A rather different sort of application

Now I among many other thousands of graduates out there grappling for the remaining scraps of jobs to get us started on the ladder to that mythical thing entitled a 'career', have all had to go through the same process. Covering letter and CV, but how do you make yourself stand out from the crowd, when we're all preaching about how awesome, professional and hard working we are?

Well recently I got sick of the bog-standard format and in my Italo Calvino inspired state I penned a different kind of covering letter. One that seems to have had good reviews, although it's not a covering letter for the faint of heart...

You have just picked up, what is bound to be another dull covering letter from your large stack of cv’s and application forms that have recently been handed to you to go through. You had a heavy night last night and have better to things to be getting on with than sorting through these applications. Nevertheless you sit at your desk, with your ever increasingly cold cup of badly-made coffee and read through the same jargon and mumbo-jumbo about how ‘driven’ and ‘hard working’ each respondent is. You’re beginning to get bored of the same phrases and although there are some who are qualified, the process is getting tedious and you’re no longer focusing. What did that just say? You had better read that last bit again, you know you weren’t properly paying attention.

But then one covering letter stands out from the rest, her name is Alexandra Hobbs and she has worked in a marketing environment before. She has even had the experience of updating a company website and maintaining databases and so has some of the basic skills that you require. You take a sip of that now rather cold muddy coffee and continue to read. The covering letter says that she is an avid user of social media and frequently blogs, you notice that she has demonstratable interest and knowledge into the fields you require. She’s a fresh graduate and therefore is easily moulded into the ethos and values of your company. The covering letter then goes on to describe how organised and hard working she is but also how eager she is to learn, be challenged and work hard to rise through the ranks of your company. You think about it, it’s a little different from the covering letters you’ve seen before and you think her fresh approach will bring something to the company. Plus the covering letter describes one of her latest talents as being a barista at a gastropub. You look at your cold ‘i’d rather be shopping’ mug of murky coffee and think that anything she could make must be better than this.

That’s where the covering letter stops, with some formal acknowledgements and hopes to hear from you soon. But you don’t want it to stop, you want to know more. You had better give her a call.