jumpstartyour UX design career, or three
strategies to jumpstart yourfront end development career.
Sign up for one the other, orboth, it's completely free.
Go to u techie.com/signup.
That's Y O U A R E T E C Hy.com/s I G N U p.
(01:36):
I can't wait to see you there.
Welcome to the show.
Okay, we're gonna dive inbecause that's actually how I
love to have conversations.
Just to dive right in.
So I have been seeing somethings with my students in their
cover letters that I wanna coverwith you.
So I wish I could call thisepisode three things to check
your cover letter for before youget feedback, but my team would
(02:02):
not be able to fit that on ourgraphic assets.
So three essential cover lettersteps, it is.
And the reality is that mystudents have been producing
some really high quality coverletters.
So if they were to hand themover to someone, the feedback
would probably be, yeah, this isreally good.
Okay, so you can write somethingthat's fantastic, but it doesn't
(02:27):
help you get further along inthe job process.
And I know that you wannaconvince someone to hire you.
I mean, ultimately that's whereyou're going.
You want to convince someone.
And when you wanna convincesomeone or have influence over
someone, what you are doing isselling your idea.
And I feel like I am a greatperson to teach you this.
(02:51):
And the reason is not becausethis is super easy for me or it
comes natural to me.
This is because like some of thebest teachers, my sister-in-law
did not do well in school.
I used to tutor her and she'smuch younger than Kevin.
I used to tutor her in math andshe would just like, she would
get so upset and angry and wannachuck the book out the window.
And she is now a fantastickindergarten teacher.
(03:12):
Like if you could pick, if youcould pick your kindergarten
teacher, I assure you, you wouldpick my sister-in-law.
She is so dedicated and does somany extra things and is so
thoughtful about the kids, butit comes from a place of like
school was not easy for her andshe worked and worked and then
she ended up getting, I mean, a4.0 in college and don't say it
was Michigan State and make funof it.
(03:33):
Like I tempted to, because Ilike to tease Kevin about that,
which is also where he went.
But she really worked hard atbecoming a good student and then
got better, but then understoodthat struggle.
And so, so that's where I'mcoming to you from that.
I grew up in a household wheremy parents would make references
and like everyone I knew, notjust my parents, but you know,
(03:54):
Anne's uncles, oh, he is a, asalesperson.
Oh, you know, they're kinda asleazy salesperson.
And the reality is there arelots of sleazy salespeople.
, that's a fact.
I've met them.
And you know, we would, I, wewould often, the car thing in
Detroit is very big.
So there's the, you know, thesleazy used car salesman.
So that is a thing.
(04:15):
But I have now been sellingdifferent services and products
for many years.
I mean, oh my gosh, I guess adecade.
So that's crazy, right?
Because even as a freelancer,you're selling your time.
So maybe more, okay, let's notcalculate those numbers.
But anyway, it was just not easyfor me.
(04:38):
And if you read a business bookabout like starting a company,
they'll say, just solve aproblem.
Just solve a problem.
And what I've realized is thatmaybe there are some women out
there that are great and naturalat sales or they get in early or
they just get it.
But I just didn't get it.
I didn't get that.
Having something great to sellis just kind of permission to
play.
Like you, you have to havesomething great to sell or don't
(04:59):
even try.
Then there's the whole thingabout communicating the value.
And some of you're already like,I do not even wanna go there.
This sounds awful.
But your cover letter is yourchance to sell someone on why
they should hire you.
And the reason that I think it'simportant to take that
(05:19):
perspective is that I want youto come at it from a perspective
of how you can add value totheir life.
And many times I don't see thatyour writing is beautiful, it is
thoughtful.
You have it's intelligentlydesigned that you are in a space
where you understand that youhave skills and you want to
(05:42):
communicate those skills and youreally like the company.
But there's just a little bit ofa nuance here that I want to
give you in terms of how tocommunicate that value.
So let's talk about the threeessential things.
And I want you to, to do thisbefore you give it to someone
else that may or may not be ableto offer you the right insights.
(06:05):
So if they just are taking itfrom the perspective of like,
Hey, did you do a good jobwriting it?
Did you talk about the company?
Did you talk about yourself?
There are lots saying good coverletters that will not
communicate the value and reallysell yourself the way that you
are gonna wanna do to convincesomeone to take a look at you,
(06:25):
pull you in for an interview.
So the first essential step, andI see this one missed all the
time, is that you want to go tothe core values of the company.
And the mission is usually a oneline statement that talks about
their why and the why they gotinto business.
