Cover Letter Workshop

Harrison recently hosted a webinar on Cover Letter Workshop, in which he discussed the importance of a good cover letter and how it can transform a job application.

He emphasized that when employers review resumes and applications, they mostly look for whether the candidate has the skills and experience to do the job. Therefore, what is written in the cover letter will not necessarily significantly impact an employer's decision. However, Harrison explained that a good cover letter could capture an employer's attention and create an emotional connection with them. Sharing stories or experiences that make a candidate more relatable is essential. This can help employers understand the person better and make them more likable. Harrison also shared strategies to help write effective cover letters and emphasized the long-term effects of a well-written letter. He advised job seekers to think about how they can connect emotionally with employers when writing their cover letters to stand out from other applicants.

Overall, Harrison's webinar on Cover Letter Workshop was an excellent opportunity for job seekers to understand the importance of their cover letter and create the most effective one. He provided valuable tips and strategies to help them make a good impression on employers and increase their chances of getting hired. By paying attention to his advice, job seekers can strengthen their applications and maximize their chances of getting hired.

Transcript:

Welcome. This is a cover letter workshop. It's something we do least usually a couple of times a year. Now, today for whatever reason we didn't receive a lot of cover letters to review. So we do have some and we'll review those. But I haven't been able to chat, so if anybody wants to put their cover letter in the chat, I'm happy to also review it on the call today.

And you can take your name out and I don't need anybody's name or anything in there. So it is all confidential when you provide your cover letter. Let me get into some stuff here. Gimme one second. I'm just gonna stop my shoe, I don't for a second.

And find some of the cover letters we have and we will get started. A couple of notes about your cover letters and again, I will take a lot of questions today as well. I'm just pulling something up here. Yeah, so if anybody wants to put their cover letter in the chat, I'm happy to review it on this call as well.

Because again it's important. I'd like to have more cover letters. It's funny, the last one of these we did we had I don't know, like more cover letters than we could handle. And the same thing with the resume workshop we did a couple of weeks ago. But today for whatever reason, not a lot of people have sent over their cover letters.

I will I'm happy to review it or to review your cover letter. Cover letters, anyone that sends new cover letters over. Before we get started, I wanted to review a couple of things that people are always asking about now. Lemme just see here. Oh, good. Okay. And again, if anybody has any questions about cover letters as well, you're welcome to ask them in the chat and I will also answer them during the call.

A couple of things I wanted to just go over really briefly that are related to anytime someone is hiring you for what they're asking. And the cover letter provides a good way for you to answer these questions. So anytime someone's hiring you regardless of your level, I'm interviewing you when I'm reviewing your resume and cover letter.

And I'll just go otherwise and I cover these all the time, but these are very important. The first one is, can you do the job will you do the job long term? John Mario, you good? Culturally, what did we like about him? Thank you. And then the other is can you be managed? So these are four things that five, six things that everyone's asking. And can you do the job essentially means your resume is really what answers that? So your resume answers whether or not you can do the job.

And this just means you have the education, the skills and the experience that the employer's looking for. The idea would be if you're a, just hypothetically, if you're a medical I don't know. Let me just say, if you're a defense attorney doing commercial litigation do you have the same kind of education skills, and experience that people working in that firm have?

And if you don't that's a problem. And so every resume answers that question. You're, you can't you, someone takes a look at your resume and they're gonna understand that right away. Anything that you write in your cover letter probably is not going to convince people of that fact.

So I'll tell you an interesting story. And this is BCG attorney search and we write letters for all of the candidates that we represent. And then it used to be a very big deal at our company. All of our recruiters would sit around, we'd have these meetings every week and every three months, and we talk about the letters and how our letters are drawing out the person's experience and what we're doing and how we're making the person likable.

And one thing I would say, and this is very important, is what we do in our cover letters for a candidate that helps, a candidate that a candidate can't do themselves, is we will talk about them as individuals. So we'll say things like we'll say that, I don't know if the person's parents died when they were young and they were raided in a foster home and things that wouldn't go on a resume or the person is the first person in their family to go to college.

And just any, anything that makes the person start working when they were 12 years old. Anything unusual that humanizes the person because what I found was interesting when we sat around. So recruiters represent lots of different candidates and not everyone they represent gets a job, of course.

And what we found when I remember when doing that is. The people that I was able to connect with the most personally and write the best letters, were always the people that I ended up placing the people that I wasn't ended up, with that I couldn't connect with or didn't want that connection when I wouldn't when I would write a letter without a connection wouldn't get jobs.

And I, this is gonna all make sense in a moment when we start talking about this, but the idea is that what people, everyone is seeking is a connection. And when someone else talks about you in a cover letter and brings out your skills and what makes you unique and makes you likable, it's a very big deal compared to what the resume says.

So lots of people have good resumes. There's nothing there, there's it. And so that's not you. When you're trying to get a job, you're not necessarily competing for that. Some employers will hire you because of your resume and that's fine. But the resume is really what tells if you can do the job, your cover letter is an opportunity to do something else.

So the next one is, will you do the job long term? So the way an employer gets that idea is they are, and this is when you're, and just think about it from your standpoint. So can you do the job? And again I don't wanna spend too much time on this cuz it's not that relevant, but just think about yourself.

If you're hiring somebody to paint your house and they show up and they say they've never painted, but they've done a lot of plumbing that's not gonna be helpful to you even though they're both the same sort of thing. They're working in a, doing, the someone that can do the job is someone that just has the skills and experience and a defense attorney trying to do plaintiff's work might be able not to be able to do the job.

Someone is just, these are all things that the law firm's looking at. Doing the job is really, your resume answers that question. So what happens if someone takes a look at your resume and they'll just say this person so I noticed someone raised their h? nd. And you can, if you have a question, you can ask it in the chat and I will answer it.

He and I will call on people, but this just means do you have the skills and experience to do the wAnd law firms that are looking at your resume, pretty much what they'll do is they'll look at your resume. All right you can ask questions in the q and a. I'm sorry if the chat's not working.

