If you don't love writing cover letters, you're not a freak!

Today I was doing my usual scan of mediabistro.com job postings, and suddenly I saw something that made me feel as though someone above had heard my questions—and decided to answer them for me. If you have been following my blog, in even the most causal manner, you may have noticed that cover letters STRESS ME OUT.

So I have to bring to your attention an article entitled, “Why You Didn’t Get the Interview.” (The article, written by Taffy Brodesser-Akner, is not brand new, but I hadn’t read it before, so I figure there’s a chance you may have missed it too.)

I find this article a godsend for several reasons:

1.) It confirms that I am not the only person who sometimes wonders if anyone is actually receiving their painstakingly crafted letters.
2.) It gives an inside perspective on what people who hire journalists are looking for when they read cover letters. And they do read them!
3.) It proves that writing a cover letter is really not that hard—especially if you avoid cutting and pasting. Cut and paste is the devil!

I was aware of most of the pitfalls mentioned, and I’m almost positive I don’t make them. I am pretty sure I have never spelled anyone’s name incorrectly, but I will definitely quadruple check from here on out! The article also discussed a few things I’ve never really considered, like just how inappropriate emotions can be in cover letters. So if you need a few pointers, definitely check it out.

But wait, there is more! This is part 1 in a series, so more advice is on the way!

Xo,
Ed’s Girl

P.S. Thanks to Ed for serving up two helpings of news and jobs today. Delicious.

From sun up to sun salutations

Whew! I don’t think I’ve done as much writing as I did today since I wrote my thesis. I got a much earlier start today than I did yesterday, and I worked clear through the day. There were only a few brief interruptions.

Starting with the ever-disappointing false alarm.

At around 10:30AM my phone rang. I raced over from my desk to retrieve it and saw a phone number that was unrecognizable, other than its very familiar Manhattan area code.

This seems promising, I thought.

I answered with the most professional yet casual hello I could manage and…it was a someone calling to see if I could baby-sit December 29th, 30th, and 31st. Big money maybe, but definitely not the job prospect I was hoping for. Besides, last year I vowed never to baby-sit again on New Year’s Eve no matter how much money I was offered.

The second pause in my string of writing and applying was a 30-minute battle with my printer. After I replaced my ink cartridge, the printer refused to calibrate and align. Jerk. After I went through five sheets of 100% cotton resume paper, I decided to cease and desist. I turned it off and sent out an application via the significantly less temperamental Internet. With a silent prayer, I turned my DeskJet back on and voilà!—it started functioning properly, even the fickle envelope label function! So after getting a little fresh air on a brisk walk to the mailbox, I was back in search-and-apply mode.

I work until about 7PM before breaking for dinner and treating myself to a nice rejuvenating yoga class. I am normally a cardio queen, but every once in a while it feels good to stretch away tension with a few sun salutations and downward dogs.

Before I go, I’ll leave you with a few money saving tips for those of us who can’t shell out $18 for a yoga class. Many city parks have free yoga classes, but it’s getting a little chilly for that. So a warmer cost-effective option is to try the free introductory class that many studios offer; this includes the famous Jivamukti Yoga Center. If this restorative and spiritual experience turns you into a real yogi, look for first-time customer introductory packages—Yoga Works will give you a two-week unlimited class pass for $25.

Ohm,

Ed’s Girl

May your days be merry and bright

It’s amazing how quickly we move from one holiday to the next. Just days after Thanksgiving, the entire city has turned into a winter wonderland. Lights hang from every street light and window frame, department store windows are bedecked in opulent and astounding glory, and Christmas music is blaring through the speakers of bookstores everywhere—not a cornucopia left in sight.

I am very glad to be back. Four days of fresh air and starry skies is about all I can take before I start to go crazy.

I start my first official day of vacation by packing up my laptop and heading to Starbucks. Bad move, it's packed. Don’t these people have something to do during the day, like say, work?

Never fear, there is always a second Starbucks near. In this case, there is one directly across Union Square. I dart across the square, not allowing myself to be distracted by the cheerful candy cane striped stalls offering everything from handcrafted jewelry to soy-based soap. This is definitely the place for one stop shopping for everyone on your list.

