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.
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.
You are listening to the techie podcast, episode number 158. So many moms returning to work have asked me how to get hired in a job that pays well, but also allows them to be the mom they want to be. And I've seen so many women make the mistake of taking a job teaching English at 3:00 AM for$15 an hour. That's just backwards because your skills are highly valuable and so is your time. That's why I put together this free training to help you jumpstart your tech career by learning about the fields of UX design and front-end development so you don't waste one more side hustle that isn't a career and doesn't give you the flexibility and income your family needs. I only offer this training twice a year, and it's available right now at the release of this episode. So sign up now for the helpful and interactive free training. Three strategies to jumpstart your UX design career, or three strategies to jumpstart your front end development career. Sign up for one the other, or both, it's completely free. Go to u techie.com/signup. That's Y O U A R E T E C H y.com/s I G N U p. I can't wait to see you there. Welcome to the show. Okay, we're gonna dive in because that's actually how I love to have conversations. Just to dive right in. So I have been seeing some things with my students in their cover letters that I wanna cover with you. So I wish I could call this episode three things to check your cover letter for before you get feedback, but my team would not be able to fit that on our graphic assets. So three essential cover letter steps, it is<laugh>. And the reality is that my students have been producing some really high quality cover letters. So if they were to hand them over to someone, the feedback would probably be, yeah, this is really good. Okay, so you can write something that's fantastic, but it doesn't help you get further along in the job process. And I know that you wanna convince someone to hire you. I mean, ultimately that's where you're going. You want to convince someone. And when you wanna convince someone or have influence over someone, what you are doing is selling your idea. And I feel like I am a great person to teach you this. And the reason is not because this is super easy for me or it comes natural to me. This is because like some of the best teachers, my sister-in-law did not do well in school. I used to tutor her and she's much younger than Kevin. I used to tutor her in math and she would just like, she would get so upset and angry and wanna chuck the book out the window. And she is now a fantastic kindergarten teacher. Like if you could pick, if you could pick your kindergarten teacher, I assure you, you would pick my sister-in-law. She is so dedicated and does so many extra things and is so thoughtful about the kids, but it comes from a place of like school was not easy for her and she worked and worked and then she ended up getting, I mean, a 4.0 in college and don't say it was Michigan State and make fun of it. Like I tempted to, because I like to tease Kevin about that, which is also where he went. But she really worked hard at becoming a good student and then got better, but then understood that struggle. And so, so that's where I'm coming to you from that. I grew up in a household where my parents would make references and like everyone I knew, not just my parents, but you know, Anne's uncles, oh, he is a, a salesperson. Oh, you know, they're kinda a sleazy salesperson. And the reality is there are lots of sleazy salespeople.<laugh>, that's a fact. I've met them. And you know, we would, I, we would often, the car thing in Detroit is very big. So there's the, you know, the sleazy used car salesman. So that is a thing. But I have now been selling different services and products for many years. I mean, oh my gosh, I guess a decade. So that's crazy, right? Because even as a freelancer, you're selling your time. So maybe more, okay, let's not calculate those numbers. But anyway, it was just not easy for me. And if you read a business book about like starting a company, they'll say, just solve a problem. Just solve a problem. And what I've realized is that maybe there are some women out there that are great and natural at 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 sell is just kind of permission to play. Like you, you have to have something great to sell or don't even try. Then there's the whole thing about 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 your chance to sell someone on why they should hire you. And the reason that I think it's important to take that perspective is that I want you to come at it from a perspective of how you can add value to their life. And many times I don't see that your writing is beautiful, it is thoughtful. You have it's intelligently designed that you are in a space where you understand that you have skills and you want to communicate those skills and you really like the company. But there's just a little bit of a nuance here that I want to give you in terms of how to communicate that value. So let's talk about the three essential things. And I want you to, to do this before you give it to someone else that may or may not be able to offer you the right insights. So if they just are taking it from the perspective of like, Hey, did you do a good job writing it? Did you talk about the company? Did you talk about yourself? There are lots saying good cover letters that will not communicate the value and really sell yourself the way that you are gonna wanna do to convince someone to take a look at you, pull you in for an interview. So the first essential step, and I see this one missed all the time, is that you want to go to the core values of the company. And the mission is usually a one line statement that talks about their why and the why they got into business. And it's very important that you read that. But that's not exactly what I'm talking about here. The core values are just slightly different. The mission should be aligned to the core values, but the core values are a listing of things like we focus on creativity or humanizing technology or being bold. Those are examples, core values, and you're gonna wanna read through those. Great companies will have three or four. Most companies have five or six cuz they can't narrow it down or seven or 10, which is a lot. But the great thing is you don't have to memorize every single one. You don't have to understand and be a hit and show an example. For every single one. You have to pick two preferably, okay? If you can only do one, even doing one is better. If you wanna do three, that's fine. But I think you're gonna find with what I tell you, it's gonna be hard to fit that into a reasonable length. And I do think that length is important. There are very few times where you're gonna wanna write a three page cover letter, okay? You wanna write a three paragraph cover letter, you want to, this is where brevity and clarity is important. And so you're gonna wanna go over 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 that jump out at you as like being aligned. And if they only have three or four, great. And then I would write a story. I want you to tell a story about how you exemplify that core value. Okay? Now here's the trick in the current tech market, in your current skills of development or UX design. And that's where a lot of you are going to be saying, but Ellen, I don't even have those examples. And this is where I've talked about this on a previous podcast. This is what you're working towards and it