Earlywork #30: Cover Letters Are Dying (Try These 4 Things Instead)
Featuring roles from Pearler, Clipboard & Airwallex + a One Minute Hustle with Sydney Yin (Creator @ The SproutCast)
Ello ello Earlyworkers!
Baked fresh for you today is Earlywork #30, a careers newsletter providing free career resources, news, jobs & interviews for young Australians in the tech & startup landscape.
We’ve got a spicier take for our Weekly Cheeky Tip, but before we dive in, here’s a roundup of what’s happening in the Earlywork community…
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💡Weekly Cheeky Tip:
In theory, cover letters are meant to be the “why” behind the resume, the story of what has led you to apply for a role.
But, increasingly, tech companies and startups are tossing them aside.
If you couldn’t already tell by the title, I ain’t too bullish on cover letters!
👎 Why cover letters suck
#1: High effort for every single application at an early stage of the process
Cover letters take a lot of energy for candidates at an early stage of the application process, well before candidates know whether they even have a half-decent shot at landing an interview, let alone the job.
To make matters worse, you require a unique document for every single company, unlike resumes where the same core document, with a few keyword tweaks/rearrangements, gets the job done.
Put it this way… imagine writing a formal marriage request to every single person you find attractive, BEFORE you know if they feel the same way.
#2: A lot of companies barely read them
I’m sure you’ve heard the classic rumours of ‘Recruiters spend an average of X seconds reading your resume’, where X seems to magically fluctuate depending upon who is telling me the story.
At the end of the day, however, it’s still the primary tool used to compare and assess candidates for most roles (the portfolio may be more relevant for designers & some engineers).
Cover letters seem to get even less attention, with a lot of companies just chucking them through an Applicant Tracking system and scraping keywords, or ignoring them altogether.
From Monster: “Only 18% of hiring managers rank the cover letter as an important element of the hiring process, Addison Group, a Boston-based employment agency, found.” Yikes. Optimise your energy elsewhere.
#3: They often contain redundant information
The traditionally expected format often involves repeating information that can already be found in your resume, and so the marginal value add is questionable. It often feels like an arbitrary formality for both parties.
#4: Written cover letters discourage creativity
A written cover letter isn’t necessarily the most engaging format to showcase your level of enthusiasm and passion for what the company is working on.
Video or real-world interaction (sike, COVID) have the advantage of richer emotional expression.
Those aside, there are other written content candidates can make that adds more value to companies or showcases a greater understanding of the company.
✨ So, where else can candidates prioritise their energy to stand out?
If you’re SUPER keen on a role and want to stand out, here are some alternative ideas on how you can better leverage your time to engage with companies instead of a formal written cover letter:
#1: LinkedIn & Twitter DMs
Why send a cover letter into an application portal black hole when you can just reach out to founders and employees at the companies you’re interested in via LinkedIn or Twitter and build real relationships?
On the internet, everyone is just a message away. Just be clear on who you are, why you’re reaching out, and what’s in it for them (effectively a mini-cover letter in of itself).
Learn more about the sort of work they do, see if there’s any way you can help them out, and ultimately ask if they’d be open to taking you on in some capacity.
Check out our practical step-by-step Guide To LinkedIn DMs, which includes 2 real-world examples of how I used LinkedIn to land startup roles.
#2: Video Cover Letter / Video Resume
An emerging format that challenges the status quo of a stuffy old document and adds a layer of human expressiveness in showcasing your personality, energy, facial expressions, gestures, etc.
This is a great opportunity to stand out from the crowd (especially when unprompted).
In particular, it’s a good fit for people-oriented roles like sales, marketing, customer success and people operations, where your ability to engage with others is your core skill.
Modern job platforms like Hatch are helping to spread the video cover letter as a new norm in Australia, and TikTok has even launched a separate website to send TikTok videos to companies as resumes.
#3: Engage With Additional Company Initiatives for Users
Oftentimes, companies will have channels to engage in a more high-touch manner with superfans and power users.
These can be your secret sauce to get your foot in the door. It might be an ambassador program, a beta testing program, user interviews, or user-generated content competitions.
Sign up and build a relationship from here by giving them thoughtful feedback and/or creative ideas.
Fun fact: joining an ambassador program was how I ended up landing my first ever internship in university for an Andreesen Horowitz-backed fintech from Silicon Valley.
Doubling down on this, if you can’t see these sorts of programs around, use the LinkedIn / Twitter DMs route and ask! Great way to add value early.
