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  • A bad cover letter could prevent you from getting the job even if you've got a strong resume.

  • In this video, we sit down with three experts to figure out how to make your cover letter work for you.

  • We're going to make sure you pass into the interview process.

  • If you're one of my non-native students looking for an English lesson, at the end of the video,

  • we'll go over some idioms and phrasal verbs that were used in the interviews.

  • Steve is a local small business owner who's done a lot of hiring for his company.

  • He knows what he's looking for and I thought it was interesting what he said a cover letter does.

  • In your opinion what can a cover letter do that a resume can't?

  • A cover letter, I think it helps start a conversation and can be more personal.

  • The resume feels often to me like a series of your history, of your work history,

  • and the cover letter feels like, if done right, can be a good way to start a conversation,

  • let people know what you've done, what you've accomplished.

  • I've never heard, heard it that way, as starting a conversation but I like the idea of that.

  • It starts a conversation it can be more personal if done right. How do you do it right?

  • Here, I sit down with Cindy, who in her career as an executive director,

  • has interviewed and hired literally hundreds of people.

  • I think it's safe to say she's read thousands of cover letters.

  • Thousands.

  • What does she have to say about a standout cover letter?

  • A cover letter that stands out to me is one that has been personalized for the job and for the role.

  • And so it's one that generally early on in the cover letter, expresses why somebody wants that job,

  • it's the one thing that you can't put in your resume.

  • Why?

  • It's a compelling question and it does feel like it's a question that leads to conversation.

  • If you've spent any amount of time around a small child, you know this question gets asked a lot.

  • Why?

  • It's how a child begins to understand his world.

  • This employer is trying to understand you.

  • Why you?

  • They have hundreds of people who want this job.

  • Before writing your cover letter, sit down and ask yourself why you want the job.

  • Write down every idea that comes to mind.

  • It's just a brainstorming session so don't judge your own answers, just write down everything.

  • You never know what one idea will lead to.

  • Maybe, your perfect answer.

  • Then do the same for this question.

  • Why should the employer hire you?

  • Brainstorm without judgment.

  • When you're done with your brainstorms, look at your lists.

  • Pull the clearest, most compelling, most unique, and truest points,

  • and write these into the beginning of your cover letter.

  • Remember, a potential employer might not read your whole cover letter. Hook them at the beginning.

  • I sat down with a career advisor, who stressed that what you really want to focus on

  • is answering the question why an employer would want you. She has specific advice on how to do this.

  • Make a case for yourself.

  • She talks here about students who are just starting their careers,

  • but this definitely applies to any cover letter for any job,

  • and also relating that to your resume that you've worked so hard on.

  • Laura, do you have any advice on how to help students put together the best cover letter and resume possible,

  • especially if they're just starting out with their career and don't have much experience?

  • You need to think about what the employer wants and then you have to make a case for yourself.

  • So don't expect the employer to

  • interpret your resume the way you want to interpret it, or to

  • read a cover letter the way that you want them to read it.

  • You have to connect the dots for them and make a case for why you're the best candidate for the position.

  • That means that you're doing a lot of targeting for that particular position.

  • And when I say targeting, I mean you are changing your resume to use certain keywords that

  • would fit with the job description.

  • You are shifting things around in your resume so that the most important things are at the top.

  • You're shifting things around so that anything that is relevant rises to the top half of your resume

  • because employers typically spend around thirty seconds on a resume.

  • There's just no time at all, so there has to be something that catches their eye and rules them in further.

  • And then in a cover letter, even more so, you're connecting the dots.

  • So you're taking the experiences that you have that are most relevant from your resume

  • and you're highlighting them in a cover letter,

  • and you're explaining why that experience prepares you for this particular position.

  • I think one of the biggest challenges students face is that they try to explain why they want the job

  • and focus more on that than why they're qualified for the job.

  • Interesting.

  • Employers may care, most employers do care why you want it,

  • but not nearly as much as what you can do for me as an employer.