I don't know why it's disabled then, but anyway, this is what they do for the job and your resume asks, answers that question. And so you're never going to, if you can't, if you don't have the skills and experience to get a position, you're almost always not going to be able to be hired based on anything but your resume.

Now, can you do the job long term or will you do the job? Long-term is another question. So do you look committed to the practice setting, which is a law firm practice area, and where any place you work? And also the geography. So employers aren't stupid. They don't wanna hire people that come in and are going to leave because when people leave, it undermines the leave and wastes training time.

It upsets clients. It undermines the people that are working there. It makes other people unsure about working and the employer about working there. So that's, there's just a lot of reasons, and it just means you're a bad investment. And so that's one of the reasons that I tell people that it's not always a good idea to be hopping around.

People want to believe you're gonna do the job long term. So for the most part your resume answers that question. Not always, but your resume answers that question. If they see a lot of movement they see a lot of movement on your resume, meaning you're moving around to different places and doing a lot of different things.

Then then, and you're working in different practice settings or you're working as a litigator, then you go in in-house, and then you go back to a firm and then you go to a clerk. People, this is just the law firm knowing you're going to leave, and so that scares them. And to some extent, you can answer that in your cover letter.

So this can be answered in the cover letter. We'll talk about that in a minute if you have a lot of movement. But not always. And not always. So in a gimme second. Okay. Then the next one is, can you be managed? So again what law firms want is they wanna hire people to hire people that will follow instructions, will follow instructions and do things the way they want,

And so this particular aspect of it means will you follow instructions? Will you do it, are you someone that's able to do what you're asked? And that sort of thing. Because if people are too independent, and this is a big issue, if people are too independent, do not respect authority. They undermine the whole system. If you have certain associates that refuse to work on weekends or they refuse to come into the office then it undermines every day. And that's a problem. So you're entitled to have these not be managed. But if you're like that's a problem.

So things that make you look like you cannot be managed are multiple moves, which you talked about above. And then the other thing would be entrepreneurial ventures because most people that do entrepreneurial things ultimately go back to doing that. Lectures ventures, and then just, and getting fired is one, getting fired on your resume.

And, and similar things like that. There are a lot of things that would make it look like you can't be managed. So your resume also answers that question. You can take a look at someone's resume and you can give us a sense right away if they could be managed or not, but not always.

People, by the way, that means it's interesting, but people that can be managed will tend to talk in a different way about things and people that can't. So this also can be answered in the cover letter.

Of the letter, but not always. Okay? So all these things that we talked about, these first three are the things that a resume does. And your history in terms of what you've done before is pretty much all answered on your resume. So your ability to do the job, if you're gonna stick around and whether or not you can be managed, your resume is going to answer that question.

And these are the three questions that we spent most of our time on within the past week. The past couple of weeks ago when we did another resume workshop. And you can't change these things. And these are things that are on your resume. Now. You can dumb them down and you can do all sorts of things to make them look like that, but you often cannot fix them.

These are the four that have real differences. Do you want the job? Are you a cultural fit or do we, or do we like you? These things can make a huge difference and it's very interesting. I have a firm. That like me and like myself a lot, and I make a lot of placements there. I would make placements at those firms not because the resumes are any better, but because the firms like me.

And it's like that if people like you, that makes a difference. If you really want a job, it makes a difference. And if you're a good cultural fit that makes a difference. And so I'm gonna talk about these three things a lot today. When talking about resumes, and cover letters this is really where you can make a difference.

And it's where people that get jobs they shouldn't, that are above their pay grade, get jobs. It's how all sorts of things can happen. So if you go to a really good law school and you're at the bottom of your class, you can still get a job at a good firm if you do these things well, if you go to a poor law school and you don't and you do well, or and you, but you're, you don't think well enough to get a job in a big firm, normally that interviews on campus, you can get a job if you do these things well.

There are all sorts of things you can do to stick out in these. And these three are extremely important. They're, this is how this is also interview advice. You can get jobs very well if you want the job. You can get jobs that you normally wouldn't if you wanted the job.

You can get jobs if you're a good cultural fit. And culture is not about. It is about a lot of stuff, and I'll talk about that. And then you can get jobs if you're likable. Do you want the job? This is the first one I'll start with. And people like people or people want to hire people that want to work there.

I really wanna work there. So think about just, and let me just ask, back up for a second. The people that are on this call, some people are probably really big prestigious firms as there always are. And there are people there that kind of firms seem to like these calls cuz they learn a lot, but there are people that aren't and there are people, it doesn't matter.

But one of the things is. A lot of law firms they're constantly dealing with this kind of cycle of people that can't be managed, that leave, and that can't do the job. So all sorts of people, wherever you've worked, I'm sure you've worked around people that can't be managed, that are not following orders, that are leaving early and sneaking out that is not working when they're supposed to be working, that is people that can't, that are not following instructions and do things their way.

People that are always looking for other jobs, talking about different things. And so this is what law firms deal with all day, every day. And so if you were an employer like you wouldn't like that, you wouldn't like dealing with people that can't be managed, don't appreciate your, the firm you have that don't appreciate that aren't committed and leaving and quitting all the time, that would be hard for you.

Just think about it, it's not to say that you have to feel sorry for them, your employers, but this is what they deal with on a day-to-day basis. And then they have to use recruiters and they have to host jobs, and they have to hire, they have to do all these things to constantly bring people in.

So what is refreshing to them is when someone o works there. Not just someone that says, I wanna work there and it's a good salary, but someone that really wants to work there. Meaning that person knows about the firm they are an employer. They've spent time thinking about it.

About the firm. They have they've, they, they have, they've spoken to people there and know what kind of work they do, the work. They've taken the time to connect with recruiting personnel. They've they have and just all sorts of things to show they want the job.

And then the person is psyched up and to interview psyched up expelled psyched up. The, and then the cover letter is a good case about the employer, why and they wanna work there specifically.