I make it to the second Starbucks, and every table is filled. There is also a line of people anxiously waiting to pounce on the next available table. Strike two.

Now I remember why I don’t go to Starbucks. I guess four days out of the city was too many.

Then it occurs to me that there is a cute café with free Wi-Fi and cheap coffee four blocks away.

Ten minutes and $2.00 later, I am ready to start job searching with a vanilla latté by my side. I better work on my efficiency—it’s almost 11:00AM!

Luckily, it looks like postings have picked up now that the long weekend is irrefutably over.

Over the weekend, a few friends offered to internally transfer my resume to their HR departments. I can only assume that this will be a significant advantage over sending it myself. Still in the networking mood, I send a few e-mails to friends to try and track down the names and e-mails of editors and HR people, so I can apply directly to a named individual, not to “Hiring Manager” or “Human Resources Director.”

Other than automatic confirmations, I hear nothing as I spend the afternoon looking for job prospects. I don’t expect instantaneous responses, but I check my phone and g-mail account every 15 minutes just in case.

It’s very refreshing to have the opportunity to search and apply for jobs in daylight. I am relaxed, invigorated, and best of all, awake. A much needed change from my nights of scrambling to get everything done before succumbing to exhaustion and crawling into bed.

With merrymaking all around me, I can’t help but be in a good mood--whether my cell phone is silent or not.

Traditionally speaking

How can a Tuesday feel so much like a Friday?

I guess holidays technically shorten the work week, but they also somehow manage to protract the days as we scramble to squeeze five days worth of tasks into two and half.

I am all set to head to my hometown for T-day. But not before I send my cover letter and resume to two promising job leads.

There is something so comforting about the familiarity of going “home.” It brings back the simplicity of bygone days when food, clothing and shelter betided me with deceptive ease.

As soon as I relax against the window of the train as it rolls gently up the Hudson, I know that life holds no unforeseen turns, no stumbles, no rejections, but also no serendipitous moments, adventures or doors waiting to open.

Thanksgiving has a particularly dependable consistency. (At least, until my parents finally make good on their inclination to move south.)

I can count on community turkey runs in the morning. A gluttony of food on the table in the afternoon. The inevitable early evening trip to the movies, where I will inevitably struggle to stay awake in the dark theater.

Friday morning will bring chaotic, early morning Black Friday shopping--a truly suburban festivity that I can’t bear to give up just yet.

The afternoon always holds a high school reunion football game and visits to the local bars I am finally permitted to enter legally. I look forward to cheerfully reminiscing with friends, as if no time has passed. Of course, the conversation has changed from classes to careers, a topic that is a little touchy with me these days. No longer can we proclaim with exuberant anticipation all the glorious things we will be doing when we graduate; we must speak in concrete terms about what we are actually doing. Hearing of all my friends’ ambition-driven, promising positions always incites competition, ego, and even a little shame inside. I can foresee myself internally vowing to have my dream job by the time I return for the winter holidays.

But I would like to proclaim, with all the exuberant anticipation I still possess, that I will.

Happy holidays!

With love,

Ed's Girl

Should I stay or should I go

I have definitely hit the “Why won’t anyone hire me? / What am I doing wrong?” point in the application process. On the plus side, I am feeling more impatient and restless than depressed and hostile, but there is definitely some frustration going on.

Fortunately, I have an entire week off following Thanksgiving, which is exactly what I need to bust out of the employer response inertia I have been experiencing. Unfortunately, in order to finish all the work I need to get done to feasibly use all that vacation time I accumulated (and will lose if not taken by Dec.1), I had to work until 10PM on Friday, most of Saturday and will have to work until 10PM tomorrow. So I actually lost a few job searching days.

I am just not gutsy enough to job search at work. The thought of running to the printer to collect resumes or cover letters that I (shhh) printed out induces panic. I can just see myself nervously guarding the printer like a solider, wondering why the heck my documents aren’t coming out. Meanwhile the printer has decided to pick that moment to back up and everyone in the office gets an error pop-up from the print job listings. Sure enough, “Resume—My Name” is holding up their expense reports. Okay, I have a vivid imagination. Reading the job listings in Ed’s e-mails or running to post office on my lunch hour to pick up stamps in order to have thank you notes ready to send in that crucial 24-hour window is about as far as I go.

