I’ve been giving this some serious thought for the past couple of years. My answer? Yes. While a cover letter is a great way to eliminate a potential job candidate who is too lazy to proof read or spell check, it’s also (in my opinion) an antiquated form of learning about someone.
Think about it.
Paragraph 1 – Why you’re writing
Well obviously you’re writing to get a job. No one randomly emails his or her resume to another person and then simply inquires about the weather. It’s almost as pointless as adding an objective to a resume. In case you’re wondering on that one – the answer for objective is to also get a job.
Paragraph 2 – Why my skills match your job description.
Also known as how I perfected my cover letter to include every skill set you mentioned in your job description – oh wait! All of that information should also be on my resume – and formatted better as well.
Paragraph 3 – How to get in touch with me
Given that I’m connected to my cell phone at any given point, that’s probably the best way to get in touch. However, if I don’t answer please feel free to send me an email (which I will also get immediately on my cell phone), tweet me (so I can see the notification), LinkedIn message me (that one is emailed to me) or fill out the comment form on my blog (also emailed to me & usually spam). The point being that it’s not 1980. People are constantly connected to their phones and the chances of missing a response from a job that you applied to are slim to none.
They say the average resume is looked at for 3 seconds. If the the person who glanced at your resume is interested they will apparently read it for another 10 or so seconds before they decide to find out more. In 2011 this includes a Google search for a personal website, articles about you and all of your public social media platforms.
And thus the point of this blog.
People spend hours perfecting their cover letters, but they spend little to no time perfecting their social media. I understand that not everyone is a freak about social media like I am. But social media is here to stay and sticking your head in the ground like an ostrich is not the answer. What you do with social media says a lot about you and you need to make sure it says the right stuff.
I’m not saying that every person needs to use social media on a daily basis, but to have a working knowledge of the popular platforms and the ability to use them to build your personal brand is a valuable tool that I don’t think many take advantage of. Think about it. You can build credibility in a field by something as simple as tweeting an industry related article once a week. Add comments and you’re even better. Try using LinkedIn as a place to network and find new opportunities.
It’s not hard and it doesn’t have to be time consuming if you don’t want it to be. The point is to find what works best for you and go with it. But if the Google search is going to happen anyway – why not control what’s being seen?
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