Okay. And this is really one of the most important things. So I'm gonna tell you a couple of fun stories. And they're interesting, but they make this point, I think to some extent.. So when I was I told the story before, but when I went to my mom said I could get a dog And I looked forward to it for a long time, and we drove out to this farm and there were a bunch of puppies and I picked out a puppy, and then we were leaving. My mom said, why did you pick that puppy up? I said that's the puppy that ran up to me and seemed like it liked me the most.

So I didn't pick, I picked a puppy that was essentially the run of the litter, but it was the nicest puppy, and that's the one I picked. That's how people work. If someone likes you, you like them back. I'll tell you another funny story which is my, my first wife that I married. I was in a bar in law school one day and she came up to me and said, how come you're the only person that's never talked to me? I've always wanted you to talk to me, and that sort of thing. And so that's how I met her. Now, it was interesting. That was, again, someone that like me.

Now, if you meet people all the time and the people that really seem to like you, You like people like dogs. Dogs like them. So they have them around their house, they put up with them doing all these, chewing up their things and going to the bathroom all over their house. And, but people like dogs.

They love them. And so everyone loves dogs. That's their survival instinct. And this, we'll talk about that, but people that really want the job are people that tend to do the best. I had this interesting thing happen. There's always attorneys that are so good at getting positions and there's also, and I don't know what makes them so good at this, but they're able to I do know, but anytime they interview from someplace they go in they know all about the firm.

They talk about how all their skills can get. They're able to talk about how much they want the firm, they wanna work there all these different sorts of things. And those are the people that get the job. And I used to be in Admissions. I did admissions work for the University of Chicago. And they, it was interesting, like they would get all these applicants and I don't know what it was, 10% of them or something. And but the people that got in most of the time were the people that went in and interviewed and said they wanted to go there.

The people that if you didn't do that even if you had great numbers, that should figure that you were just gonna go someplace else if you got in. So people that really want something and if you're able to make that clear, that's a huge deal to places. And a resume does not answer that question and does not answer cover letter answers.

A cover letter answers that question. And we'll talk more about that in a minute when we start looking at cover letters. But the cover letter answers that question. The resume cannot really answer the question. If you want the job, the resume can answer. If you can do the job, it can answer if you can be managed, but it cannot answer if you really want the job.

And so the resume the cover letter is what does that, and let me just resume does not, it does not always. And so if you] really want the job and you really want something, people are going to be persuaded that you are gonna wanna work there. I've had so many people, I get. One example resumes from recruiters. We get resumes from recruiters every day, and it's very hard to keep up with them. And it's not that I'm saying that's a bad thing, it's a good thing, but it's difficult to sort the people that really want the job from the ones that don't.

I remember some of the people that I've hired to work here as recruiters are people that have just contacted me and been like, I've wanted to work for you for years. I'm at the end of this thing. I've. Love this about what you do, and boom, that's a great way to get a job.

So if I go into a pile of recruiter resumes that we've received it may be 5,000 in the past year. I don't know what it is. It's not, it's a lot. Now, most of those are not, don't have the skills, but the people that have done something like that are the people that anybody would be interested in.

And people that get your attention are the ones that look like they want the job. So wanting the job is something you can do in a cover letter. You can tell the person why you want that specific job and why wouldn't you. Do you think so just, I want to make sure you understand. If you have, if I received 4,000 applications and out of that, I might not have been hired, I don't know, or interviewed.

Very few. The only people interested are the people that do something. So if someone wants sg then that's a huge thing. I had an instance once where I went into an Interview and a firm. Where was it? It was a firm that it's no longer in an existent book called Dewey Valentine.

And I went in and the first person I interviewed with was the hiring committee. And I said to her that my grandfather had gone to college with Thomas Dewey, and he always said, if I became a lawyer, I should work at that firm. And I've always wanted to work here. Boom. That was all I needed to do.

That's, you got the job. So out of all the other people that they probably could have hired someone that wants it. So your cover letter. If your cover letter is freaking good and it sticks out it will make that case. And you should think through that. Now, a lot of people do the same cover letter for every employer and the same thing.

And all you're doing there is not giving yourself a chance. If you want a job and you send a really good cover letter and you figure out who to send it to, like this first one, dear HR administrator that doesn't do anything. This is just, you can see here, just a resume.

This is just a resume. So your cover letter should never do this. It shouldn't tell people you can do the job. You can, if you have a lot of moves, sometimes you can advance that, but it needs to show that you want the job. Because if you want something just think about what somebody wants, what if somebody wants.

What's the difference? The difference is that they will learn or they will commit. They'll take instruction and they'll be managed. They will do what else? They will commit. They will learn what they need to do to succeed. They will do everything they can to get along with others. They will respect authority. They will be grateful and more. And these are just huge things. Think about this whole idea of gratitude too. So someone that gives you the idea that working for you or doing something for you is just amazing. And that's something that would be meaningful to them and they would eat.

The opportunity is a big deal. It's something that makes a difference and that people want. So people like people that like them. And if you want the job that's a huge thing. That's something that is going to make a big difference. So you can communicate that on the cover letter and we will cover that.

And again, if you have covered letters you'd like me to review, put them in the q and a, but we'll cover that in a little more detail because this is huge. If you want something then do it to make a difference. And eyes are, would be, and would be insane not to hire someone I had that wants it.

So I had an experience once where I had an in-house counsel job and then someone walked into my office. And basically said, this is, I really wanna work for you. I've seen this ad and this would be an incredible opportunity for me. All this sort of thing.

And I hired the person and it was the worst person I'd ever hired. And I mean for, in terms of attorneys and I because she wanted the job so much and acted like did, I spent a lot of time trying to coach her and make her effective. And it just never worked.

But because she wanted the job so much, I just felt like I really wanted her to work there. People that want the job make a huge difference. I told another story, and I'll tell this one again. But I've told this before when law schools a lot of them and the one I went to a lot of times people that would get waitlisted would come and the day class started would be sitting out in front of an admissions office when there are hundreds of people maybe that have been waitlisted saying, I'm here ready to go to class if you want to admit me.