(06:47):
And it's very important that youread that.
But that's not exactly what I'mtalking about here.
The core values are justslightly different.
The mission should be aligned tothe core values, but the core
values are a listing of thingslike we focus on creativity or
humanizing technology or beingbold.
Those are examples, core values,and you're gonna wanna read
(07:11):
through those.
Great companies will have threeor four.
Most companies have five or sixcuz they can't narrow it down or
seven or 10, which is a lot.
But the great thing is you don'thave to memorize every single
one.
You don't have to understand andbe a hit and show an example.
For every single one.
You have to pick two preferably,okay?
(07:33):
If you can only do one, evendoing one is better.
If you wanna do three, that'sfine.
But I think you're gonna findwith what I tell you, it's gonna
be hard to fit that into areasonable length.
And I do think that length isimportant.
There are very few times whereyou're gonna wanna write a three
page cover letter, okay?
You wanna write a threeparagraph cover letter, you want
to, this is where brevity andclarity is important.
(07:57):
And so you're gonna wanna goover and over this and cut
whatever you can cut.
But here's what you can't cut,and here's where you should
start.
Start with their core values.
I would pick three or four thatjump out at you as like being
aligned.
And if they only have three orfour, great.
And then I would write a story.
I want you to tell a story abouthow you exemplify that core
(08:21):
value.
Okay?
Now here's the trick in thecurrent tech market, in your
current skills of development orUX design.
And that's where a lot of youare going to be saying, but
Ellen, I don't even have thoseexamples.
And this is where I've talkedabout this on a previous
podcast.
This is what you're workingtowards and it is gonna be
important that you can do that.
(08:41):
Y if you can't come up withthree or four, that's okay, we
just wanna use two.
But the reason I say if you cancome up with three or four is
because if you do that, thenyou'll be able to look at them
and select two.
Okay?
So if you can write three orfour different stories, that's
fantastic.
What stories can I use myselfselected, if you must, but of
(09:03):
course a paid freelance clientis the best.
Then your free in quotes, Lanceclient is the next best.
Then you're self-selected as thenext best.
And I know you're going to betempted to use examples from
your previous life, from stayingat home, from your previous
work.
I know that you are, and I'm notsaying that those are wrong, but
they are less ideal thanexamples in the technology space
(09:25):
talk as you though you are inthe technology space, otherwise
you are trying to cross thisleap and to convince them, I did
this other thing, but now I dothis new thing, and won't you
hire me instead of I can helpyou solve this problem?
Okay?
So the first thing is, so threeessential steps.
The first thing on your coverletter look, go to their
(09:46):
website, look at their corevalues, write them down on a
piece of paper.
Step number two, tell a storyabout three or four of those,
and then pick two to put intoyour cover letter.
Okay?
Pick the best two.
The best two are gonna be notthe ones you love the most, but
the ones that you feel like tellthe best story.
And then if you don't know howelse to hierarchy them, do paid
(10:07):
freelance work, freelance, andthen self-selected in that
order.
And now I'm going to go evendeeper into what I touched in.
So the third step is the, iskind of what I touched on at the
beginning, but your tone isgoing, you're gonna wanna check
your cover letter for your tone.
And this is gonna be a separatestep because it's really, you
can't be thinking about all ofthese things in your brain at
(10:29):
the same time, but you are gonnawanna check your cover letter
for how am I adding value tothis person?
And I love it when you know theperson that you're talking to.
If you don't, why don't you goto LinkedIn, go to the company,
find the person who's mostlikely to review your resume and
look at their picture whenyou're thinking about them, look
at your picture when you'rewriting to them, imagine that
(10:52):
it's them.
Even if you are writing andsomeone else reads it, your
perspective will be so muchbetter that you have taken the
time and you are really thinkingand deeply trying to solve a
problem for that person.
How are you adding value to thatperson's life?
And maybe it's the hiringmanager, maybe it's the people
(11:12):
in, people in, they call itpeople now, the chief people
officer, but in hr.
But I think that as a, you know,as a T, as a tech team member,
you're probably solving, maybeyou're solving the problem for
the developer.
Maybe you're solving a problemfor the product manager.
Maybe you're solving a problemfor the UX designer.
So that's what I want you tocheck your tone for it.
Don't you love it?
(11:33):
I don't mean check your tone.
Like, you know, I say to myteenager, check your tone, just
read through your tone to see ifthat is what is working.
And you want to check your tonethat you don't have the, oh,
please.
