A Cover Letter is Like a Love Letter

Welcome to the VERY FIRST EPISODE of Career Composer with Erin Ahart! In this episode, Erin explains how writing a cover letter is similar to writing a love letter and shares a simple, three-step process to make sure your cover letters stand out. 

Erin introduces her music and professional background, and also shares the unique music-themed approach of this podcast. Don't miss Erin's story about the spicy love letters between Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms!

Timestamps: Career content - 6:41

Get my FREE Job Application Tracker!
 
Socials:

Instagram, TikTok, X/Twitter, Threads: @careercomposer
YouTube: @careercomposer

Email: careercomposerpodcast@gmail.com

ASK ERIN (FREE!): Email Erin at careercomposerpodcast@gmail.com to get started. Use "ASK ERIN" in the subject line!

1:1 Career Coaching Services: Email Erin at careercomposerpodcast@gmail.com for information about her coaching services! Use "1:1 Career Coaching" in the subject line.

Transcript

0:18

This is Career Composer. I'm Erin, and I'm helping you, professionals under 30, navigate your careers with a music themed twist. I'm giving you the job search and career advice you need to get that job, but we'll also talk about music, how to balance our personal and professional lives, and figure out what we're meant to do. Ready? Let's go.

Analogue 1 + 2 (Focusrite Usb Audio)-15 0:40

Hello and welcome to Career Composer. My name is Erin Ahart. I'm a full time career counselor, and I'm helping you, professionals under 30, navigate your careers with a music themed twist. In this episode, you will learn about cover letters. Why writing a cover letter is like writing a love letter. And I will share a three step process for writing them. So from here on out, there should be no doubt in your mind that your cover letters have everything they need to impress employers. Today's episode will be a little bit different because it is the very first episode of career composer. And I'm so excited to introduce myself and this brand new podcast. To tell you a little bit about myself. Hi guys, I'm Erin. I'm a full time career counselor in Washington, D. C. I've been working with college students and alumni for more than four years now. I got my start at Penn State University when I worked in their Bank of America Career Services Center as a student there. And fast forward to now, I work with Masters and PhD students. I also have my master's degree in higher education and I'm a Gallup certified CliftonStrengths coach, which means that I am trained in helping people figure out what their unique strengths are and how to leverage them in the job search and in the workplace. Finally, I've worked in human resources and I've worked with recruiters when I used to plan large scale career fairs in my last role. So I really know what employers are looking for in a candidate. You might've guessed from the name of this podcast, I am obsessed with music. I'm a pianist and have been involved in music my entire life. I directed different choirs and musicals. I listened to all kinds of music and I'm always looking for new songs and artists. I'm also a huge Adele fan. I saw her in Vegas this past spring and it was absolutely incredible. Back to the podcast. I have a lot of experience in career services, but I'm only 24. I've worked very hard to get to where I am today, but still being in my twenties, I'm still going through the same things that other young professionals are experiencing right now. And as a career counselor, I also know how boring career advice can be. And sometimes you just want advice from a friend or a peer. I'm starting this podcast to share everything that I've learned, but as a friend who just happens to work in career services, I'm going to give you the career advice that I would want for myself. And it's the advice that I give my students every day. I'm going to do it in typical Aaron fashion, which is bringing my love for music into the advice that I give and everything that I do. So here's how career composer is going to work. Career composer is a music themed career and life advice podcast. So each episode will be focused on a career topic that is meant to help young professionals in their twenties. For example, I'll be answering common questions like, should I go to grad school? How do I answer? Tell me about yourself in an interview. How do I negotiate my salary? Can chat GPT help me with my job search? And I realized I don't like my career. What do I do now? I'm going to talk about all of these things and more and bring on other young professionals onto the podcast to share their experiences too. Now, where does music fit in? 2 With every guest I bring on, I'm going to ask them to share their favorite song, favorite album, and favorite artist so you can get to know them just a little bit better. 3 Every song mentioned on Career Composer will be added to one giant Career Composer playlist so you can check out all the music we talk about. There will also be other Career Composer playlists related to different career topics. An interview hype playlist, playlists for your daily commute, even office background music that doesn't make you completely bored out of your mind. And anyone listening will be able to submit songs to these playlists. And that's honestly, one of the things that I'm most excited about is to get music recommendations from all of you. Since music is always running through my mind, 1 every episode focused on career advice will have some kind of music theme that goes along with it. I know that some of you will just want to get right into the career advice, so we'll keep the music portion brief, but there may be other music only episodes every once in a while. You can expect Career Composer episodes every other Monday, and stay up to date by following Career Composer on Instagram, at Career Composer. You can also find the link to our Career Composer playlists, and the link to submit your song and playlist recommendations in the show notes below. If nothing else, my hope is that career composer builds a community of other young professionals who want to grow in their careers, who also might love music and who want career advice. It's fun, exciting, easy to listen to. And that comes from someone in your shoes. If you're still wondering, Aaron, how is this going to work? The rest of episode one starts right now. You will learn the only cover letter advice you'll ever need ready. Let's go.