  • So focusing more on what I have to offer and showing them what that is rather than just telling them.

  • So don't tell me as an employer "I have good communication skills".

  • I can read that through your bullets in your resume.

  • Tell me what you did that proves that you have good community skills.

  • So I think making that case for yourself by showing examples and not just telling me is very important.

  • I love the point that you don't want to leave it up to interpretation.

  • You want your cover letter to be crystal clear with examples.

  • Think about the number one thing you want this person to know about you.

  • Get really specific.

  • Have an example why do they want you.

  • Don't just list qualities, list examples that support those qualities.

  • What makes a bad cover letter?

  • And what do you do if English isn't your first language?

  • What stands out on the bad side is something that says "to whom this concerns", or some generic start,

  • and then something that has clearly not been personalized for this role in any way whatsoever like,

  • or worse, it actually has a different job written in it.

  • >> That hasn't been changed yet. >> Oh, gosh. Okay, like a copy and paste error.

  • Correct.

  • The other thing you're looking for in a cover letter and the resume is, can somebody write

  • in a way that is compelling, that has no errors, that is clean.

  • Like you are looking at the writing, but that's not going to get you a job, it is going to

  • potentially not get you an interview, right?

  • But the content is important as to like why do you want this job, what's compelling to you about this?

  • What if the content was great and the grammar wasn't perfect?

  • It depends a little bit on the job and how unperfect it is.

  • So if it's really poor grammar consistently through,

  • I think it's unlikely that somebody's going to get an interview.

  • So that part is really important.

  • What if it's a non-native speaker?

  • Like is there an allowance for that, would you say?

  • It depends on the job.

  • So it depends on: does this person need to produce writing that has no grammar mistakes for their job?

  • In which case, it's unlikely.

  • If this is a role in which being a bilingual person is a part of the requirements, then yes I think there there's room.

  • But it depends.

  • And it depends on like, is this a role where there's no writing involved at all?

  • Right.

  • Then I think there's a lot more allowance for that.

  • A lot of the jobs that I’ve hired for are jobs that require writing for the part of it, and knowing that you're not,

  • you know, good in editing and mistakes. But I’ve also hired for several bilingual positions,

  • and in which case, I do think there's more allowance for sure.

  • Or, so you're saying if it's a job where they're going to be relying much more on

  • speaking verbally with somebody in person, writing doesn't matter as much, then...

  • It doesn't matter as much, I think it's, it's tricky, it's worth getting your cover letter and your resume

  • reviewed by a native English speaker.

  • Because you don't have the ability to do a first impression at that point in person.

  • And so if you're looking at tons of letters, those things do matter.

  • And they do, I mean, I do think there are allowances depending on the on the job but ultimately,

  • like that also shows your attention to detail, it shows your thoroughness, like

  • your ability to find somebody to review it for you,

  • and the fact that you did that, all of that matters, and it's going to show in your cover letter, your resume.

  • Yeah, I totally agree.

  • It's like, how much effort did this person put into it? That's part of what you're looking for.

  • So make sure you're writing the cover letter specific to the job.

  • Look at the job description as you're writing. Make sure you're making a case for yourself on the actual skills

  • and experience they want for that position.

  • And whether you're a native speaker of English or not, ask someone to proofread it for you.

  • They can look for things like typos and grammar mistakes,

  • but then they can all so tell you if something isn't clear.

  • They can say I don't understand what you mean by this.

  • Then you'll want to change the wording.

  • You want to make sure the person reading your cover letter knows exactly what you mean.

  • If you're in college, visit the career center for advice.

  • I have a feeling they have resources for you, people who can help you do your cover letter or resume.

  • What do you do with your cover letter if you're just starting out?

  • You don't have much experience to draw from.

  • And then for a student that has very little experience, you can highlight all kinds of things.

  • So a lot of students will only think about work experience as relevant to a resume.

  • But most students have some kind of volunteer experience, or they've had a summer job,

  • or they did an independent project somehow, they tutored a friend's child, they babysat.

