Personally, I dread writing the cover letter. The resume is relatively easy. I can list facts about myself with no problem, but trying to win over an HR representative with a full page of pure writing always seems difficult. "Kairos and the Cover Letter" suggests writing with personality, rather than emulating a style. That's about all I took from this, as the article gave several examples but did not elaborate on them extensively. I guess the point is that you shouldn't be overzealous or cocky. Employers like competence, not cockiness. "Junk Cover Letters Kill Good Resumes," however, gave a lot of good tips. I never thought of taking such a personal approach, or even addressing the reader by their name. I always thought it was more respectful to start off with "to whom it may concern" or "dear sir or madam." Instructor Blog #3 makes a similar recommendation, but when calling to find out the name of the HR coordinator, I think I would either give them my name or call from a friend's number. Most (if not all) companies have caller ID, so if you make a shady phone call from your own phone, they might write that number down, link it to your resume later, and wonder why you weren't straightforward with them earlier.
I also found it interesting that the cover letter is supposed to expand upon the resume, rather than repeat information. I think that in the past I have been more repetitive than anything. While drafting my resume this time around, however, I felt constrained at times. It seemed as though I couldn't include all the information that I wanted to in those short bullet points. Now I see that the cover letter gives me an opportunity to further convey that information, and I may even condense some of the notes on my resume to make it more reader-friendly.
Tone is also an important factor, and the instructor blog gives good examples of this. In the workplace, people can easily pick up a reputation as being lazy or unmotivated. If an HR coordinator feels that you lack self-motivation, then they aren't likely to hire you at all. Therefore, I think it's very important to research the company, become familiar with their practices, and display your eagerness for making valuable contributions to the business.
The Art of calling someone on the phone R5
I find it weird that you would go as far as to use someone else's phone to call a job just in case you make an awkward call. I doubt very much that you could mess up a phone call to the point that they would write down your number just to weed out your resume. The fact that job-finding can come to this point of espionage speaks to how stressful the whole process is. I think the point of the cover letter is to be relaxed and come off in the letter just as the person you are.
Shane
Still Lost
Then explain the significance of the note from the instructor blog, "call the company's HR department to find out if you can get it (you don't have to give your name on the phone)." Personally, I have no problem with calling HR and giving them my name. My point was that I didn't understand why we were being told that we didn't have to give them our name. Are we trying to be secretive? And if so, why? If leaving your name is some sort of HR turn-off, then I would certainly suggest calling from a different number than the one on your resume.
Calling HR
Maybe I read this part of the blog incorrectly, but I took their comment to mean that you wouldn't be required to give your name, not that you shouldn't or should lie about it. Chances are, an HR department, particularly for a larger corporation, gets calls every day (and maybe even all day) requesting a name to submit cover letters & resumes to. There's no shame or harm in calling and asking for this name, and really, the conversation can't possibly go too far, so I agree, you couldn't possibly mess up as bad as them weeding you out of the search for this one phone call. Do note, however, that if you give your name, it may jog their memory when they see your resume later, and a pleasant interaction might give you points later on. That being said, there's a good chance your resume won't be even be submitted to the same person you talked to on the phone, and I highly doubt that any HR employee would even ask for you name. I have called to get a name before and it was a quick, simple transaction where I got an automatic response from the person who answered the phone. I don't think there's any reason to be secretive or furtive about doing so. The company knows what you're doing, and if anything, they'll probably appreciate the fact that you took the time to call and find the information you needed.
Kristin
Screwed Right Off the Bat
For me, making my resume (without revisions) was easy as pie. It was not hard to write down all of my accomplishments and facts about myself. All I had to do was write down my contact information, school experience, and work experience. But to have to write an entire page about why you are the best candidate for a company is a much harder task. The cover letter shows a company why you think you are the best, but if the reasons you put are not what they are looking for, then you are screwed right off the bat.
The hardest part of making my cover letter will be tailoring my body paragraphs to resemble what the employer is looking for.
Not so bad
I found, after some initial hesitance, that pulling together a cover letter was not so bad. I liked the idea that the cover letter is a bridge between your resume and the job. Keeping this in mind, I tried to elaborate on some experiences from my resume in terms of the job I’m applying for. I think some of the readings led us to believe that the resume and cover letter are completely separate documents, and should not overlap at all. I completely disagree with that, and think it is 100% ok to pull information from your resume to elaborate upon. To me, a resume tells a recruiter the “what”, a cover letter tells them the “why”.