5:29

Since the theme of today's episode is Why a Cover Letter is Like a Love Letter, I'm going to quickly tell you about some of the most famous drama in classical music history involving the love letters between Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms. If you're interested in the full story, you can check it out on Instagram. I'm going to be talking about popular music in most episodes, but I thought this story was very fitting for today's topic. Clara and Robert Schumann were two of the most famous composers in the 1800s. Clara was very much ahead of her time, and her husband Robert is the composer that we classical musicians all know and love. Clara and Robert seem to be a happy couple, until Robert takes an up and coming composer under his wing, Johannes Brahms. But, shortly thereafter, Robert is admitted into a psychiatric institution, and while Robert is in the asylum, Clara and Brahms begin writing love letters back and forth to each other. And this is scandalous in the 1800s, not just because they're going behind Robert's back, but because Clara was 14 years older than Brahms. Again, if you're interested in the full story, check it out on Instagram to kick off our career composer playlist. You will find one piece from Clara and one piece from Brahms that I absolutely love.

Analogue 1 + 2 (Focusrite Usb Audio)-3 6:41

Now let's get into our career topic and talk about cover letters. I'm going to tell you about how to write a cover letter with love letter format. I know it sounds silly, but it's very popular because this format makes cover letters very easy to think about and write, and it ensures that your letter demonstrates the three most important things that employers are looking for. So the three things that employers want to see on an A plus well written cover letter is, first, that you demonstrate your knowledge of the position and the organization, basically that you've done all of your research. Second, that you demonstrate your genuine interest in and excitement about the position and the organization. And most importantly, great cover letters demonstrate your awareness of how your excitement and the experiences you bring align with the organization and what the employer is looking for in a candidate. Now, if you need to hear those repeated again, rewind a couple seconds because they're super important. It's important to know why employers value these things and why cover letters are still relevant today, because they are. Especially in the age of chat GPT and instant job applications, employers want to know that you actually put thought and time into writing the cover letter yourself. Employers are just like everyone else. They want to feel special. They have huge egos and they want to feel like they're the only company that you want to work for. In the old days, cover letters got their name because you would print out your resume and put your cover letter on top, kind of like the title page of an essay. This has changed. And I found that employers tend to look at the resume first to make sure that you have all the necessary skills and experience, but then move on to the cover letter. People applied to fewer jobs just 10 to 20 years ago because it took so much effort to put together one application. There was no chat GPT. So people had to be intentional about tailoring their cover letter to a specific company. On top of wanting to feel like you're actually being intentional about applying to their organization, employers want to know that you're interested because finding and retaining talent costs, time, human resources, and money. So people ask me if a cover letter is so important, why is it optional on some applications? The simple answer is that it sets you apart from people who don't submit one. And believe me, I get it. I know that you don't want to take the time to tailor your cover letter to every employer. And I know you want to use chat GPT to write the whole thing. But because everyone is using chat, GPT sending out a million applications, employers receive hundreds of applications with no cover letter attached. The cover letter is what you should use to set yourself apart. And I know I'm really driving this point home. But the last thing I'll say is that when employers are looking for a way to distinguish candidates from one another, a cover letter is really how they do it. Think of it this way. If you're an employer and you have 20 qualified applicants based only on their resumes, but you can only interview eight people, how would you figure out who's really serious about the job and who to bring in for an interview? The cover letter. Now, here's where Love Letter format comes in. With this format, you achieve all three goals I mentioned earlier. Demonstrating knowledge, interest, and awareness. Love Letter Format And you make the employer feel what? Feel loved. A cover letter should be three paragraphs. It should be no more than one page. Maybe it can be five paragraphs if they're short paragraphs and very well organized, but you should still always stick to one page. If you decide to do more than three paragraphs for the purpose of this exercise, your first paragraph is the introduction, your middle paragraphs are your body paragraphs, and your final paragraph is your closer. The first paragraph is why you love them. The second paragraph, or your body paragraphs, is why they should love you. And the third or final paragraph is why you would work well together. Again, first paragraph, why you love them. Second paragraph, why they should love you. Third paragraph, why you would work well together. Paragraph one. In your first paragraph, why you love them, this is where you tell the hiring