The Importance of Writing a Boffo Cover Letter

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For the past year, I've been busy trying to find a good, well paying job. It's been challenging because I'm an older worker, and I am frequently not even considered once the resume readers realize I remember Richard Nixon.

A few years ago, I went back to school to finish my degree, and that has helped tremendously because the resume readers see that I graduated in 2019 not 1978 when I first went to journalism school. 

Despite all efforts -- upgrading my education, getting a secret security clearance, and rehabilitating my credit destroyed by years of working for sketchy clients who I had to chase to get paid -- I couldn't get to third base with recruiters. 

Bottom line: I simply couldn't get didn't any job interviews. 

Then I remembered my training as a correspondence assistant in the Prime Minister's Office where I worked when the current Prime Minister was still in short pants. The valuable training I received has served me well over time, as both a writer and as a communicator.

That was 40 years ago. It was so long ago, I'd forgotten how valuable a good cover letter can be.

I recently landed a big job interview on the basis of this letter, and I wanted to share it with all the discouraged and down-trodden folk who are toiling, as I am now, at the picnic table and scouring the job ads looking for work.

(Full disclosure: The letter didn't get me the job. Once the recruiter eye-balled me, she realized my last eggs had long hatched, and I did indeed remember Richard Nixon.)

Dear Sir or Madame: 

I am responding to your advertisement on Indeed for a senior writer/deputy editor. I would like to be considered for this temporary position.

 

A few years ago, I hit a wall. For decades, I managed, through a combination of my own wiliness and determination, to escape checking the box that said university graduate. It wasn’t difficult given my past experience as a journalist. I had, after all, been a columnist for three Canadian newspapers, a senior consultant and speechwriter in Ottawa and Toronto, and a person with infinite connections in journalism, government, and the private sector. 

 

Being a freelancer for most of my life helped things. I managed to zig zag along an exciting path that exposed me to many subjects: medicine, academia, music, the environment, human resources, career training and certification, end-of-life care, public safety, and the law. 

 

Like most journalists, I’m a quick study and a master of nothing. I usually know little of the subject matter of an interview going in, but come out the other end as an instant expert. 

You have to be a quick study, and a dogged gumshoe in order to get the very best, interesting and accurate story – otherwise, you and your career are toast.

 

But I learned the hard way that experience is no longer enough. 

 

In recent years, work as a writer/editor has become harder and harder to find. Experienced writers have discovered the generations who once nipped at our heels, are now eating our legs, our bodies, and are closing in on our heads. They are smarter (thanks to the Internet), more savvy about the world, and are fluently bilingual. And nearly all of them have the one thing that I didn’t – a degree. 

 

And so I got one, in 2019. After working with Carleton University’s superb admissions experts, I managed to cobble together enough credits from my past foray into academia to earn a Bachelor’s degree in Open Studies and I now proudly display my degree in my office, and more importantly, on my resume. 

 

I’m telling you this because I want you to know that being a university graduate matters, more than ever, not just because it can get you a job; it’s more than that. Having a degree has given me more confidence, a quiet dignity, and self-respect. It allowed me to encourage my son to return to school after a ten-year absence. (He will be graduating next year.)

 

I like to think getting that degree made me whole. 

 

This experience has also given me the confidence to apply for jobs, including this one, that have seemed beyond my reach. I believe I now have the experience, and credentials, to be an ideal candidate for this position. 

 

I have spent many years interviewing academics and clinicians, and writing about their work, and the impact their research will have on the real world. I believe the key to a successful interview is to be well prepared, and to meet the professor, researcher, or university executive at their level, to engage them, and draw them out with a variety of interview techniques I have learned along the way. By the end of most interviews, my subjects compliment me on the time I took to listen to them instead of reading a page of set questions.

 

I am, at my heart, inquisitive and entrepreneurial. I am also dependable, honest, and good humored. 

 

I can write news, features, columns, and tweets. My best work comes in around 2,000 words. 

 

If you think I might be a good candidate for this position, I would be thrilled to talk to you. In the meantime, stay well, and stay safe.