#4: Create Content Relating To The Company
If you think a company is doing REALLY cool stuff and want to get noticed by them, you can even try making content about them.
Create an article, newsletter, LinkedIn post, Facebook post, Instagram post, heck, whatever kinda post!
Ideally, tailor this to the type of role you’d like at the company. You could do a rework of their UX design, a breakdown of their business strategy, a review of their product offerings, or an analysis of their marketing approach.
Be sure to tag the company, and don’t be afraid to reach out via LinkedIn or Twitter to share it with founders/employees directly.
📝 Okay, but what if a company explicitly asks for a written cover letter?
Here are 2 approaches you can consider (depending on the type of company):
Traditional Format
A tried-and-tested approach for more traditional corporate roles
The most ‘classic’ format I’ve seen used by peers who landed roles at more old-school established companies. In a nutshell:
High-level intro expressing your interest in the role
1 * paragraph deep diving on the reasons why the company and role stand out to you
2 * paragraph highlighting one of your core skills, along with associated experiences, and linking this to a certain part of the role (be sure to reference the list of skills in the job description to help guide your thinking here)
Conclusion reiterating your value proposition and interest
Want an example? Here’s the cover letter I used to land an interview at Bain.
3 & 3 Format
A no-bullshit, clear approach to succinctly explaining your value proposition and interest
When it comes to a no-nonsense cover letter approach that focuses on the most important info, this is my favoured style.
At the end of the day, companies want to know two things:
Why should they choose you?
Why are you choosing them?
So give it to them plain and simple. List 3 key factors to answer each of these questions.
For why they should choose you, don’t just repeat exactly what’s said on your resume. Double click on a select few core skills and experiences you have which set you apart from other candidates and position you to succeed in the role.
For why you’re choosing them, leverage the 3P Framework from our Why X Company newsletter.
And when it comes to formality, if you’re applying to a startup, don’t be afraid to take a more conversational, authentic tone versus the uptight “To whom it may concern” vibes of a more traditional cover letter.
Want an example? Here’s the cover letter I used to land an interview at P&G.
At the end of the day, I’m just one data point; check these reads out as well for a second opinion:
How To Write A Standout Cover Letter When Applying To A Startup
This Cover Letter Gets Startups To Call You
What content would you like us to cover next? Anything we missed? Keen to share your own Weekly Cheeky Tip?
Tweet us, drop a comment or shoot us a message at team@earlywork.co.
🌏 Earlywork Community
📚 Trending Topics
Our favourite reads and resources being discussed in the Earlywork community.
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Lil Nas X Is Gen Z's Defining Icon. How Lil Nas X Uses the Internet to Change Culture.
The Careers Wiki: A dope podcast from EntryLevel that’s interviewing 100 professionals from the 100 most popular jobs,
How I Built This: Tope Awotona (Calendly): Tope Awotona shares his story of building Calendly with little external funding and no co-founder.
💼 Top Gigs
5 of our favourite roles shared in the community recently. Join here to access our job channels.
1. Software Engineer @ Pearler (Sydney)
2. Operations Strategy Associate @ Zoomo (Sydney)
3. Account Associate @ Stripe (Sydney & Melbourne)
4. Accounting Intern @ Airwallex (Melbourne)
5. Operations Intern @ Clipboard (Sydney)
If you’re not already a member, hop on over to join in on discussions with other young Aussies in tech & startups, stay up to date with industry news & events, and find/share job opportunities.
1️⃣ 🕐 💪 One Minute Hustle
We are back once again with One Minute Hustle, a bite-sized interview with an emerging Australian young startup founder or operator. This week, let’s get inside the noggin of an Earlywork community member capturing important career conversations…
Sydney Yin (Creator @ The SproutCast)
⚙️ What are you working on?
I co-host a podcast for young people about finding your place in the world and growing an impactful career, called The SproutCast:
We chat to interesting people doing interesting things and learn about how they make an impact.
Outside of this, I’m an international affairs student at Georgetown University and currently an intern at Folklore Ventures.
🌱 How’d you get started?
Over the last year, my friend Viv and I have both learned so much from conversations with people that inspire us. We’d often tell (and gush to) each other about what we’ve learned. So we thought, why not share it with more people?
🤔 Why do you do what you do?
As a young person in this world right now, we are so fortunate to have so many opportunities to pick our path and shape the kind of life we want to lead, and the impact we have on our world. The question is how?
We started The SproutCast to inspire young men and women to fearlessly pursue the things that inspire them, through the stories of those making a real impact.
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