manager just how excited you are about the position. Most people start this by introducing themselves and saying something like, I am eager to express my interest in dot, dot, dot position at XYZ company. And this is fine, but you definitely want to state what position you're applying for. Then talk about why you truly want to work there. Is it because you connect with the company's mission or because their worker impact really inspires you? Do you know someone who works there who has told you great things about the company culture and the work environment? Is the position itself really unique? Did you learn about the organization in an interesting way? Do you have an attention grabbing personal story that you can relate back to the company? Focus on one or two of these reasons why you're so interested in the company, or maybe there are other reasons why you're drawn to the position, but choose one or two to really, really focus in on. From there, you can close out your first paragraph with a brief transition sentence that takes the employer into paragraph two. The second paragraph, or your body paragraph or paragraphs, is why they should love you. And this is where you get to brag. One of the most common fears I hear from students is, I'm so worried about bragging too much. Especially if you come from an upbringing or culture where speaking confidently about yourself was not encouraged. This might really scare you. But my response to that is, if the employer is looking for the best, most qualified candidate, how are they supposed to know if you can do the job if you don't tell them all the great things that you have to offer? If there is any time to brag, that time is right now in the second paragraph of your cover letter. And what is the best way to convince them of why they should love you in this paragraph? What I tell my students is that you should have your resume right next to you when you're writing this letter and pick the top three things about you that makes you special or sets you apart. This could be a job or an internship that ignited your passion for the field. Maybe you talk about how you're going to bring your passion and motivation to learn into this new role. Maybe you talk about soft skills that you weren't able to demonstrate on your resume. If the job description says they want someone who can work in a team, maybe you talk about a time when you played an important role on a team and how you worked well with your teammates. And the most common thing that people talk about in this section is the experience or skills that they have from their resume that match what the employer is asking for in the job description. And when you list these skills and experiences, please, please take it a step further and explain why this matters to the employer. How will this skill help the team or organization achieve their goal? And if you use the body of your cover letter to state three standout qualities about yourself, provide examples for each, explain how these skills or experiences are going to help the organization or allow you to do your job in an extraordinary way. 99 percent of people out there. So congratulations. If you can do this second paragraph well. But finally, let's write our third paragraph. Shall we? In this paragraph, what you're doing is establishing the mutually beneficial relationship between you and the employer. You're going to help them as much as they're going to help you grow and achieve the next step in your career. I recommend that you start this paragraph by summarizing your excitement at what you bring to the table. When talking about how the employer can help you, you could say something like. Working at blank company would allow me to contribute my XYZ skills while advancing the mission of your team and helping me grow in the next stage of my career. Now, you would definitely need to personalize this sentence and maybe split it into two sentences, but that's the gist of the third paragraph. And also in the third paragraph, you'll want to say, thank you for your consideration. I look forward to hearing from you. And restating your contact information. Even if your email and phone number are at the top of your application and your cover letter restating, it provides a call to action that encourages the hiring manager to pick up the phone and offer you an interview. And that is why a cover letter is like a love letter. Remember that your cover letter is its own unique document. Don't regurgitate your entire resume and it's okay to get creative with it. You can tell a story, showcase your writing skills, and even include something unique about yourself that they wouldn't be able to tell from your application otherwise. Today was really focused on love letter format. I told you that this is all the cover letter advice that you'll ever need. And that's pretty true. This is. The main thing that distinguishes great cover letters from the average cover letter that employers receive, but I'll definitely get into other cover letter tips in future episodes.

Analogue 1 + 2 (Focusrite Usb Audio)-15 15:55

I hope you found today's episode helpful. Career Composer will be back with a new episode every other Monday. And if today's topic really resonated with you, I hope you'll consider leaving a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. Reviews will really help this podcast grow so I can keep bringing you the career content that you want. You can also email me at careercomposerpodcast at gmail. com with feedback or questions, because I want to give you the career advice that you actually want to hear. That's all for now. Thank you so much for listening. I'll see you next time and have a great day.