Lessons to be learned from a cover letter gone viral

By now, most business students around the world have heard about the horrifyingly egotistical cover letter written for a summer analyst position at J.P. Morgan by an NYU student named Mark. We discussed it in my career planning class last Friday, and my students were unanimously shaking their heads in disbelief at the egotism and audacity conveyed in the letter.

However, a few minutes before handing them copies of the now infamous letter, I was explaining how a cover letter is a marketing tool, a way of promoting your abilities and qualifications to a prospective employer.  I explained that you need to make a case in your cover letter as to why the company should bring you in for an interview. So, I asked them, "Isn't that exactly what Mark did?"  The room got silent. It is a puzzling paradox because Mark did promote himself in his cover letter. The problem is that he took it to the extreme.

While it is easy to ridicule Mark's behavior with smug thoughts of, "How could he have been so stupid?", I'm sure that college students are secretly left wondering, "What is the appropriate way to write a cover letter?" They may become so fearful now of saying the wrong thing that they become paralyzed about cover letter writing or won't send them at all. And rightfully so. I'm sure they fear that their career prospects could as easily be jeopardized with the simple click of the forward button. They are probably equally as fearful about coming across as arrogant or egotistical in their cover letters. However, we have to be careful not to throw the baby out with the bath water here since appropriate self-promotion is a required part of the job and internship application process.

Having been a college career advisor for six years, I know students struggle with the concept of self-promotion in cover letter writing, and this story is only going to intensify the issue. I think it's partly due to the fact that they have been collaborative team players all of their lives and would never brag to teammates or friends. I always tell them that, although you wouldn't brag to your friends, it is perfectly fine, and necessary, to promote yourself to an employer if you want to get an internship or job. This concept may be particularly difficult for international students to grasp, whose native cultures engender and value humility.

Assuming Mark's cover letter is true, he does possess some excellent qualifications, and some parts of his letter are good.  The major problem with his letter is that his word choices present him as being superior, rather than qualified, "I am unequivocally the most unflaggingly hard worker I know."  And therein lies the problem. There is a huge difference between promoting your qualifications and egotism.

Listed below are my lessons to be learned from this unfortunate incident to protect your cover letter from going viral.

Have your cover letter reviewed by a career counselor. In their eagerness to apply for internships and jobs, some students skip the all too important step of having their cover letters reviewed by someone at their career center, especially when the application deadline is imminent. I always advise my students to have at least their first cover letter reviewed to make sure they're on the right track. Your college's career counselors will be able to give you a reality check and tell you if your cover letter is adequately conveying your qualifications, without coming across as egotistical.

Be careful what you put in writing.  This isn't the first time someone's career has been compromised due to the click of a forward and send button. Several years ago there was a prominent story about a lawyer who was told she would never find work in the legal field again because of some nasty emails she angrily fired off to a lawyer regarding a position she didn't get, who quickly forwarded her emails to everyone he knew in the legal community. This is a great professional lesson to learn in general, and the sooner you learn it, the better.

Don't use a generic cover letter.  Many students are tempted to use the same cover letter for every job and simply substituting the company name.  This is bad practice for many reasons (please see my previous posts about cover letters). With this approach, it is way too easy to forget to change the company name every time it appears in the letter.  This is exactly what happened to Mark when he wrote, "I hope to augment my character by diligently working for the professionals at Morgan Stanley." Um...the letter was addressed to J.P. Morgan.

Assume that your cover letter will be read.  When asked whether they read cover letters, recruiters' and hiring managers' responses vary widely. Some do and some don't, with the latter choosing to jump right to the resume instead. When writing your cover letter, however, you need to go on the assumption that it will be read, and you need to make it as strong as possible.  I always advise my students that their cover letters need to be so strong that, if read separately from their resume, they would make a solid case as to why the student should be brought in for an interview.

By following these tips, your cover letter is sure to gain notoriety...for all the right reasons.

Informational Interviews: Make it easy for them to say "Yes!"

In the past couple of weeks, I have been approached by two people to do informational interviews. Unfortunately, they were not executed in the best possible way to ensure a response.  Continue reading to see how you can avoid making these same mistakes.

One person left me a voice-mail message asking me if I would call her back. Because I am so busy, hardly ever use the phone anymore,  and communicate primarily through email, the chances that I will call her back are pretty slim.  She also didn't provide enough information about herself in the message so I really had no clue who was calling and why.

