After writing my first cover letter of the summer, sending it to some friends and generous alums, getting it back changing it, revising it, starting over completely, changing it back-two weeks later- I came up with my final draft. Well, what I thought was my final.
For those that don't know, I freelance once a week for the Media Department at RISD. By only fate, is my supervisor a former employee of an agency in the Great Boston Area, Racepoint Group, and was kind enough to offer to take my cover letter and resume and send it through some people she knows that still works there. Ironically, I follow them on LinkedIn, and notice they were hiring, Like I said, fate.
I admit, I am a little rusty on the whole cover letter format thing, I haven't written one in over a year. It is a little awkward starting off, finding that balance of modesty yet wanting to show off your skills without sounding so desperate-"PLEASE HIRE ME." Not to mention the pressure, you have one shot, one spelling error, and BOOM- trash can- or I guess in these days "DELETE."
Therefore, I thought two weeks was more than enough time, and this cover letter had to be complete. I sent it to my supervisor. SEND. I reopen it to give it one more read, and right there in the first paragraph, I am missing a period. My heart stops. IMPOSSIBLE. So I come up with an excuse that I sent the wrong CL, resent it in a PDF, after adding the period and a couple other things... Two hours later. I re-read it. And my mind is going back to Journalism 341 Editing for Publication (my least favorite class) I know numbers over 10 should be typed in numerals, and majors should be capitalized... I didn't do these things. CRAP. I am really messing up on this one. I go back and forth on the options to my bff Khiara- should I just accept defeat? or confront it, resend ANOTHER , explain and make a fool out of myself. Khiara votes- fix it, and it will show you want to have things right.- So for the THIRD e-mail, I make the revisions and admit to my supervisor my nervousness and lack of experience writing cover letters. I don't hear from her. My thoughts are , she's thinking - "I am not putting myself out on the limb for someone as idiotic and careless as this."
To my surprise, at the end of the day she responds that she understands, is more than happy to help and even made a suggestion herself. THANK GOD. Goes to show you, people remember how it was first starting out, it's scary, we are new at this, and all we can do is learn. So lesson? It's important to get it right. Maybe not always four e-mails worth of trials, but my mind was in the right place and I am sure my supervisor saw that (I hope.) Regardless, I get a good laugh every time I open my e-mail and see that ridiculously long thread (seriously ,click the picture- you will too) But despite it all , I wrote three more cover letters,even one to CONE in Boston, and it's only getting easier. Wish me Luck.
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