is gonna be important that you can do that. Y if you can't come up with three or four, that's okay, we just wanna use two. But the reason I say if you can come up with three or four is because if you do that, then you'll be able to look at them and select two. Okay? So if you can write three or four different stories, that's fantastic. What stories can I use myself selected, if you must, but of course a paid freelance client is the best. Then your free in quotes, Lance client is the next best. Then you're self-selected as the next best. And I know you're going to be tempted to use examples from your previous life, from staying at home, from your previous work. I know that you are, and I'm not saying that those are wrong, but they are less ideal than examples in the technology space talk as you though you are in the technology space, otherwise you are trying to cross this leap and to convince them, I did this other thing, but now I do this new thing, and won't you hire me instead of I can help you solve this problem? Okay? So the first thing is, so three essential steps. The first thing on your cover letter look, go to their website, look at their core values, write them down on a piece of paper. Step number two, tell a story about three or four of those, and then pick two to put into your cover letter. Okay? Pick the best two. The best two are gonna be not the ones you love the most, but the ones that you feel like tell the best story. And then if you don't know how else to hierarchy them, do paid freelance work, freelance, and then self-selected in that order. And now I'm going to go even deeper into what I touched in. So the third step is the, is kind of what I touched on at the beginning, but your tone is going, you're gonna wanna check your cover letter for your tone. And this is gonna be a separate step because it's really, you can't be thinking about all of these things in your brain at the same time, but you are gonna wanna check your cover letter for how am I adding value to this person? And I love it when you know the person that you're talking to. If you don't, why don't you go to LinkedIn, go to the company, find the person who's most likely to review your resume and look at their picture when you're thinking about them, look at your picture when you're writing to them, imagine that it's them. Even if you are writing and someone else reads it, your perspective will be so much better that you have taken the time and you are really thinking and deeply trying to solve a problem for that person. How are you adding value to that person's life? And maybe it's the hiring manager, maybe it's the people in, people in, they call it people 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, maybe you're solving the problem for the developer. Maybe you're solving a problem for the product manager. Maybe you're solving a problem for the UX designer. So that's what I want you to check your tone for it. Don't you love it? I don't mean check your tone. Like, you know, I say to my teenager, check your tone, just read through your tone to see if that is what is working. And you want to check your tone that you don't have the, oh, please. Oh, please will you, if you would just hire me. Tone. And so this makes me think of this book that I read to Gwenny. I think my mother-in-law got this for us. Yeah, she totally did. She gets us cute books. She's always doing that. But you know, one of the older kids, I mean, we've had this book for like 10, 12, could be 15 years, I don't know. And the book is called Iana Iguana. And so then Gwen says Yana, when she wants Iana iguana, Yana, Yana. So Yani, the little boy is desperately wants a, it's a cute boat, desperately wants an igu. The book is like a note that the boy 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 get the iguana in the end, but I still don't think this is a good strategy for a cover letter. So check your tone for Iana iguana. It's not, please, oh please, will you give me an interview? Because I understand that is what you want. I know that is the perspective that you have that you would like want them to give you an interview. Just take a deep breath, look at the way that you've written it. Does it come across as when you're looking at that LinkedIn profile, that human on the other side that you are adding value to their life, that you are solving a problem for them, that you are demonstrating the core value 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 of this. Well, that's how deeply you should really like the company that you're working for. And keep in mind that just because you use the story for one core value doesn't mean it can't be applied to another core value, right? Creativity and flexibility. Maybe you can use the same story. So I still contend that this will help you. And remember, you had four stories, so now it's really like your stories. And then you're taking that and applying that to the core values that they have. Now, if it's really hard to do that, if it's like, oh my gosh, this just doesn't work, I want you to check the core values. Do you believe in them? Because if you believe in them, then you'll likely be able to find stories from your experience that tell about, and so that's an important piece of this 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 aligned to them, I just don't have great examples from this, think about why that is, and could you obtain an example like that? Okay? And maybe you can't go out and do an entire new project, but is there a way that you could tweak one of your projects, and not even just for this one job at this one time, but put it down on your to-do list in terms of like a skill that you wanna learn. Hey, you know what? I feel like I could work on my creativity. Hey, you know, I feel like I could really work on being bolder. I don't think that I exemplify that and that's something I wanna do. So take a bold action. And you know what? Changing yourself in this way is really gonna make the work more creative and more interesting. It's really hard at first, and then it's super fun. And you will get to a level where you're looking for ways for the work to be more interesting and just different. And these are are different spins that you can take on the work, and I would argue it will create new neural connections so that you are creating something that is different than what you've done in the past and that and hopefully better. So just to kind of go over those three essential cover letter steps again, number one, check the core values. Number two, tell a story about three to four of those core values. And then select two for your cover letter. And then number three, check your tone for how am I adding value to this human? Matt, I really want this job. Will you hire me? Those are the three essential steps. I want you to do that on your cover letter before you send it to anyone, before you ask for feedback. Because if you aren't doing those three things, you're putting yourself in a disadvantage. You're asking for feedback from someone who isn't really in a position to give you feedback because you could have it written really well, and it could be fantastic. When you read through it, it looks great. Okay, it looks great. I don't know, I don't know why they would hire you. Well if you weren't doing these three things. You're trying to convince someone to give you that opportunity to meet and interview with them and to convince them of that. You wanna make it easy for them to understand how you are adding value to their life. Thanks so much for being with me here today. I hope you have a good one. See you next time.