Cover letters used to be a big deal when people were mailing resumes to employers. But are they still useful in digital form? Short answer: yes.

Cover letters help candidates stand out with HR professionals or managers. They can also be remixed into a LinkedIn profile or used as an introduction in an online application if there is an opportunity to add comments to the form.

Tips:

1. Avoid over-used openers, add some creativity or a personal touch to your cover letter.
2. Think of one of your proudest moments or memorable achievements.
3. Identify what you learned from that proud moment.
4. Try to apply that to a potential role you are interested or how it would serve an employer to have you as an employee.

Resource: Cover Letter Opening Line Examples

View the latest jobs, get job alerts or build a resume on Corridor Careers

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

It's been a while we haven't done careers

and coffee for gosh, by going on month here.

Yeah, I'm wearing my Where's Waldo hat today. Like

where's careers and coffee today?

Exactly. Yeah. And are those the like blue

light filtering glasses? You got to?

Yeah. Just try. Every every, every device I can

use to keep me healthy, healthy and happy. You know?

Yeah, no, no, you're coming off a little bit

of a being sick. So we're glad to have back at semi-full

strensubtitles.

Yeah, I'm feeling better now.

Cool. Well, I'm having an afternoon coffee. I

don't know what you got going. Figured out power through the

afternoon with another cup of joe.

Right on. What are we talking about today, Dan?

Well, let's talk about cover letters a little

bit. Um, so I was reading an article, and I'll share it in

the show notes. There's basically about some creative

tips writing an effective cover letter. And I have the article

up here on my other screen. But it was basically saying that

human resource managers or recruiters, they're always

reading the same things in cover letters, right, like the same

opening, you know, lines. And so what this article was saying

was, basically get creative. So some of the things they

mentioned, would be like, avoid boring or overused openers, be

lively and personable. Communicate that you'll bring

something to the company. So those are a few of the things

they brought up. And I actually want to do a little exercise

with you. All right. And we're just going to go for it, I'm

gonna ask you some questions. And I want to see what you say

here. And then we're gonna translate that over to a cover

letter. Okay, um, tell me about something in your life that

you're most proud of.

Okay, so there's, there's a lot, I've got a few

years on you. So I've had a few more experiences. But um, I

would say one of my most more recent, like, really proud of

moments was getting my master's degree in instructional design

and technology. It took me five years to get my grad degree. And

because I was working full time and had multiple children, and,

and getting that degree was really a lot of effort. And I

was glad that I finished. My mom had worked towards the grad

degree as well when I was in high school, and she didn't ever

finish. So I felt like, Hey, I'm doing this for me. And I'm doing

it for mom too. So it was kind of cool.

That's awesome. And you were obviously very busy

at that time. Um, why? Why do you think you're so proud of

getting your master's degree?

I think just because I went for it. We were

chatting about earlier, like, one thing I realized was that

there's a big difference between saying you're going to do

something and actually doing something. And it's very easy to

kind of relax into making plans. And, you know, imagining the

future, the way those plans will work out magically, but not

actually taking action to make them happen. And so at the time,

the reason I wanted to get this degree was I felt like I needed

more. I needed something more to move myself along in a career

path, because I had kind of a weird undergrad degree. And, and

I just wanted something more that would help me kind of give

myself permission to seek that next level for my career. So it

was really more for me, and then I didn't expect to become like

an instructional designer. I thought it was a really cool

program, and I enjoyed it, but I didn't know how I would use it

exactly.

Sure. Um, yeah, you brought up a couple of

really good things, their actions speak louder than words,

right. Whether you're going for that degree, or you know, saying

you're gonna travel more than 2022 or something like that. So

Right.

Hopefully it's possible. Yeah. Yeah,

sure. Um, okay, so let's kind of bring it full

circle. How, how this accomplishment translate to you

being an awesome employee.

Hmm. So let's see. First I would Google how to

write an effective cover letter. Let's see. I you know, I would

say and I and I'm sure I wrote this in a cover letter when I

was transitioning careers it was, you know, Hey, I found

something that was interesting to me, I pursued it and

completed it. And if you hire me, as an employee, you'll know

someone who's going to see something through. So you can

use it as like your, your, your effectiveness at following

through on something. But your, your most proud of event is

going to be different from my most proud of events are from

dance. And so you really just have to figure out, Okay, what

about this experience taught me something? And is that is that

something that I continued to use? And for me, it was like,

with this particular degree, I really understood how I learned

more about how people learn. And knowing that is really important

to my job as a manager. And, you know, just a lot of the things

that I do at my current role, and in previous roles that I've

had to so you can kind of talk that, walk that back from

wherever your goal is.

Yeah, sure. So I really like that. And I think

adding in some personality of, you know, something that you're

really proud of, it's usually really easy to talk about

something that you're really proud of to write.

Yeah, you get excited yourself, right? Yeah.

