Monday, May 19, 2003
If you're older than 40, you probably remember hearing that the art of letter writing had died, strangled slowly in the curly loops of the home telephone cord.
Then e-mail sprang onto the scene, and suddenly everyone had something to say that needed to be sent to a dozen people at once. Welcome back, printed word.
Unfortunately, in our exuberance for e-mail, we learned too well to copy and paste. Terms such as "boilerplate paragraph" entered the lexicon, and we discovered that it was nearly as easy to send 50 letters as it was to send one. Job seekers, freed from the tyranny of postage and typed envelopes, reached dizzying heights of productivity.
Human resource managers, conversely, began to drown under the daily onslaught of earnest, if often misdirected, correspondence.
Now, it seems, everyone is mad at everyone else. Job seekers demand to know why their letters go unanswered, while employers disdainfully delete all the letters that seem to have nothing to do with their companies.
Wouldn't it be funny if we discovered that the reason employers don't respond to letters is that they receive too many? And that the reason people send out dozens at once is they assume employers won't read them anyway?
Vicious cycle
If you feel stuck in this cycle, advice on writing a better cover letter may be the last thing you want. Why should you write better sentences if the letter is just going to be deleted? Maybe the advice should be about writing fewer letters for better reasons.
Not to worry. Both types of advice start with the same first steps. Check yourself against this list to be sure you're giving your letters a fair chance at being read.
UIdentify your audience.
UIdentify your reason for writing.
UList the main things you want to communicate.
UStrategize: What will you do after you send the letter?
Let's say that Kim has heard that Jackson's Lighting is a good place to work. She decides to send a r & eacute;sum & eacute; and cover letter. To whom should she send it? For now, she chooses human resources, although she knows the answer may change as she works through the other questions.
Why is Kim sending a letter? Hint: The answer is not "to explain what's in the r & eacute;sum & eacute;." If the r & eacute;sum & eacute; is well-written, it will stand on its own. The letter should have its own communication purpose. Does Kim have special skills that this company can use? Has she already spoken with someone at the company? Does she plan to call later to ask for a meeting?
Without realizing it, Kim has begun to answer questions three and four. She decides that her main points are that she has worked in the lighting industry before, that she has very good customer-service skills and would like to work on the sales floor, and that she is willing to work either full- or part-time.
Her purpose in writing is to gain an interview, so she adds this line: "Even if you are not currently hiring, I would enjoy meeting with you. I will call next week to see if we can set up an interview or brief meeting. In the meantime, I can be reached at ..."
Target of message
Now that she knows what she wants to say, she reviews her choice of recipients. Human resources? When she calls the company to get that person's name, she discovers the hiring on the sales floor is done by the sales manager. Good thing she called. She decides to visit the Web site to learn more about the company, so she can include a sentence about their products.
What do you think about Kim's approach? It's far more time-consuming than sending boilerplate letters, especially if she chooses to print them on stationery and mail them. At this rate, if she actually researches and writes each letter, she probably won't be able to send more than 20 a week.
On the other hand, if she's planning to follow up each letter with a phone call, she probably can't handle any more than that.
You may not agree with Kim's approach, but it's worth a try.
If it doesn't work, you can go back to the e-mail system, or to another method of contacting employers. Just don't assume that if a method isn't working, the best idea is to do more of it.
XAmy Lindgren, the owner of a career-consulting firm in St. Paul, Minn., can be reached at alindgren@pioneerpress.com.