And those were the people a lot of times, or at least the ones I went to. And this is, of course, a long time ago would get in and I remember walking past the admissions office and I'm like, what are all these? People doing. And they were like, and I knew, and they were like they sit here and they wait to see if they will let them in.

And I was, and it makes a difference. Those are the people that want to go there. So they could just call some random person on the phone and admit them, but they're letting people in that are taking the initiative to show up and want something. So really wanting something is a huge difference.

Sometimes people will do things like, I will work for free if I can. Can I show you? Or they'll do informational interviews. There are all sorts of things you can do, but if you want the job, people will be very interested in hiring you, and you will rise to the top. And very few people do this.

It's the biggest mistake that you can make in interviewing someplace. So what does a cultural fit mean? So cultural fit's important, and I'm gonna bring it up, and it's something I'm happy to happy talking about, but I will talk about it because it does make a difference.

And it's of course the exact opposite of what I should be talking about in this day and age. But I'm gonna talk about it. People will hire people that they identify with, and that can be the same background which means it could be schools, It could be religion, it could be interested in athletics.

It could be politics shared. I don't know what we share. But I could get into it. It could be all sorts of things. It could even be, sometimes it's race, sometimes it's sex. It's sometimes it's, it's just a, it could be a bunch of different things.

There are lots of things that are culturally related, but it could also just be demeanor could be meaning outgoing versus introverted versus worded versus who knows? But they adjust to different personality types out there. And a lot of times you can tell the type of person the culture of someplace is based on, all these different things.

There are law firms there that have had this incredible experience. I was. When I, so I got this job at this Dewey Valentine firm which and then after I'd been there for a while I discovered that most of the partners that were, and it was not a huge office were all Catholic and went to the similar.

And that does in an accident? I don't know. But it's just, it's not and they all went to church. It's not, again, it's not that common for people to all go to church in LA and it's just, it was interesting. And maybe they were hiring people of similar backgrounds. Now I'm not, I was not of that background, but at the same time, there are law firms there's, a firm in LA that I was talking to a hiring person there once, and they interviewed someone and they said we're pretty much a group of nerdy.

And then they use a religion, I don't want to say what it is. And we hire people like us. And is that discrimination? I don't know. But that's just how it works. So sometimes people will hire people from similar backgrounds. Some firms are composed of a lot of people that have a lot of interest in sports.

Some people, some firms are democratic arms that are Republican. And I, again I don't, I can't control this stuff. It's just how it is. And it's how, so if you're, if you have if you're, if you feel like there are firms out there that you might be good, and some firms are, working or have composed of people from woworking-classersus, w coast of people from working-class versus class backgrounds and others are I don't know, but whatever.

It's just how it is versus. people from ac people from academic families. I don't, this is just how it is and it's not like that of course, with all firms, but they all have different cultures and it's just what it is. So sometimes you, with a law firm, have to understand the cultures, and when you go and interview with these firms or you know about them, you may be a good cultural fit. And that means you may play a sport with someone. You may know someone from a group you may know someone from I don't know. But if you're a good cultural fit, that may be an opportunity to bring that out in, in some way, in your car letter.

Now, you don't say that I went to this temple or whatever with this person, but you have but law firms are often looking for those clues. Now do I think that's right? I'm not saying I'm not making any statements one way or another about that, but sometimes that's how it works.

So if you understand the culture of a place and you feel comfortable with that culture, there's probably something if you can bring that up that's a good thing. So how would you bring that up? So I'll give you an example. So there's. There are places where people work extremely hard and where there are firms where people work 3000 hours a year.

And that's just what's expected. And that's the culture. It's not, the culture's not based on race or schools or, it's just working on being very hard. And if that's the kind of culture that you're comfortable in, you bring that up. You talk about that in your cover letter.

I'm used to working hard hours and committing and all this and that, that's gonna, people are gonna like that. Or if you say, I want to be part of a place that's congenial or and this is important to me. That's a cultural thing at some firms too.

So congenial and I don't know. But there's just, there are all sorts of things. So if you understand the culture of a place then that's also very important. And your cover letter can do that. Now, the next one, and this is the final one is, and let's just talk, let me just talk about this real briefly so you know, what happens.

What happens when someone is a good cultural fit?

Cultural fit. So what happens when someone's good cultural fit is extreme. ? It's a big deal. So what happens when someone's a good cultural fit is that person makes friends and it feels supported. Feel supported by the firm and stay that person that, that person is likely, is coached and gets informal knowledge and all sorts of things.

Knowledge others are comfortable around that person. All around the person. So the person trusts them. The firm believes they are a good representative.

And make no mistake about it, law firms have cultures. They have very well-defined cultures and, a lot of times we'll pick that up from the resume. But they have cultures and certain people fit into those cultures and others don't. And it's not to say that, there are law firms that want diversity.

They want the diversity of thought they want, but they, at the same time also have cultures and people are animals. And animals stick together in a way where they wanna be around people that they trust. And I'll answer questions related to this, but this is a very important thing.

Your cover letter can sometimes do that. And then the final one is, do we like you? I talked about this a lot in the introduction. But this means the firm likes something about you and feels positive towards you,

towards you and not. . So people like certain types of people. So there's a rule out there that that third of the people that you meet will, like you,you meet, will like you if one-third won't, well, one-third will not care. And then care. And then one-third will be available. They won't care one way or another. And so, a lot of times your cover letter can bring you on the side of someone likable just as your resume does, but saying nice things on the cover letter identifies people in a way in your cover letter doing things that are related to that are going to.

Connecting with people is going to come through in your cover letter. And everything is about your cover letter. And again, I'm gonna talk about cover letters, but this type of human connection is extremely important. People want connection. People wanna feel like, people wanna feel like their employers are liked.