Oh, please will you, if youwould just hire me.
Tone.
And so this makes me think ofthis book that I read to Gwenny.
I think my mother-in-law gotthis for us.
Yeah, she totally did.
(11:53):
She gets us cute books.
She's always doing that.
But you know, one of the olderkids, I mean, we've had this
book for like 10, 12, could be15 years, I don't know.
And the book is called IanaIguana.
And so then Gwen says Yana, whenshe wants Iana iguana, Yana,
Yana.
So Yani, the little boy isdesperately wants a, it's a cute
(12:16):
boat, desperately wants an igu.
The book is like a note that theboy writes to the mom and the
that a mom writes a note back,he's like, please mom, please, I
really want this igu.
Now he does get it, he does getthe iguana in the end, but I
still don't think this is a goodstrategy for a cover letter.
So check your tone for Ianaiguana.
It's not, please, oh please,will you give me an interview?
(12:37):
Because I understand that iswhat you want.
I know that is the perspectivethat you have that you would
like want them to give you aninterview.
Just take a deep breath, look atthe way that you've written it.
Does it come across as whenyou're looking at that LinkedIn
profile, that human on the otherside that you are adding value
(12:59):
to their life, that you aresolving a problem for them, that
you are demonstrating the corevalue of that organization with
your story.
Now the thing you might say is,Ellen, that takes a lot of time.
I don't have time to do each ofthis.
Well, that's how deeply youshould really like the company
that you're working for.
And keep in mind that justbecause you use the story for
one core value doesn't mean itcan't be applied to another core
(13:22):
value, right?
Creativity and flexibility.
Maybe you can use the same story.
So I still contend that thiswill help you.
And remember, you had fourstories, so now it's really like
your stories.
And then you're taking that andapplying that to the core values
that they have.
Now, if it's really hard to dothat, if it's like, oh my gosh,
this just doesn't work, I wantyou to check the core values.
(13:44):
Do you believe in them?
Because if you believe in them,then you'll likely be able to
find stories from yourexperience that tell about, and
so that's an important piece ofthis process is that the more
you believe in the core values,the more you'll feel aligned to
'em.
Now if you say, I feel alignedto them, I just don't have great
examples from this, think aboutwhy that is, and could you
(14:05):
obtain an example like that?
Okay?
And maybe you can't go out anddo an entire new project, but is
there a way that you could tweakone of your projects, and not
even just for this one job atthis one time, but put it down
on your to-do list in terms oflike a skill that you wanna
learn.
Hey, you know what?
I feel like I could work on mycreativity.
(14:27):
Hey, you know, I feel like Icould really work on being
bolder.
I don't think that I exemplifythat and that's something I
wanna do.
So take a bold action.
And you know what?
Changing yourself in this way isreally gonna make the work more
creative and more interesting.
It's really hard at first, andthen it's super fun.
And you will get to a levelwhere you're looking for ways
for the work to be moreinteresting and just different.
(14:50):
And these are are differentspins that you can take on the
work, and I would argue it willcreate new neural connections so
that you are creating somethingthat is different than what
you've done in the past and thatand hopefully better.
So just to kind of go over thosethree essential cover letter
steps again, number one, checkthe core values.
Number two, tell a story aboutthree to four of those core
(15:12):
values.
And then select two for yourcover letter.
And then number three, checkyour tone for how am I adding
value to this human?
Matt, I really want this job.
Will you hire me?
Those are the three essentialsteps.
I want you to do that on yourcover letter before you send it
to anyone, before you ask forfeedback.
Because if you aren't doingthose three things, you're
putting yourself in adisadvantage.
You're asking for feedback fromsomeone who isn't really in a
(15:35):
position to give you feedbackbecause you could have it
written really well, and itcould be fantastic.
When you read through it, itlooks great.
Okay, it looks great.
I don't know, I don't know whythey would hire you.
Well if you weren't doing thesethree things.
You're trying to convincesomeone to give you that
opportunity to meet andinterview with them and to
convince them of that.
You wanna make it easy for themto understand how you are adding
(15:56):
value to their life.
Thanks so much for being with mehere today.
I hope you have a good one.
See you next time.
You are listening to the techie podcast, episode
number 158.
(00:26):
So many moms returning to workhave asked me how to get hired
in a job that pays well, butalso allows them to be the mom
they want to be.
And I've seen so many women makethe mistake of taking a job
teaching English at 3:00 AM for$15 an hour.
That's just backwards becauseyour skills are highly valuable
(00:47):
and so is your time.