I hope this week will help me answer a question I have been asking myself over and over during the past few weeks: “Do I need to quit my current job to get my dream job?”

While I do enjoy a seriously flexible schedule (I can usually shuffle my schedule to run out to an interview unnoticed.), I feel like I need time to focus 100% of my attention on finding a job—no distractions. I tend to be a serious workaholic and have a hard time saying no. In fact, I actually am working two nights during my vacation. Hear that potential employers? If I work this hard at a job I am trying to leave, imagine how hard I will work for you!

So this is my new deadline: I have this upcoming week to really attack the magazine industry with applications, letters and phone calls. I hope to get as many applications sent and interviews set up as possible during this time. If all goes according to plan, I will have a job by the time my December vacation begins. Yup, I have an entire week off in December too. If nothing has happened by then, I think I may need to make finding a job my full time job.

By the way, I promise to post every day during that week off!

Shipwrecked in a sea of ibankers

Tonight I decided to show some school spirit by attending a recent alumni interschool happy hour. To be completely honest, I was just as interested in checking out the new club hosting the event as I was in supporting my alma mater. The prospect of getting seriously discounted drinks at a “list only” venue was enough to entice a couple of my girlfriends to come networking with me.

Once we got past the velvet ropes, we immediately realized two things:

1.) We were probably among of handful of non-investment bankers in attendance.
2.) The actual meaning of the term recent.

I found the latter revelation semi-reassuring: I have quite a while before my new alumni status expires.

As representatives from the broadcast news, beauty and (someday) magazine publishing industries, we concluded that we were surrounded by ibankers, brokers, and accountants based on the ever illuminating (and somewhat stereotyping) profession indicator: attire.

Yup, the three of us looked like shipwrecked Anthropologie clerks in a sea of Citigroup analysts.

This sort of put a damper on the networking opportunities I had been anticipating. But I think the school specific nametags were really to blame for the buzzkill. Seriously, they spoil half the introduction phase.

Getting back to clothing, dressing for success is something I have been meaning to discuss for a while. Personally, I think one of the great things about working in the magazine industry is the creative freedom allowed in the dress code. Everyone on the staff may be dressed completely differently, but all professionally—and in style.

I think business trendy is the best development to hit the workplace in recent years. Unfortunately, it hasn’t made it to my place of employment yet. My company would be thrilled if I showed up to work in a full suit everyday; I would be uncomfortable, stifled and broke. Thus, my suit makes a once or twice a week appearance, and I manage to get by wearing nice slacks or pencil skirts with crisp collared oxford shirts the rest of the time. All the more motivation to leave.

Now don’t get me wrong, some days I love wearing a suit. It makes me feel powerful, professional and in control. All wonderful things, but corporate clothes aren’t nearly as much fun or as versatile as a great pair of jeans. And I don’t doubt that most pairs of denim in the Condé Nast building cost as much as many of the suits in my office.

But clothes that multitask are a wise investment. For example, a great lace skirt paired with a pretty ruffled blouse, nice pumps and double strand pearls looks very polished in the office. At night you can swap the blouse and pumps for a cute lace-trimmed camisole and some knee-high boots, and you’re ready to hit the bar. By the time Sunday rolls around all you need to do is throw on some mid-calf equestrian boots and a skinny cable sweater, and you’re all set for brunch. All of the style, none of the suffocation.

Help from an unlikely source

Life’s full of unforeseen occurrences. Today I ran into an ex-boyfriend I hadn’t seen in months (or dated in years). Lately even my briefest conversations somehow manage to revolve around the fact that I am looking for a job. Essentially, looking for a job is “what’s been going on,” so it’s hard for me to respond otherwise. (I’m sure many of my poor friends are dying for me to get a job, if only so we can move on to new topics of conversation.)

Anyways, today’s chat was no exception—he was fresh meat and all—but this time it actually, astoundingly, proved useful. He happened to have a friend who just launched an online publication that was receiving great reviews, and looking for help. He gave me the contact information, so I can pitch ideas and hopefully get some more writing experience. Pretty cool.