People wanna feel like you're safe like you and people wanna like other people. So one of the differences between this is I've talked about this a lot before, but you, you have products and you have services and when people use a product, they know that they're getting if you buy a BMW, you know it's gonna be sporty and whatever.

And then if you buy a certain brand of clothing, what does it stand for? But when you buy a service you don't know you, you don't know what's in store. And the thing that people want from services most of the time is they want some sort of connection. So if you're represented by a lawyer and a lawyer's not asking you questions and not and doesn't seem like they care about you you're not gonna like them back.

And so people will want to work with people and they want to. Employees and other things, and others that will like them. And so they wanna then, they wanna like those people. And so you need to be likable. And I, this is a very difficult topic to address properly, but you being likable is really what makes a huge difference and any sort of connection.

And so we'll talk about how to be likable. But being likable means, really this is what it means. It means that your cover letter,

your cover letter needs to be about the employer and the person you're writing

to more than you. So just think about receiving a letter. So if you receive a letter from someone Pam, that letter is saying just the person's just talking about how great they are that's not really to do much for you. But if you receive a letter and the letter says, we like you for this reason, we like you for this reason, we think you're great for this reason.

That's a big deal. I had something, it was funny I'll tell you this. Cause everyone in those college lawyers and things and law students I had this when I was in college. I had this law school. It was a good law school that I was interested in going to.

And they wrote me a letter rejecting me. And telling me all the things they liked about me in the rejection letter. They, it's one paragraph, but it was based on, and I was like, what the heck? And I couldn't make it, I didn't know what to make out of it. And I went to the law school advisor, and I was like, what do I do with this?

And I kept it because it was like a very nice letter. So very few people take the time to write things about us and things to us that are nice. So what, how do, how would you, how would your cover letter make people like you? There are a lot of ways you can do that. One way would be if a law firm has an opening, you call them up and talk to someone there.

And maybe it's someone that is in a recruiting role, a recruiting coordinator, or someone. And they'll talk to you, ask 'em a little bit about the job, and then you write a letter. Your cover letter talks about how great the person was, about all the nice things they said about the job, and what a great job they're doing.

Now, you don't say it that way, but you would say something along those lines. All of a sudden, that person likes you. And they're your resume cuz they're thinking very positive thoughts, and go right to the top of the pile. And they're, they like you because you write that if you write a cover letter and it talks about someone at the firm that you admire and something along those lines.

They like you. If you've done something, if you have some way to connect with people, if you have some shared experience and know someone there and admire them, anything that makes you likable is going to have to make some sort of personal connection. Now you can talk about the bad experiences and things that you've had in your cover letter if you want, but it's about making some sort of connection.

And that connection is generally going to be with someone there or some way to make a connection that makes you stand out. So people who will write harbor letters all the time and they'll say, I'm very familiar with your firm's commitment to such and such, and I'd like you, and I'd like to work that's not a real connection that makes you likable.

A real connection that makes you likable is something along the lines of someone doing a great job or I, I just think this firm is so amazing. I read articles by this person or this I've used the briefs of this person so I've been collecting them since I've been this age.

And or, for the past four years. All those sorts of things make you likable. So anything you can write about the employer as opposed to you, the employer and people there opposed to you, if it's going to, is going to make you stand.

So I had an experience where I wrote this funny letter, but the first job I got in Los Angeles was with Quinn Emanuel. And all my cover letters said it was a very short letter. It was addressed to the hiring partner, but it said I want to practice litigation at the very highest level.

I've talked to people, I know that's exactly what you do. I'm in Detroit where you just finished a big case. I'd love to talk to you. And three days later Bill Erkart, who's sadly no longer alive after sending that letter, called me up and was like, this is amazing. I love your letter.

We've never hired anybody from your law school. And I'd love to meet you and fly you out here right away. And then he gave me a job within an hour, a couple hours of getting into their office. And that was great. But the point is that cover letters like that, that flatter people, that make people feel good about themselves and make them like you make a huge difference.

And this is what no one does. And I'm just telling you all these four things, and I will send around these notes in a word document, by the way before the end of this call make a Difference. So let's go into it. These cover letters now and look at them. So gimme one second. And I will pull up. I just wanna do one thing here.

I wanna here, I'm gonna open Grammarly. Gimme one second. We'll take a look at this. So gimme one second.

Okay. One of the things I always do when I talk to people is I think it's important to be using all of this software that is out there. This is an example, like you can see here this is a 78, you should. Have your letters be the things that you're writing to be at least 99.

There's no excuse for it. And here they're doing things. You can say, you can see, their shortening sentences. Sometimes this comma is and is not necessary, but you can see rearranging sentences. So every attorney should be using this. You should be using it for every email you send.

You should use it for every article you write. Anything. Look at this part-time. It's just, it's not that these errors are serious. And freelance, of course, is not spelled that way. So everyone makes these mistakes and I'm not but attorneys are not, but attorneys are expected to write very well, and this is part of the job.

So if you are writing a cover letter, this is again, we'll start getting into Harrison's rules about cover letters, which I'll also send around if you're writing the cover letter. So if you're writing a cover letter, the first rule is not to make any mistakes, to not make any grammar mistakes, any grammar, or spelling.

And let me just tell you why. And I'm giving this to you and you must use Grammarly and others. Grammarly and other tools are pro writing aids and all these different things. Let me tell you why this is so important. And I feel bad because I may be talking, I'm talking, I don't know if this resume is from an attorney or who it's from] or this but this is, it's very serious.

So if you're writing a cover letter and you're making mistakes about grammar, and spelling, this is attorneys are hired to be able to write, to write that's your job. So if you're making errors in your cover letter, errors in your cover letter you're showing that you're not a good attorney.

Why in the world would you do that? It's, I can't even it's very serious. You can't, you cannot write a cover letter and expect to make errors and get a job. Now, some firms will hire you and if you're making errors, this is what attorneys are hired to do.