Later, a student who was writing an article for her school newspaper contacted me to get my perspective on the job market for college students. She did use email, which was better, but she listed her questions in the  email, which I was supposed to write out answers to. I found this approach to be somewhat impersonal and a significant time commitment.  It would have been much better if she had instead asked me if I had 15 minutes to discuss her questions, either in person or over the phone.  If she had, I would have gladly told her when I was available.

Do I want to help these people? Absolutely! Being a career counselor, obviously it's in my nature to want to help. If they had only made it easy for me to respond to them, things would have turned out a lot differently.

I always teach my students to send an email when contacting someone for an informational interview. Most people find it quick and easy to respond to an email. When reaching out to others for an informational interview, your goal should be to arrange a mutually convenient time where you can ask your questions, either in person or over the phone.  You should never put your list of questions in the email.  In your email, you can also state a little bit about yourself so the respondent has a basic idea of who you are and why you're contacting him or her.

Remember:  They're the ones doing you the favor so you need to do whatever you can to make it easy for them to help you.  By following my advice, you'll increase your chances of receiving a resounding "Yes!" to your request for information.

Key words are key to getting hired

This article from the Wall Street Journal (http://is.gd/zgMnhd) is an excellent reminder of the necessity of integrating industry key words into your resume and cover letter. As the author points out, the majority of  mid-size to larger firms are increasingly using text scanning software to identify qualified candidates. A great way to find industry key words is to read job descriptions for the positions you're interested and use as many of those key words as possible. 

A cool way to graphically see how well your resume or cover letter matches the job description is to copy and paste it into Wordle (http://www.wordle.net/). Then do the same for the job description.  In a matter of minutes, you'll get a visual graphic that pictorially displays whether or not you're a good fit for the job.

Why hiring managers don't like blind dates

I wrote an earlier post around the theme of "It's not who you know, but who knows you." My point was that job seekers need to get known by the employees in the companies they want to work in so that, when an opportunity becomes available, they will be one the first people who get called in for an interview.

Yesterday, I attended a webinar given by Dick Bolles, renowned author of the best-selling career book, What Color is Your Parachute (http://www.jobhuntersbible.com/.  One of the key points he made is that when companies are hiring, they want to minimize as much risk as possible, given the huge monetary investment they are making.  How do they do this?  The least risky hiring method for companies is to promote employees from within, Mr. Bolles stated.  It makes sense.  Managers know these employees well and have witnessed their quality of work firsthand.  And what do you think was the second least risky hiring method?  It was for companies to approach current employees for referrals of people who would be good candidates.  In fact, many companies award bonuses to current employees who refer a candidate that eventually gets hired.

Conducting informational interviewing is a great way to get known by a company, as I emphasized in the post below.  So is attending professional meetings and conferences pertinent to your field.   Think of it this way.  If you were going on a first date with someone new, which would you prefer: a blind date or a date with someone who was recommended by a friend?  I think the answer is obvious.

Informational interviewing pays off

If there's one piece of advice I could give you at the start of the new year, it would be to make a resolution to do an informational interview. Yesterday, a woman who wants to break into the career counseling field contacted me to do one.  I was immediately and immensely impressed by her professionalism, her proactive approach and her sincerity.  After speaking with her for only 30 minutes, I knew that she was passionate about pursuing a career as a career counselor and I found myself wanting to do everything I could to help her succeed.

I have always been a strong advocate of students conducting informational interviews and this experience made me realize again just how impactful they can be.  As the interviewee, I felt honored that this person, just starting out in her career, was consulting with me and valued my opinions and insights.  At the end of our conversation, I found myself telling her to contact me anytime at all if she had any further questions.  And I meant it.  Because I was so impressed with her, I had no doubt that she would be one of the first people I contacted should there ever be a vacancy in my department.

I hope that this story is enough to convince you of the value of doing informational interviews.  If you do your homework, approach the informational interview in a professional manner and demonstrate your passion for pursuing a career in that field (this is key!), I'm sure that you will make an equally strong impression.  Your interiewee, no doubt, will be as flattered as I was that you are seeking out his or her advice.

And so I invite you to make a New Year's resolution to conduct at least one informational interview this year.  I can guarantee you that you will be glad you did.  Remember, too, that informational interviewing isn't just for those starting out in their careers.  It is an extremely valuable tool that can help anyone who is looking to switch jobs or switch careers.