That's why I put together thisfree training to help you
jumpstart your tech career bylearning about the fields of UX
design and front-end developmentso you don't waste one more side
hustle that isn't a career anddoesn't give you the flexibility
and income your family needs.
I only offer this training twicea year, and it's available right
(01:09):
now at the release of thisepisode.
So sign up now for the helpfuland interactive free training.
Three strategies to jumpstartyour UX design career, or three
strategies to jumpstart yourfront end development career.
Sign up for one the other, orboth, it's completely free.
Go to u techie.com/signup.
That's Y O U A R E T E C Hy.com/s I G N U p.
(01:36):
I can't wait to see you there.
Welcome to the show.
Okay, we're gonna dive inbecause that's actually how I
love to have conversations.
Just to dive right in.
So I have been seeing somethings with my students in their
cover letters that I wanna coverwith you.
So I wish I could call thisepisode three things to check
your cover letter for before youget feedback, but my team would
(02:02):
not be able to fit that on ourgraphic assets.
So three essential cover lettersteps, it is
And the reality is that mystudents have been producing
some really high quality coverletters.
So if they were to hand themover to someone, the feedback
would probably be, yeah, this isreally good.
Okay, so you can write somethingthat's fantastic, but it doesn't
(02:27):
help you get further along inthe job process.
And I know that you wannaconvince someone to hire you.
I mean, ultimately that's whereyou're going.
You want to convince someone.
And when you wanna convincesomeone or have influence over
someone, what you are doing isselling your idea.
And I feel like I am a greatperson to teach you this.
(02:51):
And the reason is not becausethis is super easy for me or it
comes natural to me.
This is because like some of thebest teachers, my sister-in-law
did not do well in school.
I used to tutor her and she'smuch younger than Kevin.
I used to tutor her in math andshe would just like, she would
get so upset and angry and wannachuck the book out the window.
And she is now a fantastickindergarten teacher.
(03:12):
Like if you could pick, if youcould pick your kindergarten
teacher, I assure you, you wouldpick my sister-in-law.
She is so dedicated and does somany extra things and is so
thoughtful about the kids, butit comes from a place of like
school was not easy for her andshe worked and worked and then
she ended up getting, I mean, a4.0 in college and don't say it
was Michigan State and make funof it.
(03:33):
Like I tempted to, because Ilike to tease Kevin about that,
which is also where he went.
But she really worked hard atbecoming a good student and then
got better, but then understoodthat struggle.
And so, so that's where I'mcoming to you from that.
I grew up in a household wheremy parents would make references
and like everyone I knew, notjust my parents, but you know,
(03:54):
Anne's uncles, oh, he is a, asalesperson.
Oh, you know, they're kinda asleazy salesperson.
And the reality is there arelots of sleazy salespeople.
I've met them.
And you know, we would, I, wewould often, the car thing in
Detroit is very big.
So there's the, you know, thesleazy used car salesman.
So that is a thing.
(04:15):
But I have now been sellingdifferent services and products
for many years.
I mean, oh my gosh, I guess adecade.
So that's crazy, right?
Because even as a freelancer,you're selling your time.
So maybe more, okay, let's notcalculate those numbers.
But anyway, it was just not easyfor me.
(04:38):
And if you read a business bookabout like starting a company,
they'll say, just solve aproblem.
Just solve a problem.
And what I've realized is thatmaybe there are some women out
there that are great and naturalat sales or they get in early or
they just get it.
But I just didn't get it.
I didn't get that.
Having something great to sellis just kind of permission to
play.
Like you, you have to havesomething great to sell or don't
(04:59):
even try.
Then there's the whole thingabout communicating the value.
And some of you're already like,I do not even wanna go there.
This sounds awful.
But your cover letter is yourchance to sell someone on why
they should hire you.
And the reason that I think it'simportant to take that
(05:19):
perspective is that I want youto come at it from a perspective
of how you can add value totheir life.
And many times I don't see thatyour writing is beautiful, it is
thoughtful.
You have it's intelligentlydesigned that you are in a space
where you understand that youhave skills and you want to
(05:42):
communicate those skills and youreally like the company.
But there's just a little bit ofa nuance here that I want to
give you in terms of how tocommunicate that value.
So let's talk about the threeessential things.
And I want you to, to do thisbefore you give it to someone
else that may or may not be ableto offer you the right insights.
(06:05):
So if they just are taking itfrom the perspective of like,
Hey, did you do a good jobwriting it?
Did you talk about the company?