So if you're making errors in your cover letter, you are hired to represent others and make a good, and to represent other people and businesses and make them look good. And how can you do that? How can you possibly do that if you can't do that for yourself?

So this is extremely important and it's interesting too cuz you know, I work with people that are at really good firms. Like Sullivan Crowell and all these, different and Davis Polk and things. And when people, when these sorts of people at these firms like to turn in a resume or they turn in a business plan or something.

They're spending days working on it, reworking it, tightening the language, re-rethinking things, and looking at it in different ways. And So that's that, that's how it's done. And it's also how you need to do things as well. You wanna make sure that when you're writing a cover letter that you're not making mistakes.

This person's cover letter. You can just see here, all these issues are problems. And they sh there shouldn't be here. And so I'm not gonna go through and make all these changes right now. I'm gonna work on the cover letter, but this is a problem. All these punctuations, there's all these rules.

There are rules about capitalization when numbers are spelled overseas and written out. There are rules about capitalization and things, but that's a problem. This is the first thing here. This is a long paragraph. And one of the big rules about writing is you should not have and should not make the reader work.

So make the reader work. So the cover letter is all the cover, then the cover letter needs to be short, it needs to make its points quickly, and directly.So let's talk about this. So this person, dear HR administrator. So first of all this particular letter, you should never address a letter to an HR administrator with LinkedIn. And all these different, and Google and all these different sources, you need to always look up who the person is, who the hiring people are, hiring people are in the firm for our employer and send to them.

This is not a dear HR administrator, it should be the dear person so that the first thing is you want to go in and you wanna address it to the person. And extremely important, even if the firm says you go to a, if you're finding a job somewhere online and it says, send it to the HR administrator at this, you still wanna do your best to address it directly to the person. Okay? So right here, I have considerable experience in education, and experience in law, thank you.

ADR and investigations. My master thesis was centered on the ADR environment, but I have a strong appreciation for resolving all kinds of disputes in a less adversarial manner than going to court at Boeing. In addition to doing this at the Merit Systems Protection Board, I did, I'm confident. Okay, so the first thing is if there is a job, you're applying to a job, you're applying to, you need to note it in the cover letter.

If you're not applying for a job, which is okay, you need to give the employer a reason why. , and we'll talk about that in a minute. So the someone that gets this email, if there's just this there's not much to go on. So I've considerable experience in law ADR and investigations, the master thesis, blah, blah, blah. The US Mayor Assistant Protection Board. Okay.

So the first thing is this is way too long. And this paragraph is way too long. There'sThere are ways you can do it. And I'll just give you some examples here of how you can break this stuff up and do things in a way that is going to make sense to the employer who's going there.

So you would do something like this. You would go, considerable experience, blah, blah, blah something like that. So it is obvious that you make things easier for people to read by doing things this way. So you use bullet points and everything to make it easier for people to read.

And so people will read things when they're easier. So this is just an example. And so this, you take a long paragraph and you make it like this. Now I'm gonna talk a little bit about a couple of things where people like to put down their education and the things that they've done.

Most firms do not when you're writing something for a job, especially this person that is an experienced attorney. It looks like the last thing in the world you wanna do is talk about your education. So law firms especially, and most employers want to hire people with experience, with practical experience.And for the most part, do not care too much about your education and the specific subject matter.

Matter. So you may ask yourself why, and especially if you have them, if you like them as a person that's got a master's degree in methods or whatever. So the problem with education is that most of, and again, I'm not, every attorney has to go to school and get a law degree, but most people that get education like this person it's not necessarily going to help this person at all.

So just taking a master's thesis and writing about something is not necessarily gonna benefit the employer. Now it is interesting what this person's experience of Boeing is. So you could put that in there for this ADR job. But I don't think anybody wants to see that, that this belongs on the resume.

Belongs on a resume. And this also you could learn from the resume. From my resume. This also would be from the resume. So all this stuff you can see here is everything that's here so far is just from the resume. There's nothing unusual about anything on this resume so far that you couldn't learn on the resume. So I don't again you're, the purpose of your cover letter is not to talk about your resume.Talk about your resume.

Okay. I'm confident I could serve so and so well in this position. I've long enjoyed working in academia. Ooh, okay. Okay. So part of the problem with anytime you say I've long endured, and enjoyed working in academia is the person's going to ask, can you do the job? Can you do a long-term and all these sorts of questions?

And especially if you are talking and this makes it seem like this person's an academic. And if again, I'm talking about law firms that would think that way. But okay. I did assist. Just turn my interest in Street resolution. There are length and gap absences my full-time outside the home.

I've been deeply involved in part-time freelance work, volunteer activities, and continuing education in the arts while raising a family. Okay. All right. This part here is pretty good. And I'll talk about that in a second. All this stuff here is not helpful. But let's talk about how to, so again, if the objective of the letter is to make the person likable to want the job to be a cultural fit and to be likable this letter needs could be fixed quite a bit.

So let's talk about how to do that. And I do think there's a way to do it. So what I like about this letter is the person talks about a long gap since I was employed full-time outside the home. I've been deeply involved in this while raising the family. I'm now committed to returning to the workforce.

So here let's say this, let's say the person's applying for a job you would say something along the lines of, I am writing to apply,

to apply. This job. And then you would tell the job whatever the job is, ADR such and such, et cetera. I am, let's just, let me see how this person's doing. This. Okay. Okay. I have not been working there for the past several years because I am a single mother. I'm just giving you an example of a single mother who would raise a family. And I am flexible and title income salary and very much committed. Very much like the opportunity to be considered. Something like this. And I'm not gonna do too much more with this. Be considered for this job position.

Some, something along this is going to make much more. Recently to return to the workforce. Something like this is likely to make more of a connection. And we can talk more about this if people have questions after we do the next one.

But you, this is recently returned to the workforce. So something like this is much more likely to get the person I've spoken to so and so about it to X person, and very much appreciated it. Something like that. So this sort of thing is a short letter like this is much more likely to make a connection. Now I'm not saying what needs to be written, but the way it reads now is the person is just talking about all their experience, everything that is already on their resume.