In exchange, I volunteered to go through my tremendous collection of magazines and gather up the all the women’s finance articles, so he can use them for research as he starts a new investment company.

Now I don’t feel so guilty about never being able to part with my precious periodicals. My collection is beginning to completely take over one corner of the bedroom, filling my entire nightstand, two large hatboxes and an overflowing magazine bin that I keep by my bed for current issues. But hey, if they’re as helpful to someone else as they are to me, they can stay.

Following up... a necessary step in the pursuit of success

Friday I go down my weekly checklist of jobs to follow up on. Using a combination of Ed’s resources and The Vault, I am able to get my hands on the six heavily guarded HR phone numbers I need.

Here are a couple of secrets I learned during one filled week of temping at a major magazine company’s switchboard: Secret #1, they exist—the number is usually at the end of the publisher’s masthead, but location varies. Secret #2, the switchboard is a great back door to getting a hold of HR. It’s also a great place to verify the correct name and spelling of editors (if you’re like me and don’t trust masthead lag). If you are really ballsy, you can just ask the switchboard operator to transfer to the editor you need directly.

I decide 11:00 AM is an opportune time to start making the calls. So I position myself as close to the window as possible to insure the best possible cell phone connection—I don’t want any dropped calls while I’m speaking to potential employers. (Wow, those Cingular commercials must be getting to me.)

So here’s how it goes:

Call number 1: I call and explain that I would like to follow up about a job I recently applied for, I am promptly transferred. Someone picks up, I give my polite, eager spiel again, and I am transferred to someone’s voicemail. I leave a message—and write down the extension for future reference. (There has been no response to date.)

Calls 2-4 go something like this: a general HR answering service picks up, I follow instructions, and eventually push 0 to be transferred to the operator. The operator turns out to be a general voicemail box.. I leave messages. During this process, I notice that one of the jobs had been taken off the job listings site since I applied. Does that mean the position has already been filled? Yikes, maybe waiting a week to follow up was too long.

Call 5: I say hello, introduce myself, and ask if I may check on the status of my application for job X at publication Y.

The woman tells me they do not accept phone calls. Whoops. However, in some strange twist of events, this woman turns out to be the single most helpful person I speak to all day. Intriguing, I know.

Right as I am about to thank her and hang up, she says, “Did you receive an e-mail confirmation for your application?”

In all honestly, I answer, “no.” This is true, I had not. This struck me as odd at the time; if there is one thing I have faith in, it’s that online applications systems are on top of automated responses.

She tells me to hold while she looks up an alternative e-mail address for me to send my application. I hold. She returns and asks if she can call me back once she can locate the information. Obviously, I happily give her my information and thank her for her help. In about ten minutes she calls me back and gives me the e-mail information. Score. That was semi-advantageous. It’s always helpful when your application is not left dangling idly in cyber space.

After sending the application to the new address, I resume my calls.

Nothing too exciting to report about call 6. Rather than calling up the editors I e-mailed applications to directly, I type up concise e-mails, hit the send button, and sit back wishing, waiting and hoping.

Top 6 non-committal ways to make money (that are not temping)

Over the last year and half I have done some pretty random things to earn the cash necessary to stay financially afloat in the city. Temping is a great way to pay the rent while searching for the right position, the biggest plus being you don’t have to feel guilty about looking for other jobs. But I found temping to be, at times, miserable. I also found it hard to find enough short-term assignments to eat and avoid eviction. In order to, fill in the gaps, I found a lot of jobs that were semi-fun and seriously flexible.

1.) Baby-sitting
I heart baby-sitting in New York. You get to act like a kid for few hours and then watch super premium cable television for another few hours. As for pay scale, we are not talking the $5/hr suburbia sitting brought in, NYC parents shell out; I often make more per hour babysitting than I do at my job. If you are willing to give up your New Year’s Eve, consider January’s rent covered. Baby-sitting can lead to other lucrative gigs—I have a friend who became a major party attraction, be forewarned that in August a bunny costume can get pretty rank.