Did you talk about yourself?
There are lots saying good coverletters that will not
communicate the value and reallysell yourself the way that you
are gonna wanna do to convincesomeone to take a look at you,
(06:25):
pull you in for an interview.
So the first essential step, andI see this one missed all the
time, is that you want to go tothe core values of the company.
And the mission is usually a oneline statement that talks about
their why and the why they gotinto business.
(06:47):
And it's very important that youread that.
But that's not exactly what I'mtalking about here.
The core values are justslightly different.
The mission should be aligned tothe core values, but the core
values are a listing of thingslike we focus on creativity or
humanizing technology or beingbold.
Those are examples, core values,and you're gonna wanna read
(07:11):
through those.
Great companies will have threeor four.
Most companies have five or sixcuz they can't narrow it down or
seven or 10, which is a lot.
But the great thing is you don'thave to memorize every single
one.
You don't have to understand andbe a hit and show an example.
For every single one.
You have to pick two preferably,okay?
(07:33):
If you can only do one, evendoing one is better.
If you wanna do three, that'sfine.
But I think you're gonna findwith what I tell you, it's gonna
be hard to fit that into areasonable length.
And I do think that length isimportant.
There are very few times whereyou're gonna wanna write a three
page cover letter, okay?
You wanna write a threeparagraph cover letter, you want
to, this is where brevity andclarity is important.
(07:57):
And so you're gonna wanna goover and over this and cut
whatever you can cut.
But here's what you can't cut,and here's where you should
start.
Start with their core values.
I would pick three or four thatjump out at you as like being
aligned.
And if they only have three orfour, great.
And then I would write a story.
I want you to tell a story abouthow you exemplify that core
(08:21):
value.
Okay?
Now here's the trick in thecurrent tech market, in your
current skills of development orUX design.
And that's where a lot of youare going to be saying, but
Ellen, I don't even have thoseexamples.
And this is where I've talkedabout this on a previous
podcast.
This is what you're workingtowards and it is gonna be
important that you can do that.
(08:41):
Y if you can't come up withthree or four, that's okay, we
just wanna use two.
But the reason I say if you cancome up with three or four is
because if you do that, thenyou'll be able to look at them
and select two.
Okay?
So if you can write three orfour different stories, that's
fantastic.
What stories can I use myselfselected, if you must, but of
(09:03):
course a paid freelance clientis the best.
Then your free in quotes, Lanceclient is the next best.
Then you're self-selected as thenext best.
And I know you're going to betempted to use examples from
your previous life, from stayingat home, from your previous
work.
I know that you are, and I'm notsaying that those are wrong, but
they are less ideal thanexamples in the technology space
(09:25):
talk as you though you are inthe technology space, otherwise
you are trying to cross thisleap and to convince them, I did
this other thing, but now I dothis new thing, and won't you
hire me instead of I can helpyou solve this problem?
Okay?
So the first thing is, so threeessential steps.
The first thing on your coverletter look, go to their
(09:46):
website, look at their corevalues, write them down on a
piece of paper.
Step number two, tell a storyabout three or four of those,
and then pick two to put intoyour cover letter.
Okay?
Pick the best two.
The best two are gonna be notthe ones you love the most, but
the ones that you feel like tellthe best story.
And then if you don't know howelse to hierarchy them, do paid
(10:07):
freelance work, freelance, andthen self-selected in that
order.
And now I'm going to go evendeeper into what I touched in.
So the third step is the, iskind of what I touched on at the
beginning, but your tone isgoing, you're gonna wanna check
your cover letter for your tone.
And this is gonna be a separatestep because it's really, you
can't be thinking about all ofthese things in your brain at
(10:29):
the same time, but you are gonnawanna check your cover letter
for how am I adding value tothis person?
And I love it when you know theperson that you're talking to.
If you don't, why don't you goto LinkedIn, go to the company,
find the person who's mostlikely to review your resume and
look at their picture whenyou're thinking about them, look
at your picture when you'rewriting to them, imagine that
(10:52):
it's them.
Even if you are writing andsomeone else reads it, your
perspective will be so muchbetter that you have taken the
time and you are really thinkingand deeply trying to solve a
problem for that person.
How are you adding value to thatperson's life?
And maybe it's the hiringmanager, maybe it's the people
(11:12):
in, people in, they call itpeople now, the chief people
officer, but in hr.
But I think that as a, you know,as a T, as a tech team member,
you're probably solving, maybeyou're solving the problem for
the developer.
