Funny thing happened today. I got a ridiculous number of – frankly – horrible cover letters this morning. I was starting to wonder if I’d fallen into some weird nexus of bad grammer and poor decision making, when I received the letter below – so well written that I knew I was going to talk to this person if they were even _remotely_ qualified for the role. It’s clearly written for the position being applied for, it’s personable – but not too much, no typos – I could go on, but instead I’ll let it speak for itself (with the permission from the author – they just asked that I use the name “Max Power” in place of their real name):
Hi,
I saw your posting on craigslist for the QA Engineer position so I’m submitting my resume for review. I have some experience in QA although it’s been a few years since I’ve actually had “QA” in my job description. But despite that, I feel that it applies to nearly every position that I’ve held.
I’m currently a Web Developer and I get to build online courses in over ten languages, which is pretty interesting and it requires attention to detail. Dealing with several pages of text in Thai can get a bit confusing so it’s easy to overlook small details like shifting an image two pixels to the right. After doing this for awhile I started to wonder if maybe I’m becoming too picky about the details. Or maybe I should find an outlet to express my nitpicking tendencies. Such as when I was a Test Developer many moons ago and I was encouraged to look for problems, no matter how small. I really enjoyed being able to use one of my strengths and to help improve an already great product. Now, seeing this job posting, I think it’s a great opportunity to get back into something that I enjoyed doing and that I was good at.
I think that I can help ZoomInfo because I’m detail-oriented, a quick learner and I have the mind-set. Although I may not have the years of necessary experience, I’m hopeful that you’ll give me a chance. One of the best things about my career has been that I’ve always had the opportunity to do the job because people were willing to give me a chance and I hate to disappoint. I’ve attached my resume as a text file so please take a look at it. I hope that I can speak with someone a little more about the position and the company. If so I’ll try to bring some interesting stories – like how I scored four touch downs in one game.
Thanks for your time and I hope to hear from you soon.
Sincerely,
Max Power
October 11, 2007 at 7:50 am
Interesting point regarding cover letters. I admit to having gotten lazy recently. However, it feels like the majority of firms now use some sort of online recruiting system or a generic email address that is just sucking up your information into a black hole. The de-personalization of the process has gone both ways I believe.
Any advice on how to better present yourself in these situations?
Thanks,
Barrett
October 11, 2007 at 8:37 am
Hey Barrett – just wrote a loooong answer to this, then realized I should make it a post. Will be up shortly
October 11, 2007 at 8:42 am
[...] — recruiter “Barrett” just asked me what I thought was a great question on this post about cover letters, and figured people out there might have a similar one – here’s his Q and [...]
July 1, 2008 at 1:35 pm
By the way – we hired Barrett a while ago. He rocks.
January 14, 2009 at 10:39 am
Just personal opinion, I liked it. I respect this person’s honesty and this letter reflects his personality He must be a great QA.
Actually I was searching for a different kind of lover letter for myself on Google and I found this. But when I saw comments at top I started thinking some people making fun of my own cover letter’s typo and grammar. But is it something important point to hire a QA Engineer which preposition, he is using and in which accent he sings? After all he is not applying for a Washington Post Proofreader or trying to replace Brain Williams for Nightly news.
January 14, 2009 at 4:10 pm
To my mind, a QA person who doesn’t proofread and/ or catch mistakes is probably not very effective at catching bugs – they’re supposed to be hyper aware of mistakes, and how to catch them. Communication matters as well in QA: you have to be able to find issues and communicate their existence, severity, etc al to others on a regular basis. Frankly, knowing how to communicate (oral and written) is critical if you want to succeed in your career.
And, yes: you are getting ruled out on a regular basis if your grammar & spelling fails when you apply for a job. This is a highly competitive market for jobs right now, and companies are looking for reasons rule you out.
March 10, 2009 at 12:42 pm
[...] recruiter Martin Burns has A Great Example of a Cover Letter that he received. While this letter can’t be the model for everyone (Don’t just cut and [...]
March 10, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Thanks – can’t underestimate the value of a good approach that gets you noticed (in a good way).