And it's not trying to look strong and all this stuff. And] this person is gonna be much better off with something like this, that, and it could even be better than that. But all this information could theoretically go on there being flexible in the title and salary.

And someone taking a chance on the person cuz that's essentially what they're asking. Okay, let's take a look at the next one. Patent prosecution attorney position. Okay. Firm contact information. Okay, so dear I'm interested in your job posting cause this is good. Okay, let's see if this person writes well.

Okay, so this is an 80. Let's see. Is there any correctness? Yeah, so this is pretty good. You can see there's not a lot of things, but the clarity of it could be improved. But this actual person says they write well and they do. But again, these scores should be over 99.

Okay. So let's see. Dear hiring is done for the. Okay, so this information is probably not necessary if you see this. They already will. This is already on the resume. Some write well in detail. And then this would probably, these terms describe to would probably there's a better way of doing that. It would be something like my colleagues have often noted, that Noted that sort of thing.

One of the things that are probably going on here, just so you understand why the job listing would say something like that, is this person is very smart who wrote this because typically a reason that a lot of times that the job listing may say something like that is they may have lost someone or let someone go that didn't write well or wasn't detail oriented and conscientious.

And so that's why they're saying that, and then some sort of quote there would be nice. And then this is very good too. In the past couple of years, I served as a primary caregiver to my husband, then to my mother. Wow. And this is very good too. Wow. This is very good as well. Wow. Okay.

Okay. So this doesn't need to be there. Wow. Actually, I'm very polite, pleased to see this cover letter. I wow. Yeah, it's a good cover letter. So this is a very good cover letter. I am, I usually don't see cover letters as good in these sorts of meanings, but this is very good. Most of the stuff that is on your resume, you can see here all these sorts of things that the person has put, you never need to repeat your resume.

What's very good about this is that this person has, is making a connection with the employer and making themselves seem sympathetic and discussing why they're not working. So this is very good. You don't need to talk about being eager, but this is very very good.

The reason it's good is that the person's talking about the job listing, they're talking about why they're good. For that then, they're doing it very succinctly. And then they're also talking about and there's probably a better way, you could say, since 2020 or whatever.

But this is very good. So I'm very pleased with this cover letter. I think this is an example of exactly let me, I think this person might have put something here. Okay? What you should do. Again, remember these rules and we're, and we have three of these. So what I'm gonna do is I'll get one, do one more then I will take questions.

I dunno, if there are more resumes that people have put in the chat. I will review those. We'll take a quick break in about five minutes after we do this. But you can see here wanting the job, cultural fit, do we like you, and all that sort of thing. So this is very good. One other thing too is you don't need to tell people to contact you by email and all this sort of thing.

You don't need to give me your contact information. Do not need to tell people how to contact you,

contact you on your letter, just waste space. And the employer can figure it out.

Okay. But yeah, this is a good cover letter. So this is a very good example. I will send this off again to everyone so you can see it. But these are two people who both have been taking care of people and left the workforce. And yeah, but that's great. Okay. Let's take a look at this one.

Okay. I'm writing to apply for the environmental attorney position. Currently, I'm a law clerk for the tribal trust. I'm a contract attorney working from Shaun Gaines in private litigation tribal trust attorneys. These new positions are an excellent opportunity to use my skills and abilities, a broader range.

Okay. This is a fun letter. I read this and I actually like this person. I don't know why but, there's something that kind of comes through about liking this person. So there are certain things that this person could do that would make this a better letter.

Here they're really talking about all the different sorts of things they've been doing. And they're talking about all the litigation and they're talking about basically everything on their resume. They're talking about what they enjoy. They're talking about legal research and.

They're talking about scientific stuff and then they're making all these assumptions about what people do. So most resumes let me know what else you need from me. You don't need to put stuff like that. I look forward to it. Thank you. Fine. The problem with this particular, oh, here we go.

We've got one more cover cut. The problem with this particular cover letter is again it's just repeating everything that's on the resume. So if there's a position that the person's applying for, that's great. Now what's interesting about this resume is, I don't know if tribal trust is the government but the person needs to basically give some sort of interest in working for the government.

And that's what I would recommend, a lot of times the government doesn't know how much, how interested people are interested in working for them. So there needs to be some sort of statement of why this particular job and what the person is interested in.

And this particular cover letter, I don't have a problem with. The person is not why this job is the, does the, is the, does the person know about the work? What kind of work do they do, sort of work? Does the person wanna work for the go?

Person, amount of work for the government, all these sorts of questions. And then but what I like about this person is they're, I, what I would try to do is I would try to make some sort of connection between working for the Tribal Trust and I don't know if that's government and working for and then working for the Environmental Natural Resources Division.

Okay. Let's see. This particular one. Okay. And then I think this is the last one. Okay. I'm interested.

Okay. I don't know if I can help this person. This letter here, it doesn't mean there's not really much going on here. I guess it's a foreign letter and it's not really connecting with a US legal employer at. For a motivational interview. Okay. I'm gonna take a quick break for just two or three minutes.

I will come back and I will answer questions that people may have about these or anything I covered earlier here. And then I will also review more cover letters if you put them in the chat or the q and a. And I will do those. And I apologize for talking so long. I just wanted to make sure that I covered all this.

And then I am excited to hear everyone's questions and about these cover letters as well. And as we take questions, we'll also develop more rules and I'll send this to everyone at the end of the call. All right. Just a few minutes and I'll, we'll be back. Thanks.

Okay. And I'll start answering questions and then some people, oh, great. So we've got some more cover letters, so we'll review those and then we'll take questions. And then if anybody has any more questions as well then that's great. So if you can add those, I'll start with the questions.

Okay. So this is the first question and one thing I wanted is just a quick point that I think is really important for everyone to understand is job jobs are gotten and and people hire people based on connection. And so the connection is very important. And the extent your cover letter is, you're really your one opportunity to make a connection.

