The Importance of a Good Cover Letter

1 message

Victor Cheng <victor@caseinterview.com> Fri, 9 Apr, 2021 at 9:58 am

To: raghavyadav012012@gmail.com

Hi Raghav,

I've read a lot of cover letters in my career.... easily thousands.

I read them while working on the McKinsey recruiting team, while working in industry and hiring staff for
my own company.

Most consulting applicants SEVERELY underestimate the importance of the cover letter and end up
paying more attention to the consulting resume/CV than they do the cover letter.

I would argue the effort allocation should be reversed -- much more time put into the cover letter than the
resume or CV.

Here's the simple reason why.

If the cover letter does not stand out, often the resume never gets read (or at least is not read very
carefully).

The general rule of communication is to put the most important stuff up front and early in the
communication process -- because there is absolutely no guarantee that the reader will read ALL of what
you have written.

Without a good cover letter, it is:

1) hard to stand out; 

2) easy to get overlooked by accident. 

When someone like me screens cover letters and resumes, we usually do so in batches -- dozens if not
hundreds of applicants at the same time.

When I was on the McKinsey Stanford recruiting team, I had to go through a stack of 400 resumes and
consulting cover letters in a few hours.

Keep in mind, these were 400 applicants -- ALL of whom were in the process of graduating from Stanford.

So the applicant pool was already pretty strong.

From a resume screener's point of view, reviewing that many cover letters is a very painful experience.

All the cover letters look and sound the same.

It is VERY obvious that most of them are mail merge letters that look like this:

-------

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing to apply for ABC position at XYZ firm.

My background as a XYZ Position, I feel would make me a good fit for the position.

Blah, blah, blah... BORING. ---

The reason boring is a problem is because it shows the reader that YOU DO NOT CARE about this role. It
doesn't show that you've done any homework about this company or role.

In other words, from an interest standpoint, you have not distinguished yourself in the slightest.

This is both a problem and an opportunity.

No matter how qualified you may or may not be (which is too late to change at this point), you CAN
control how much interest you show to the resume / cover letter reader.

In addition, a good cover letter should pinpoint the SPECIFIC items on the resume or CV that DIRECTLY
RELATE to what the employer is looking for in that role.

As a resume screener, I did not READ every resume submitted.

I SCANNED them looking for recognizable keywords.

These keywords are basically brand names (universities and employers), Test Scores, GPAs.

The problem for you is that when a resume screener (note: I didn't say resume "reader") scans your
resume, he/she is prone to overlooking things you might want to emphasize.

This is especially the case if what you have done is impressive, but not encapsulated in a brand name
that is easily recognizable.

For example, let's say you started a company and sold it for $50 million... BUT your company's name is
not well known.

If you simply put that on a resume, there's a chance this accomplishment will be overlooked in a quick
resume scan. BUT if you EXPLAIN your accomplishment in a cover letter, it definitely will not.

When I screened applicants, I ALWAYS read the first few paragraphs of EVERY cover letter. I usually did
not read the whole cover letter, unless I read something intriguing in the first few paragraphs.

If the cover letter was mediocre, I would typically just scan the resume really quickly, only to confirm my
inclination to put the application in the reject pile.

If the cover letter was either impressive or interesting, I would definitely read the entire cover letter and
read the entire resume very carefully.

Sometimes I would read it twice.

In other words, the cover letter is the FIRST thing the employer sees and determines whether or not they
will bother to learn more about you.

So what's the big lesson here?

The perfect cover letter for a consulting job (or any job for that matter) is NOT A FORM LETTER!

Trust me on this one.

Every cover letter for each firm should be unique, and different than the letters you write to other firms.

I've read thousands of cover letters in my career. It is TORTURE to read them.

You must stand out. If you can't objectively be the most qualified, you can absolutely be the most
thoughfully enthusiastic one.

There are a few things you can do to stand out, listed in no particular order:

1) Get your brand names into the first sentence or paragraph (You know... Harvard, your Olympic Medals,
etc...:)

2) Show you did your homework about the firm (very important).

Why do you want to work for that particular firm? What's your UNIQUE reason? How sure are you of your
preferences? Why?  

(The specific answer is not that important... the fact that you've thoughtfully considered the question as it
applies to your specific career situation and can show you have thought about it IS important -- because
most people never bother.)

For example, one of the most thoughtful reasons I've heard is from a new college grad whose family
owns a $400M shipping conglomerate.  

At some point, this person will be CEO of that company and she wanted to learn how to be a better CEO
before that time.

Dad would like to retire in about 12 years, so she has a specific window of opportunity to be ready.

