5 proposals “instead” of the Cover Letter

You don’t have the heart to write cover letters ? You don’t know how to start or you are never satisfied with the result? Do you think nobody covers the letters? Are you looking for a more creative form of word than a letter? Instead of the traditional Cover Letter, you can use several other interesting tools – but remember to match them well with the position you are applying for and the company you want to get to.

While for the employer, CV is a necessary element of recruitment, the traditional Cover Letter is not always. On the other hand, this results from making decisions about the meeting on the basis of hard education / experience criteria – which can already be seen in the CV , the recruiter’s decision remains unchanged.

On the other hand, the lack of interest in Cover Letters results from the discouragement caused by the fact that instead of Cover Letter, candidates send “cliché-and-copied-from-the-internet-letters-that-don’t-bring-anything”.

However, there are situations when the Cover Letter , or one of its forms, is necessary. This will be the case when:

  • We want to show our creativity
  • We apply for a job in which we do not have formal, documented experience, but we still meet the criteria or know each other well (e.g. we are a programmer – a self-taught person who has neither professional education nor has ever worked as a programmer, but we have knowledge and big talent)
  • We face huge competition for a given position and to be noticed, we have to stand out.
  • We have a vague CV due to interruptions in employment and we want to explain them

If you don’t want to write a traditional Cover Letter, you can use the following tools:

1. Power Point presentation

Relatively most commonly found in applications. Sometimes the presentation is sent instead of the CV – which is not a good idea – the recruiter may then get lost in the chronology of events and besides, he has difficulty preparing information about the candidate in the form of a printout. As a CV, we avoid presentations, but we can perfectly use it as a cover letter. The presentation allows you to show not only our knowledge of modern tools, but also to present our creativity, sense of taste, accuracy. And what we put in the presentation allows us to create and make us remember better than the person who will send an ordinary CV.

What to remember when creating a presentation?

  • The graphic page must be as interesting as the content layer.Even the best substantive presentation will not impress if graphically it is poor.
  • The presentation should be guided by the goal, so before you add your photos or start describing the reasons why you want to work for a given company, think about what image you want to build.
  • The presentation does not have to be dedicated to a specific company, but … changing the title page by adding the company logo to which you apply will result in your presentation being “prepared specially for a given company”.
  • The presentation is a less standard form of self-expression through the application – but this does not mean that it makes sense to include information about how many cats you have and how you look in a swimsuit.

What positions is the presentation suitable for?

For positions related to marketing, public relations, sales (remember about sales charts), customer service, personnel management, creation.

2. Email content

The presentation requires work and willingness. If you do not want to get tired and at the same time you do not want to write a cover letter, remember to use for communication the email in which you send your CV . A “bare” CV, sent without a word in the body of the email, is unlikely to impress (unless your experience ideally fits the candidate’s profile and you meet all the criteria with a vengeance). As a rule, however, there are few such people. Therefore, it is always worth using the space in the email to briefly introduce yourself from the page that the recruiter in the CV does not.

In the content of the e-mail we can easily enter such information as: our soft skills, why we run for this company, what are our goals. In the email we can also enter a link to our portfolio or brands for which we worked. It is worth using in such an e-mail the keywords that encourage the recruiter to open the CV. Such words can be the phrases “industry experience”, “x years of experience in the industry / position”, “sales successes at the level of …” and all other phrases directly related to the experience expected by employers.

The advantage of an entry in the email over the Cover Letter is based on several issues:

  • The content of the e-mail will almost always be read
  • In the body of the e-mail we write more specifically, wanting and not wanting, we avoid typical LM errors of spilling water and writing off-topic.
  • E-mail is easier to write than LM and it is much harder to make mistakes in it and enter a different business address than the one to which we send the CV (a mistake quite common for people sending the same Cover Letter to many companies).

For which positions is the broader description in the e-mail content suitable?

Practically for everyone. Let’s also remember that if we send an application with the Cover Letter in the attachment, then in the e-mail we write – even casually – “Hello, I am sending the application for the position … Regards”

3. Video

Modern technologies allow you to create something completely new – Cover Letter in the form of a CV. Contrary to appearances, you don’t need any special equipment to create it – all you need is a webcam. The file is then placed on Youtube, and in order not to let our speech watch the whole world, we password access.

The time it takes to create a movie will not be longer than creating a presentation at Power Point, and it gives you a lot of possibilities – we can immediately show how we are, how we speak, how we look, and above all, the use of such a tool shows that we do not lack imagination, courage and … knowledge of modern tools.

When recording a movie, remember about the right outfit, preparing the script and rehearsing our presentation to present yourself as naturally as possible.

What positions is the movie suitable for?

For all those where presence counts, the ability to make contact with other people, presentation skills and public speaking.

4. Website

Instead of a traditional cover letter, you can try to create your own website. Even if you do not have webmaster skills, you can use free templates, which is provided by, for example, Google. Using the website, we can present our portfolio, describe our skills and features, discuss our motivation to work for a specific company. The website does not have to be permanently visible on the Internet – access to it can be passworded – then, along with your CV, you provide a link, login and password in the email.

What positions is the website suitable for?

First of all, for positions related to creation (graphic designer, artist, musician, journalist) and the IT industry (the ability to place fragments of the written code, describe the most-solved problems with network administration). Anyone can have their own website – especially if they combine it with running their own expert blog, which will allow them to create a specialist.

5. The poem

A very non-standard and risky way, which, however, happened to me several times in my life. A good idea for employees of creative departments – marketers, PR specialists, Copywriters and people who want to work in the art industry and advertising agencies.

Breakneck method, because it requires brilliant talent. A well-versed cover letter for the position of Copy, if it is well written, guarantees a conversation even if you have been a fish market seller before. Poor – provokes the rejection of the candidacy without even reading a CV. Therefore, before you send your Ode to Company X, give your poem to several people to read. Such a non-standard method is not recommended for corporations, where attention is paid to procedures and the ability to fit into the scheme.

When deciding to replace the Cover Letter with another way to present yourself and your willingness to work in a given company, it is worth considering the specificity of the company to which we apply. In large corporations, custom methods may not be welcome – especially when recruiting for low positions, where the ability to adapt to existing rules is also important.

 

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