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Ask Brad: Does Anyone Ever Read Cover Letters?

Recruiters See Same Template Repeatedly so Get Creative and Make Yours Stand Out

By Brad Karsh Published: July 02, 2007

Q: Does anyone ever read cover letters?
A: I know exactly how your cover letter reads. It's a single-spaced, full-page, four-paragraph letter, organized as follows:

Paragraph 1: How I heard about the job
Paragraph 2: Why I want the job
Paragraph 3: My qualifications for the job
Paragraph 4: How I'll follow up on the job

I also know you've taken what is already on your resume and simply rewritten it in paragraph form.

How do I know this? Because virtually every single job applicant writes the exact same cover letter.

C'mon folks, this is advertising -- show a shred of creativity.

Recruiting directors are flooded with resumes and spend about 15 seconds looking at each one individually. Now try tacking on a full-page, extremely boring document that basically says what is already on the resume. How many cover letters do you think actually get read?

That being said, you still need to create one. It shows that you are interested in the job and are willing to take the time and effort to write something. It is also a tremendously underutilized chance for you to sell yourself.

But here is the trick: Make that letter work. Think about your cover letter as a teaser ad for your resume. It doesn't have to tell your entire life story, but it does need to attract interest in your resume. Keep it short; make some sentences just a few words, and make some paragraphs one sentence. Write it very personally, and be conversational.

You need to catch their attention in the first sentence or two so they actually read on and give your resume extra review time. But beware: There is a fine line between clever and stupid.

Here is a sample letter. You will quickly see the difference between this one and the typical cover letter:

Dear Ms. Marhula:

Donald Duck almost ruined my life.

Now don't get me wrong, I love that flat-billed fowl, but he gave me some fits when it came to a massive McDonald's commercial shoot I was running.

As the Account Supervisor responsible for the project, I coordinated a $5 million-plus production effort featuring Disney characters and NFL football players helping sell a new McDonald's product.

It was the most intense project I had ever worked on. We produced a 60-second spot, five 30-second spots and more than a dozen regional versions of an ad that had to be approved by McDonald's, Disney and the NFL. If that wasn't hard enough, we completed it all in six weeks -- from concept to finished ads.

To cap it all off, our friend Donald didn't help much -- he had some issues saying "Two all beef patties" -- but in the end we worked it out.

Most people would flinch (or quit), but I actually loved it. Now I'm anxious to share my strong work ethic and passion with your company. I'll plan to follow up in one week.

Regards,

Milo Jay

This certainly isn't the perfect cover letter for everyone (don't just copy it), but it does give you a sense of what to do.

Often, it is helpful to think about your elevator speech or your personal story. If you had a few seconds with a recruiting director to tell him about yourself, what would you say? Keep it short and personal, and let some of your personality shine through.

posted by Thanh Truc @ 5:42 PM 0 comments

Power Napping: How To Fall Asleep Anywhere .

Most people enjoy a good nap now and then, but are you really utilizing their full power?

A correctly performed nap can give you a great boost in energy, focus, and concentration, but a poorly executed nap can leave you groggy and more tired than when you started.

Several cultures around the world use a “siesta” in the afternoon to stay productive, and many workers in the U.S. have reported success avoiding afternoon drowsiness with a nap. Some people (myself included) have even excelled on nothing but six well times naps per day, during polyphasic sleep.

Taking six naps per day has given me a chance to design the perfect nap.

Get the timing right

The single most important aspect of a nap is making it the right length, and it requires a little background explanation to understand why.

It turns out that dreaming is the most important part of sleep. Test subjects who were deprived of dreams (meaning they were woken up when they started to dream, but otherwise allowed to sleep as much as they wanted) performed on tests as if they had not slept at all.

Furthermore, the longer they were deprived of dreams, the more frequently their brains attempted to start dreaming. Mice who were deprived of dreams for more than a few weeks died!

You may have noticed this on your own if you ever took a quick nap, and vividly remembered your dreams afterwards. When exhausted, you will tend to dream more.

So what does this all mean? It means that your goal during a nap is to enter the REM sleep phase quickly (this is where most dreaming occurs), and to wake up as soon as the REM sleep phase is over. If you sleep past the REM phase you’ll enter deeper phases of sleep and it will be really difficult to get up!

The only reason this is difficult is that everyone sleeps differently. For most people, their optimal nap time (where they can wake up just as they finish REM) is between 15 and 30 minutes, but you’ll have to test to find yours precisely.

What makes it more difficult is that you have to take into account how long it takes you to fall asleep. When you are first perfecting your naps, it could take quite a while to fall asleep, so I’d suggest starting with a 30-35 minute nap, and working your way down.

Don’t be surprised if after a 30 minute nap you are exhausted. You may have gone right through REM into a deeper sleep phase. It will feel like being woken up in the middle of the night, and during these times I’ve had trouble with even the most basic tasks like keeping my balance or forming sentences.

Each day, try a different length of nap, reducing the time by 3-5 minutes, and record your energy levels. As you learn to fall asleep quicker, and close in on your optimal time, you’ll notice a remarkable thing: it’s possible to wake up from a nap totally refreshed and alert!

This is the sweet spot you are searching for. Next week, I’ll delve further into optimal light and sound conditions for power napping, and show you a little trick I use to fall asleep anywhere (airports, desks, couches, etc).

Brian Armstrong is an entrepreneur who sleeps 2-3 hours per day using polyphasic napping. He became financially free running his own business at the age of 23, and today seeks to help others quit the 9-to-5 corporate world to start their own business. For more great tips visit his blog.
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This is part 2 of my post from last week on how to design the perfect nap.

Today, I’d like to continue by talking about how you can fall asleep no matter where you are. This is useful for napping in airports, couches, or at your desk if need be.

The trick is the use sleep MP3’s such as these. They are essentially MP3’s that play white noise for the duration of the nap, and then slowly wake you up by playing a variety of sounds. Whats great is that you can play them on your computer speakers, or make them portable by putting them on your iPod or cell phone.

They are so helpful (and far superior to a traditional alarm clock) for a few reasons.
It’s too easy to make mistakes when setting an alarm for a nap. Alarm clocks are designed to be changed rarely, and used over and over at the same time each day. The math that is required to count x minutes ahead and get all the buttons right, while being sleep deprived, is just asking for errors.

Napping is not dependent on the time of day, it’s dependent on the length. The length of the mp3 never changes, so it is as simple as pressing play to get it right.

These mp3’s use white noise to block out other sounds and and soothe you to sleep. When I first heard it, I found it a little bit annoying, but I quickly grew to enjoy the sound, and it works better than earplugs to block out unwanted noises.

They wake you up gradually. Some start with relaxing clucking of chickens or a rooster, then play some music, and end with loud explosions and a human voice letting you know it’s time to get up if you still haven’t gotten up. This is much more effective (and pleasant) than a single tone that you will angrily turn off.

They are portable. I have one of these MP3’s on my blackberry so if I need to fall asleep, I just put in my standard headphones and I’m out. You can also carry them on your iPod.

Some finals tips for the perfect nap:

If you are sensitive to light, you may want to combine this with a sleep mask which will block out the light.

Make sure you are as warm as possible, since just having cold feet or hands can be enough to prevent sleep.

Finally, if you normally like to sleep on your side, and you don’t have a pillow handy, you may have to try sleeping on your back. This will allow your head to be in a natural position without a pillow.

Even though I never sleep on my back in bed, I’m able to nap in this position, so give it a try.

posted by Thanh Truc @ 5:24 PM 0 comments