And what I mean by connection is lemme just put this down as the rule is, and I'll just give you some examples. So I, all the time I'm talking to candidates and I, I remember not too long ago talking to this candidate and he'd gone to like Rutgers or something, was in the middle of his class and working at a good firm, a major US American law firm in New York City.

And one of the largest firms in the world. And he, his job started maybe in January or something as opposed to September, when everyone else did. And he hadn't done the summer associate job or anything anywhere. And I was like, wow, like this is crazy. How did you get this job?

And he said I was going to the dog park and I was walking my dog. And he was in New Jersey somewhere. The partner and his wife were there from this firm. And he said, why don't you send me your resume? And I'll be happy to talk to you. And so that's how that person got a job.

And so people get jobs based on connection all the time. I've, numerous placements, more than I can count. Were based on connection. . And so when you're trying to get a job, the best tool that you have to get any job is making the connection with an employer and getting a connection.

Getting that connection if you can't, is through the cover letter is your best tool if you can use it. So some sort of connection is important. And that means if this person can connect with someone that raised children and went back to work, if this person, someone respects them for what they did.

And all these things are about connection. So I just can't stress enough the importance of connection. So how should I frame a car letter when I was fired from my last job, especially a new attorney where my experience was less than six months, I was laid off after only a few months by an inexperienced partner, supervisor and now I'm trying to change my thing in a partner line.

Okay. So the first thing is this is just a rule that I would recommend If a firm doesn't have the money to pay you and they lay you off and it's a small firm or I don't know what it would be, but then you don't need to say anything about it. If they ask you about it in the interview, that's perfectly fine.

But you don't need to say anything about it. You just apply for the job. And you could say I was laid off. But what, I don't what one of the things I would say about what you're saying, inexperienced partner, supervisor, and that may be the issue, but a lot of times, and this is what most people do, so you're not alone, but you shouldn't be blaming you, you need to take a look at what you could have done differently instead of blaming the firm for laying you off.

So maybe you could have worked hard or maybe you could have done something. So the kind of letter that employers never see is I didn't build enough hours and now I know the importance of really getting work. And they never see stuff like that. But if you're ever accountable and you take accountability for this stuff that's very rare.

And that's not something people ever see. I would not necessarily blame the firm. I would think about what you could have done differently and then just not do that in your next position. And people learn all sorts of lessons and different jobs, and that may be one of them.

Okay, let's see here. Okay, that gets more cover letters. Lemme see here.

Okay, so this is another question. So I, this is a good one, may be wrong, but it seems that most online job postings do not require a cover letter. Should you try to submit one, even if there's no way to do it? So yes, you can. I, it's interesting. Like I had an opening recently for a coo o and our company and received hundreds of applications but only a few people were not of their way to message me on LinkedIn and connect with me and then try to tell me how much they were interested in the job and then send a cover letter through that, even if they'd sent another one.

And that got my attention and I'm like, I gotta respond to these people. And so these people rose to the very top of my pile, even though I had all these other applicants. Cuz I'm like, oh boy, I got these responsibilities, these people tech, connecting with me and messaging me on LinkedIn. I better respond to them.

And then I looked at their stuff and it got my attention. So your cover letter if you have another way of getting in touch with people or the people that are in charge of hiring and getting their attention is very smart cuz that worked with me. All the stories I've told you today and then.

And then one person talked about how they'd worked in another league. I think they were working in a law firm doing c o type of work or something. And it works. Yes, so anything you can do to get the employer's attention is a big deal. And you should do your best to get attention.

And I would recommend sending something to find out who the person is on LinkedIn and or finding or texting or emailing the person. Emailing the person directly yourself or emailing the hiring partner. If it's a law firm and it's not, no person is listed or person in charge of the practice group, getting the person's attention is huge.

And it can make a major difference. So if you don't do that, then then you're going to not rise to the top of the pile. So I'll tell you another very interesting thing. So at B C G, like when we're submitting candidates to firms, we don't just submit them with a resume and cover letter.

An email address or an online portal. We also usually send faxes even though people don't use faxes anymore. Then we'll also send written letters that we print and, we'll do everything that we possibly can to get attention and so your job and that's one of the, and it works because not everybody reviews every email, but they certainly take a look at faxes.

Not everybody reviews every fax, but they certainly, if they get a letter in the mail and they open it up and it sits on their desk, it makes a big difference. So these are tools and things that you should be doing to get a job. And you should make sure that you get your cover letter out there.

It makes a difference, and especially if there's no way to do it, the people that get a pension, again, as I showed you up here earlier, we hire people that want the job. So everybody does. So if somebody wants the job and there's no way to submit a cover letter and you're able to submit a cover letter through LinkedIn or through finding the person's contact information, then that's much better than what other people are doing.

Other people are just like lemmings and not doing these other things. So I definitely would recommend that. So that's a great question. Thank you. Person's name's David. And someone just said the chat is disabled. Where do I send my cover letter to be reviewed? Just send it into the chat and the webinar.

Okay, so here's another question. So someone says when writing a cover letter, who is the best person to address it to? So I'm gonna give you some advice that no one's ever going to tell you. And I will give it anyway. So there was a guy named Wayne Starr.

And he's not alive anymore. He was a Yale Law School graduate and he started this business where he would help people mail out their resumes and I'll never, and so we used to have a business doing that for, and probably still should cuz it's most extremely effective. I'm mailing people's resumes out to employers.

But what Wayne said is that you always send a letter to the c e o of a company. He was talking about executives getting positions because if it comes, it goes to the CEO e o of the company then the CEO's always going to forward it. The HR department and the HR department are going to pay attention to it if it goes to the CEO.

Very interesting. So if it goes to the c e o, then the HR department, and it comes from the c e o, they don't know how the c e o got it. They don't know if it's a friend of theirs or whatever, but many times they're more likely to get jobs. Most law firms have recruiting department