She specifically targeted XYZ firm because it's a very international firm and the company she will
someday run operates in 19 countries.

She also wanted to better understand her future client's industries, which range from retail to
manufacturing to commodities.

So she is only focusing on those firms who have industry breadth, and many of the firms she researched
were single industry-focused.

Now what you will notice about this example is it's a good "story." 

The phrase "story" is one we use a lot in consulting to describe a situation that just seems to make sense
at a qualitative and common sense level.

In your cover letter, tell a good story about why consulting, and why that SPECIFIC firm.

3) Talk to people at the firm (google: informational interviews) to see what the firm is about.

Do your homework. Then in the cover letter, name names... mention the names of people in the firm
you've spoken to, what they said about the firm, and why what they said got you interested in the firm.

4) Explain why you'd be a good fit for the firm. It's not good enough to be qualified. There are lots of
qualified people out there.

Consulting firms and employers in general like to hire people who are both qualified and motivated by
legitimate and sincere reasons.

A good phrase to use in your cover letter is something like this:

"Unlike other candidates you're seeing that probably have XYZ trait, I have ABC trait because of my
experience at XYZ company."

Example: Unlike other candidates you're seeing who probably seem enthusiastic about consulting, I am
certain of my interest in consulting because of my recent internship at ABC consulting firm.

The purpose of this kind of language is to make it EASY for the resume screener to figure out HOW YOU
ARE DIFFERENT than the other applicants.

Don't assume the person will figure it out by reading your resume. POINT OUT the difference and make it
EASY for the person to tell.

This is especially true if you come from a non-traditional or non-business background. If going into
consulting would be a big career shift for you, you'd better do a darn good job explaining why the shift
makes sense.

Otherwise the assumption is a little bit, "he/she's applying just for the heck of it." And if your background
is amazing, it's possible you'll get an interview with a lousy cover letter.

Personally, I had networked like crazy to meet people in consulting before I ever applied for real. I knew
them. They knew me. I knew I wanted to do consulting... and I think it came across.

My resume wasn't amazing. It was a B+.

Every cover letter I wrote was different from the other ones I wrote. I regularly quoted memorable things
from specific people I spoke to from those firms and explained why I was impressed by them.

Even to this day, I still remember what impressed me about certain people at each firm... and what I
thought it showed about the firm.

In short, I most definitely had my reasons for why I was applying and I was very deliberate in sharing
those reasons. And, most importantly, my cover letters didn't look like any of the other ones.

After consulting, for every job I got after consulting, I probably averaged applying to only two or three
companies for each job offer I received.

I was very selective in who I wanted to work for. I did my homework. I explained my reasons in a good
cover letter and more often than not, got a meeting with the CEO.

Is this a lot of work?

YES!

Do most people make this much effort?

Heck no!

Why does it work?

Precisely because most people aren't willing to do the extra work to stand out.

Quite often, the things that work best are the things that most people do NOT do.  

The cover letter is a perfect example of this.

My Consulting Cover Letter  Toolkit was designed with this in mind. To learn more about creating a cover
letter that stands out, you can learn more here: Consulting Cover Letter 

On a related note, if you missed my video on the mistakes that most people make in a consulting resume,
you can see it here: Top 5 Mistakes Made on Consulting Resumes

Thanks,

-Victor Cheng

Author, Case Interview Secrets

www.CaseInterviewSecrets.com

P.S. Pass this email along to any really good friends who are also interested in doing well in the case
interview process.

******

To subscribe directly to this email newsletter on Case Interviews:

http://www.caseinterview.com

To subscribe to my email newsletter on how to succeed as a New Consultant, visit:

http://www.caseinterview.com/new-consultant

Search my blog and email archives:

http://www.caseinterview.com/search

******

(c) Victor Cheng, All Rights Reserved

A Victor Cheng (tm) Production

A Look Over My Shoulder (r) Learning Guide

The information provided in this email is for educational purposes only. It is provided on an "as is" basis
with no warranties expressed or implied. The information is believed to be accurate, but is not guaranteed
to be so. By reading this content, you agree to waive the author and the company Fast Forward Media, Inc
of any liability from the action you may take as a result of reading the information within. To see our
privacy policy:

http://www.caseinterview.com/privacy

This email may contain links to third parties.  These links often involve us receiving financial
compensation if you buy something after clicking the link.  We only reference 3rd party resources we
strongly recommend.

*****

For customer service or technical support inquiries email:

support@caseinterview.com
Fast Forward Media, Inc. 113 Cherry St. # 75551 Seattle, Washington 98104 United States (206) 701-
0250

To Unsubscribe / Update eMail Address:

 Click Here