Maybe you're solving a problemfor the product manager.
Maybe you're solving a problemfor the UX designer.
So that's what I want you tocheck your tone for it.
Don't you love it?
(11:33):
I don't mean check your tone.
Like, you know, I say to myteenager, check your tone, just
read through your tone to see ifthat is what is working.
And you want to check your tonethat you don't have the, oh,
please.
Oh, please will you, if youwould just hire me.
Tone.
And so this makes me think ofthis book that I read to Gwenny.
I think my mother-in-law gotthis for us.
Yeah, she totally did.
(11:53):
She gets us cute books.
She's always doing that.
But you know, one of the olderkids, I mean, we've had this
book for like 10, 12, could be15 years, I don't know.
And the book is called IanaIguana.
And so then Gwen says Yana, whenshe wants Iana iguana, Yana,
Yana.
So Yani, the little boy isdesperately wants a, it's a cute
(12:16):
boat, desperately wants an igu.
The book is like a note that theboy writes to the mom and the
that a mom writes a note back,he's like, please mom, please, I
really want this igu.
Now he does get it, he does getthe iguana in the end, but I
still don't think this is a goodstrategy for a cover letter.
So check your tone for Ianaiguana.
It's not, please, oh please,will you give me an interview?
(12:37):
Because I understand that iswhat you want.
I know that is the perspectivethat you have that you would
like want them to give you aninterview.
Just take a deep breath, look atthe way that you've written it.
Does it come across as whenyou're looking at that LinkedIn
profile, that human on the otherside that you are adding value
(12:59):
to their life, that you aresolving a problem for them, that
you are demonstrating the corevalue of that organization with
your story.
Now the thing you might say is,Ellen, that takes a lot of time.
I don't have time to do each ofthis.
Well, that's how deeply youshould really like the company
that you're working for.
And keep in mind that justbecause you use the story for
one core value doesn't mean itcan't be applied to another core
(13:22):
value, right?
Creativity and flexibility.
Maybe you can use the same story.
So I still contend that thiswill help you.
And remember, you had fourstories, so now it's really like
your stories.
And then you're taking that andapplying that to the core values
that they have.
Now, if it's really hard to dothat, if it's like, oh my gosh,
this just doesn't work, I wantyou to check the core values.
(13:44):
Do you believe in them?
Because if you believe in them,then you'll likely be able to
find stories from yourexperience that tell about, and
so that's an important piece ofthis process is that the more
you believe in the core values,the more you'll feel aligned to
'em.
Now if you say, I feel alignedto them, I just don't have great
examples from this, think aboutwhy that is, and could you
(14:05):
obtain an example like that?
Okay?
And maybe you can't go out anddo an entire new project, but is
there a way that you could tweakone of your projects, and not
even just for this one job atthis one time, but put it down
on your to-do list in terms oflike a skill that you wanna
learn.
Hey, you know what?
I feel like I could work on mycreativity.
(14:27):
Hey, you know, I feel like Icould really work on being
bolder.
I don't think that I exemplifythat and that's something I
wanna do.
So take a bold action.
And you know what?
Changing yourself in this way isreally gonna make the work more
creative and more interesting.
It's really hard at first, andthen it's super fun.
And you will get to a levelwhere you're looking for ways
for the work to be moreinteresting and just different.
(14:50):
And these are are differentspins that you can take on the
work, and I would argue it willcreate new neural connections so
that you are creating somethingthat is different than what
you've done in the past and thatand hopefully better.
So just to kind of go over thosethree essential cover letter
steps again, number one, checkthe core values.
Number two, tell a story aboutthree to four of those core
(15:12):
values.
And then select two for yourcover letter.
And then number three, checkyour tone for how am I adding
value to this human?
Matt, I really want this job.
Will you hire me?
Those are the three essentialsteps.
I want you to do that on yourcover letter before you send it
to anyone, before you ask forfeedback.
Because if you aren't doingthose three things, you're
putting yourself in adisadvantage.
You're asking for feedback fromsomeone who isn't really in a
(15:35):
position to give you feedbackbecause you could have it
written really well, and itcould be fantastic.
When you read through it, itlooks great.
Okay, it looks great.
I don't know, I don't know whythey would hire you.
Well if you weren't doing thesethree things.
You're trying to convincesomeone to give you that
opportunity to meet andinterview with them and to
convince them of that.
You wanna make it easy for themto understand how you are adding
(15:56):
value to their life.
Thanks so much for being with mehere today.
I hope you have a good one.
See you next time.
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