Cover Letters

November 24, 1998

Resumes without cover letters are like unlabeled cans of an unknown product. While it is easier to look at a resume to determine it's content than it is to risk opening a can of questionable product, why put Employers in that awkward position? Your goal should be to eliminate any of the more obvious reasons an Employer might have for screening out your resume, and your Job candidacy.

Does your cover letter take the easy way out and ask the Employer to call you if they're interested in hiring you? This kind of tactic implies that you are the type of person who lacks initiative and expects others to pick up the ball and run with it. This may be appropriate for some jobs, but not many. Employers are generally looking for self-starting, motivated employees - people who don't need constant attention and direction. They're looking for employees that will solve problems, not add to the ones they already have. They're probably busy enough as is (that's why they're hiring), and don't have time to babysit a new hire.

Does your cover letter focus on what your research has shown are the company's real needs? When all is said and done with, your cover letter should explain how your abilities fit with the company and how you will solve some of their ongoing problems. Sometimes these problems are as simple as "We desperately need more bodies on the line here!" Other times, the problems you are solving may change from day to day. What you don't want is for your cover letter to be steeped in is your own ambitions, needs, and desires.

Twenty-nine common Cover Letter mistakes are listed on CareerLab. I've made at least half of them myself at various times (thankfully not on the same cover letter!). Review them and avoid doing the same.

If you are looking for a new twist on industry specific cover letters, you should consider sending out a form that makes a response by the hiring manager easier. While in many cases this smacks of drumming up business for yourself, or being seen as a 'huckster', you never know what's going to flip on the hiring switch of your prospective Employer. If you've been at the Jobhunt for awhile, and aren't getting any responses, you need to stir things up a little. While potentially abhorrent to the more sensitive or professional Jobseeker, this site may come in handy when other techniques fail.

The key to remember about cover letters is this: For every thousand Employers that ignore it (or actively dislike it), you only need to impress one person with the power to hire you. That's why it's so important to target your cover letter and resume to the particular named individual at the company you've researched and know something about. That way you impress hiring managers as being thoughtful, rather than thoughtless.

-Mark Poppen

Pros and Cons

November 23, 1998

The US has the largest prison population, per capita, in the industrialized world. Some suggest that we have imprisoned more of our citizens, per capita, than any other nation (excepting out a couple of the most brutal dictatorships). With a generational labor shortage in full swing, Employers are starting to turn to this captive labor market.

With a prison population of almost two million, millions more on parole, and millions more with felony convictions, Employers would be foolish to overlook these people as potential hires. Upwards of seventy-five percent of inmates are incarcerated for non-violent drug offences, some of whom are either skilled workers or possess some technical training. Far-sighted business and state institutions have set up training programs to give prisoners a chance to prosper legally once they are released.

In Florida, Pride Enterprises employs over 4,000 inmates in over 50 different operations. Fewer than one in seven of their workers, once released from prison, ended up back behind bars. Nationally, the return to prison rate is over one out of two. Unfortunately, only a few such programs are in effect currently. And the kiss of death for many Job applications has always been answering yes to "Have you ever been convicted of a felony?" For many Employers, the screen out is finished right there.

If you have a felony conviction, your goal is to find out early in the game whether what matters to This Employer is your past, or what you can do for them now and in the future. Or you can simply not mention it and hope for the best. While career counselors are reminding us that Employers are looking for problem solving skills and abilities, they often forget to point out the inherently discriminatory nature of screening out Job candidates.

Inevitably, some ethical questions arise concerning work release, prisoners, and employment, such as:

• Do criminals deserve free training?
• If we use criminals as a cheap labor force, aren't they really slaves, in the service of empire?
• Will they be competing with law-abiding citizens in the Job market, putting them out of work?