Alternative: If you’re not kid-friendly, pet-sit or apartment-sit. There are a lot of things that need watching in NYC; if you can people watch, you can plant watch.

2.) Tutoring
Similar to baby-sitting, tutoring is a great way to bring a lot of money in a very short period of time. I maintain a few steady gigs that bring me in an extra $200 a month for a few hours of my time. I found my clients through a past work/study tutoring job, but ask friends, apply to Kaplan or post yourself on craigslist to nab a position.

3.) Hostessing
I didn’t have the 25+ years of NYC waitress experience required to get a serving job, so I settled for a hostess position. It ended up being a great move. It was low-stress, allowed me to earn money on the weekends, and was, at times, fairly lucrative. Plus, unlike temping, I felt like I was part of a family and got plenty of free meals to boot.

Alternative: If you have the ability to balance and carry heavy trays, consider catering. It usually requires less experience than waitressing, and many catering agencies only require a 15 hours a month commitment. Oh, did I mention mucho moolah?

4.) Holiday helping
Obviously stores hire lots of holiday help, but they are not only looking for perky folders to work the floor. They are also looking for night owls to help land product flows and organize the holiday clothing chaos. If you need lots of flexibility and very little sleep, ask about being hired for overnights only. This way your days are free for applying and (hopefully) interviewing. Last year I worked a couple overnights for a major retailer, and while I was only paid $10.50/hr, I received a 50% discount at the store and a 30% discount at its sister chains for the entire holiday season. Christmas shopping was a snap.

5.) Front-of-book pitching
Here’s a no-brainer. My humble and novice advice is to start small and pitch ideas for front-of-book sections; I hear that these are often tricky spaces for editors to fill. I have gotten a few items published that paid pretty well, but I’m not going to lie, it was the excitement of seeing my byline in a magazine that was truly priceless.

6.) Lifeguarding
If you have your certification,your city needs you. There are a lot of city folk who can’t swim, and even fewer who are lifeguard certified. I guarded one weekend day and an evening for a summer and got paid twice as much as my high school beach jobs. I have to say guarding at an indoor pool is about as picking out white ankle socks, but sometimes you have to deal with essentials. Hot tip: aim for a swanky New York Health and Racquet-esque club, the scenery will be much better than at a seedy YMCA.

These are just a few ideas for scraping together a few extra dollars, be creative and you’ll never have to serve a latte or hand out a flyer.

Additional resources:
Check out the “gigs” listings under the job section of craiglist. There are tons of fun events, extras castings, and short-term jobs to keep you going until you are in the editorial door.

A victim of my surroundings

Hoping to find fresh inspiration, I recently sought a new location for searching and applying for jobs. Okay, actually I needed to physically remove myself from my apartment in order to eliminate distractions.

Personally, I find it very true that you associate certain spaces with certain things. I associate my room with vegging out. This is not ideal because my desk and computer are in my bedroom. While I start out working at my desk, I wind up checking my e-mail a million times, organizing my make-up case, flipping through a magazine or two (which I excuse as research) or gazing out onto my porch to lament the death of my potted plants.

When I am actually typing up a cover letter or e-mail, I feel the need to periodically (every two minutes) get up and pace around my chair anxiously. Whether this anxiety is caused by the excitement of the job prospect or the anticipation of defeat, I couldn’t tell you.

My first solution was to try relocating to the kitchen or living room—thank god for wireless routers. But then I faced a new distraction: food. For some reason, I become ravenous when I write cover letters.

I typically find myself in the kitchen staring at the cabinets at least five times during any given application session. I grab a few almonds, head back to the computer. Twenty minutes later, I find myself with my head in the fridge, searching for an apple with the look of a woman on a mission.

Munch, ponder, type, review job posting, munch, type some more.

Before proof reading, I somehow find myself staring into the freezer. I acknowledge that I am most definitely eating out of emotion. I pride myself on the recognition, and pull out a half gallon of moose tracks. I grab a bowl, portion control, good job. I return to my computer. You get the idea.

Even our study, which deceptively seems like the perfect place to get work done, provides, perhaps, the biggest distraction of all: the TV.