  • So anything that you can pull out of your experience and relate some of your transferable skills,

  • which transferable skills are skills that you may have gained in babysitting,

  • and aren't directly related to doing administrative work in a law firm, but there may be some connection.

  • So it's how you frame it and again, making a case for why it's relevant to the position.

  • Frame it.

  • Think of important past experience and what skills you needed or developed in that experience.

  • Then do what we've already said.

  • Get specific about those skills with examples, and write them into your cover letter.

  • Taking time and carefully writing your best cover letter and resume

  • will give you the best chance of landing an interview.

  • In the next videos in this course, we'll go over how to prepare for the job interview.

  • There are real and concrete things you can do to prepare and impress that will make a difference.

  • If you don't do them, the interviewer will notice and will likely not choose you for the position.

  • For my non-native students, we're going to get to your English lesson in just a minute.

  • If you haven't already, be sure to click the subscribe button and the bell for notifications.

  • I make new videos on the English language and American culture every Tuesday,

  • and have over 600 videos on my channel to date

  • focusing on listening comprehension, and accent reduction.

  • While you're waiting for next week's video, a great next step would be to check out this get started playlist.

  • Now, let's go over some of the idioms and phrasal verbs you heard in these interviews today.

  • Laura used two phrases.

  • "Connect the dots" and "make the case".

  • Connecting the dots literally is an exercise that children do to practice fine motor skills

  • and following numbers in a sequence.

  • But in an idiom, that means to see the bigger picture from details, or to relate one idea to another.

  • Let's listen to how Laura used it.

  • So don't expect the employer to

  • interpret your resume the way you want it interpreted or

  • to read a cover letter the way that you want them to read it.

  • You have to connect the dots for them and make a case for why you're the best candidate for the position.

  • She said 'you have to connect the dots for them',

  • don't leave it up to the employer to figure out how your experience relates to what they want.

  • Connect the dots for them.

  • Make those connections clear yourself and not open to interpretation.

  • She also said 'make the case for'.

  • This phrase means to convince someone of something, to give you reasons,

  • to make a strong argument for someone to choose something. In this example,

  • you're making the case for an employer to hire you.

  • You're convincing that person that they want to choose you out of all of the applicants.

  • Let's listen to Laura’s example one more time.

  • So don't expect the employer to

  • interpret your resume the way you want it interpreted or

  • to read a cover letter the way that you want them to read it.

  • You have to connect the dots for them and make a case for why you're the best candidate for the position.

  • Cindy and I both used the phrasal verb 'to stand out'.

  • What makes the cover letter stand out for you?

  • A cover letter that stands out to me is one that has been personalized for the job and for the role.

  • Can you tell what it means?

  • It means to separate from something.

  • In this case, all the other applicants.

  • You want to stand out from all the other applicants because you want the job, you want them to notice you.

  • But maybe there are times when you don't want to be noticed.

  • You just want to blend in.

  • Then you could say I don't want to stand out, I just want to be like everyone else.

  • Let's listen to the example one more time.

  • What makes the cover letter stand out for you?

  • A cover letter that stands out to me is one that has been personalized for the job and for the role.

  • Later, Cindy used the word 'tons' idiomatically.

  • If you're looking at tons of letters, those things do matter.

  • A ton is 2,000 pounds.

  • So, Cindy said if you're looking at tons of letters, meaning cover letters,

  • of course she doesn't literally mean she's weighed the letters. She means a lot, many, many, many.

  • This is how we use this word; it has nothing to do with physical weight, but rather, quantity.

  • For example, I get tons of emails every day.

  • Another way I could have said that was "I get a ton of emails every day".

  • 'A ton ofand 'tons of' mean the same thing.

  • They can be used interchangeably.

  • Don't be afraid to use these expressions in your own everyday English.

  • That's it and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.

A bad cover letter could prevent you from getting the job even if you've got a strong resume.

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