Like, wow, you kind of look back and be like,

Wow, I can't believe I did that almost. Um, so, you know, if

you're struggling to write a cover letter, I would start

right there and tell, you know, tell them employer or potential

employer, like, why you're so proud of this accomplishment,

and how that's going to translate over into you being an

awesome employee for them.

So what if you don't have like a work related

thing that you're proud of?

Yeah. I guess that's gonna be me, I guess. I'm

thinking about one of my most proud moment moments, it's

playing golf in college, being a student athlete in college. That

was a huge accomplishment for me. And I know, in the past, I

think, my cover letter that he received from me several years

back, I talked about probably things like time management, and

how when I was in college, I didn't have a normal college

lifestyle, I was having to get up to work out at 6am, like,

four days a week or five, sometimes five days a week, and

I would be traveling half the week, for part of the year part

of the semester. So I learned a lot of things like time

management, and it just gave me, you know, very unique

perspective on being competitive, you know. And I

think that translates over into the world over into the

workplace, too, right. So I guess that would be like my most

proud of proud moment. That's, that's what I would write in my

cover letter too.

Yeah, I think I think that's a good example, to

show how something that doesn't seem particularly related to

like any certain career path could be applicable to a cover

letter. Um, but does anyone write cover letters anymore?

That's a great question. So um, I was actually

thinking about this. And I think the first question I asked you

earlier this week was like, our cover letters dead? Yeah.

Because I see, like, a lot of times employers don't, you don't

always need a cover letter to apply anymore. A lot of times,

just the resume. And here's where I'm at with that. I think

if there is a blank space or a place to upload something,

attach something, you should do it. Yes. says, if it's not

required, go above and beyond, right, do something more than

what 95% of everybody else was doing? And you'll probably stick

out from the crowd.

Absolutely. And I think a cover letter is

something that you could maybe even translate into like your

LinkedIn profile. You've got that like paragraph on LinkedIn

or your social media that can you can say a little bit about

yourself. Yeah, I mean, it talking about one of your

proudest moments would be a really great thing to include in

that. Just to give somebody a sense of who you are, because

that's what they're looking for when they're trying to determine

what candidates to interview. But yeah, that's one thing that

we've been hearing from the job seekers in the marketer, like I

submit my resume and I don't hear anything back. And well,

it's unfortunate that sometimes that happens. For one reason or

another, the end employer doesn't like do an outreach on

every single applicant, it would be in your best interest to go

ahead and include as much as you can, especially if it's a job

that you really want. Like, there might be some that you're

applying for, and you're not quite sure, maybe this is right

for me, maybe this isn't. But for those ones that you really

are motivated and like, Okay, this, I can see this actually,

really, I can see myself interviewing for this position.

If you can see yourself interviewing for the position,

just go go full guns on it, you know, like, do a cover letter,

do a good resume, you know, like, organize your resume. So

that immediately fits the criteria that they're looking

for, as best you can. And, you know, reach out to someone at

the company over LinkedIn, say, hey, I'm interested in this

position. I submitted my resume, I want to, I want to, if you

could tell me more about the position, I'd love to hear about

it, you know, things like that.

Yeah, I love it. I was just thinking, as you were

saying that, um, I think in your cover letter, you know, we

talked, we talked about just describing your, you know,

proudest achievement. But what if you get really descriptive

with it, too. So I'm just thinking back to like, you know,

my example is like golf. But what if I let off you know,

like, you know, dear, you know, so and so, you know, my palms

were sweaty as I stood over... Me, that's not the right

example. But when, what would you say? Like, would that be a

really, you know, good descriptive with what you're

trying to say, go into detail? Oh,

That's interesting. It might be worth it'd be worth

a shot. I think you kind of have to mirror the culture of the

company that you're applying for. And the HR person that's

reading that cover letter may not be the right person for that

cover letter. But I do you remember working at previous

companies, like when I worked at a marketing firm, like, there

was a cover letter that went around the office. Sure. And it

was like, have you read that? That's amazing. This was

amazing. And they did hire that person. So I never actually got

to see the cover letter, the infamous cover letter, but, you

know, it was it was something that went around and everybody

was like, really excited about it. So it can it could pay off

in a really good way, depending on the role that you're looking

for.

Cool. I love it. Okay, any last words before we

sign off careers & coffee? This week? Yeah,

I just think you know, keep at it guys. This is

this is a really rough time of February in Iowa. It's like the

winters giving everything of its last moments at us. And it just

it's easy to kind of look out the window and be like, nope,

not today. But if you keep at it, there's a lot of roles that

are a lot of new postings that are happening every day in our

community. So if there's not something today, let's let's say

positive something something's gonna be around the corner for

you that's gonna fit your skills. So and if you don't say

anything, reach out let's let's let's work together and try to

figure something out for you.

Yeah, you bet. Okay, was thanks a lot. Cheers.

Have a good rest of the afternoon.

You too, Dan. Talk to you soon.