I went through four years of college without a television. I didn’t understand how people could be obsessed with shows, speaking of characters as they would of friends and willing to miss parties to catch the latest episodes. A year and a half after graduating, I live in an apartment with Tivo and a Netflix subscription—I’ve been sucked in. I find myself waiting to find out if Tessa and Chase will ever hook up, screaming at the TV when Jeffrey won project runway and describing random cute guys as “Mc”+ appropriate adjective. I want to live my life, not spend my life watching someone else’s fake life.

With the kitchen, living room, study and my bedroom ruled out, the only remaining application location possibility was the bathroom. I decided I better come up with a change of scenery before I put the toilet to the test.

In the end, my new environment has made all the difference. In addition to the eradication of distractions, working from a coffee shop down the block serves several purposes:

1.) There are lots of people working to provide motivation.
2.) Instant caffeine access to fuel my sessions.
3.) The limited Internet connection puts a kibosh on random web surfing and helps me use my time efficiently.

Yup, the coffee shop is my new library.

Freshly inspired

It’s hard not to be inspired by 37, 000 people flying through all five boroughs. I think some of the marathon inspiration carried over into my career quest because I’ve been extremely productive this weekend. I’ve applied to several jobs, followed up with pitches, and I got in touch with a new contact.

To be fair, some of this efficiency was fueled by a friend’s response to the news I hadn’t gotten the job I recently interviewed for.

He said, rather obnoxiously, “Do you have a plan?”

Ohh! Can’t I just feel sorry for myself for like five seconds?

But once I got over myself, I realized he was right, and I revisited my plan.

In a wave of ingenuity I created a log to track my status throughout each application.

Each new job application has its own row with columns for contact information, follow-up dates, and results.

On a separate sheet, I track my contact with human resources departments of each major publishing company. Right now this consists of me sending emails/letters, following up, and having no success at nailing down informational interviews. Darn.

Finally, I am keeping track of my communication with personal contacts.

I think this is a more responsible route than sheer mental organization. As much as I like to think that my memory is infallible, I never would’ve tried to memorize a course syllabus for the semester or not plug a work meeting into outlook. I also hope the tracking process will provide some positive reinforcement and insight as I continue on my journey.

The other milestone my weekend was finally coming up with a great standard cover letter structure.

This seems really basic. I am sure many of you don’t get how I could apply for so many jobs without having a generic letter.

For years, okay dating to my days applying for internships, I’ve struggled to create a cover letter that I could tweak and reuse. Writing a cover letter for a specific job seems like such a unique endeavor—not one size fits all. I’ve never be able to come up with something reusable that I felt was tailored enough to the job description, the magazine and my qualifications in relation to them.

So I’ve found myself completely rewriting my cover letters from scratch for every posting. This has not been helpful in casting a wide net nor in eliminating errors. But I think I have finally constructed a letter that succinctly highlights my experience and hones in on my strongest skills as an applicant.

Thus, I only have to rewrite the introduction and a few body paragraph sentences to capture my knowledge of and enthusiasm for the publication, and my qualifications with respect to the particular position.

Does anyone out there have any stellar cover letter advice? Is it better to start each letter anew or is it okay to recycle?

Okay, I am off to cook for another work potluck; maybe soon I’ll be an EA testing recipe for Gourmet.

Xo,

Ed’s Girl

Respite to recharge

I took a day off applying to celebrate Halloween and get over my rejection.

Limiting to my break time to one day serves two purposes:

A.) It isn’t enough time to fall out of search and apply mode.
B.) It doesn’t give me too much time to feel sorry for myself.

Luckily, when I checked the new postings today there were a lot of exciting prospects awaiting me. One is even in the realm of dream job! I have quite a few long work days this week, so I’ve armed myself with multiple Red Bulls, and I am going to get cracking my cover letters. Daylight savings time really makes it feel like I am applying all night long!

As for past applications, this week is a big follow-up period. I have just about mastered the art of being annoying without actually being annoying. Friendliness, politeness, brevity and a pinch of enthusiasm go a long way in not pissing people off. In my own work experience, I actually really appreciate when people follow-up with me. It saves me a call, and shows me they are really interested, and proves they are on the ball.

Good night and good luck folks.