2nd (Cover) Letter

We've all been there.  We've all done that.  And if you're anything like me, you find a sick enjoyment in breaking down your professional life into its elemental form and rebuilding it in as few words as possible.  Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Cover Letter.

Of course, there are no rules to how one of these bad boys becomes a sophisticated savant, but in general there are a few guidelines:

• Keep it under one-page.  In fact, the shorter the better.
• Expand upon your amazing qualities that you couldn't fit into your resume but don't write it like a resume in narrative form.
• Each paragraph should take up about 4-5 lines on your paper.  This means you have to be concise.
• Read it aloud to yourself, then have someone else read it aloud.  Would you hire yourself with this letter?
• Be cool aka keep yourself wide open to suggestions.  Even if you're convinced that Web site is in proper form, don't freak out on your friend for helping your proofread (and actually, Associated Press recently changed the correct form from Web site to website).

Here's a never-before-seen excerpt from my ever-evolving cover letter (you saw it here first!):

"My internship with the Madison Children’s Museum occurred while the museum was in transition between locations and most of my efforts centered on organizing media coverage for the museum’s grand opening event.  I built relationships with writers at children’s websites and magazines in the Chicago and Minneapolis/St. Paul regions, and I used a creative marketing approach that integrated a variety of web-based media.  This worked to raise our raise our online visibility and actually increased event attendance."


Worried about grammar and other degrees of correctness?  Check out Associated Press' Style Guidebook.  It's pretty much the journalism bible, so you know it's legitimate.


Sincerely, J