#coverletter — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #coverletter, aggregated by home.social.
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Employers hire people, not just skills. Your story—your values, your determination—can make you unforgettable. Tell it well.
Read here: https://www.barrierstoemployment.com/want-to-stand-out-from-the-crowdyou-have-a-story-tell-it/#JobSearch #CareerAdvice #CoverLetter #Storytelling #JobHunt #PersonalBranding
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Nearly a third of job seekers now use AI to write or customize their applications. The tool is not the issue. How most people use it is.
Read more: https://www.careerreload.com/why-your-ai-cover-letter-isnt-working/
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Why Your AI Cover Letter Isn’t Working (And What Actually Does)
Read more: https://www.careerreload.com/why-your-ai-cover-letter-isnt-working/
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Winter Reruns: “An Eagerness to Learn is Important on the Job”
I’m taking time off! I’ll be back with new content in February. Take this survey to share your opinions about what would be most helpful/interesting. While I’m out, I’m running a selection of Hiring Librarians’ greatest hits and most reviled posts.
This is a very early survey response! Most survey respondents choose to reply anonymously, but a generous double handful are ok with attaching their name (and face) to their words. Marleah filled out the original survey on March 5, 2012, and the post ran on March 26, 2012. Marleah then went on to join my list of folks who answer questions for the Further Questions feature (as a lot of non-anonymous folks do), and stuck with me for a few years and a move to a new job halfway across the country. I’m grateful for her time, and for all the folks who take time to answer my questions.
This interview is with Marleah Augustine, the Adult Department Librarian at Hays Public Library in Hays, Kansas, an institution with 10-50 employees. You can take a look at what Hays Librarians are reading and watching here. Ms. Augustine has been a hiring manager. If you have questions, you can post them (anonymously even) in the comments and she will check back periodically to answer.
What are the top three things you look for in a candidate?
Customer service experience,
library experience,
can answer questions calmly and logically during interviewDo you have any instant dealbreakers, either in the application packet or the interview process?
Incomplete applications, where not all fields are filled out
What are you tired of seeing on resumes/in cover letters?
“I love to read” – most of us do, but it’s not very helpful when determining who to hire. 🙂
Is there anything that people don’t put on their resumes that you wish they did?
Customer service experience. Many think that working in a library just entails putting books away and that kind of thing, not so much face-to-face interaction.
How many pages should a cover letter be?
√ Only one!
How many pages should a resume/CV be?
√ Two is ok, but no more
Do you have a preferred format for application documents?
√ .pdf
Should a resume/CV have an Objective statement?
√ I don’t care
If applications are emailed, how should the cover letter be submitted?
√ I don’t care
What’s the best way to win you over in an interview?
Appear relaxed rather than nervous and relate my “on the job” questions to real experience — when I ask why confidentiality is important when working in a library, relate it to something concrete rather than just giving me abstract answers.
What are some of the most common mistakes people make in an interview?
Just talking abstractly about library concepts (confidentiality, privacy, checking out to people under 18) — instead, give me some actual experiences you’ve had or even make up a situation that shows your knowledge of it, rather than just repeating back a concept or definition.
How has hiring changed at your organization since you’ve been in on the process?
I started hiring staff about 18 months ago and use virtually the same interview questions that my predecessor used. We do have somewhat different positions, so I hire for two separate part-time positions (level I and level II) rather than just one.
Anything else you’d like to let job-seekers know?
Be confident but be ok with admitting that you don’t know something! An eagerness to learn is important on the job.
#coverletter #Employment #Hiring #Interview #Librarian #librarians #libraries #Library #PublicLibrary
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Winter Reruns: “We’re Hiring a Person, Not a Robot”
I’m taking time off! I’ll be back with new content in February. Take this survey to share your opinions about what would be most helpful/interesting.
While I’m out, I’m running a selection of Hiring Librarians’ greatest hits and most reviled posts. This is the second most viewed of any survey response, 2012-2025. The anonymous respondent filled out my Original Hiring Librarians Survey on March 2, 2012, and the post originally ran on March 13, 2012.
I’m not really certain why it has so many views. It’s quite early on in the Hiring Librarians timeline, so the only thing I can think of is that this post was what folks grabbed when they first started sharing the website with others. Hiring Librarians went from very few views in the first month of existence (Feb 2012) to a whole gosh darn lot of views in the second month (March 2012). But it also was a good 2-3 years before the peak views of 2014-2015, so I’m not sure that this theory is correct.
There are a scant handful of comments on the original post, including one from me before I understood that hiring for fit is a concept that often reinforces our profession’s implicit biases and white monoculture. In case you don’t know, hiring for fit is uncool. See more here:
Cunningham, Sojourna, Samantha Guss, and Jennifer Stout. “Challenging the ‘Good Fit’ Narrative: Creating Inclusive Recruitment Practices in Academic Libraries.” In Recasting the Narrative: The Proceedings of the ACRL 2019 Conference, April 10–13, 2019, Cleveland, Ohio, edited by Dawn M. Mueller, 12-21. Cleveland, Ohio: ACRL, 2019. https://alair.ala.org/bitstream/handle/11213/17632/ChallengingtheGoodFitNarrative.pdf
This anonymous interview is with an Academic librarian who has been a hiring manager and a member of a hiring committee at a library with 0-10 staff members.
What are the top three things you look for in a candidate?
1. Do their skills match what we’re looking for?
2. Will they fit into our culture? Do they play well with others?
3. Do they appear smart enough to learn what they don’t know?Do you have any instant dealbreakers, either in the application packet or the interview process?
Application packet: poor grammar or spelling, not matching the cover letter/resume to the position. To be honest, most cover letters are boring – they all sound the same. Add some personality, use some humor. We’re hiring a person, not a robot.
Interview process: nervous gestures/laughter/habits. We just disregarded a candidate because she began the answers to every question during the phone interview with a squeaky “sure.” Dressing inappropriately. We’re located in a northern climate with lots of snow – don’t wear high heels. I know you want to impress but practicality is the best image to put forth. Investigate where you’re going – is it hot? Cold? Windy? Plan ahead; it proves you’re paying attention.
What are you tired of seeing on resumes/in cover letters?
The same old boilerplate language: “I look forward to hearing from you;” “I believe I would be a good candidate because . . .” etc. Be a real person. Stand out.
Is there anything that people don’t put on their resumes that you wish they did?
Not resumes but I wish cover letters addressed why someone chose this profession in general and this position in specific. Everyone “just wants a job,” but why should we give you this job?
How many pages should a cover letter be?
√ As many as it takes, but shorter is better
How many pages should a resume/CV be?
√ As many as it takes, but keep it short and sweet
Do you have a preferred format for application documents?
√ No preference, as long as I can open it.
Should a resume/CV have an Objective statement?
√ I don’t care.
If applications are emailed, how should the cover letter be submitted?
√ I don’t care.
What’s the best way to win you over in an interview?
Be articulate, intelligent, funny. Demonstrate you can fit into a small library, be a team player. Be honest.
What are some of the most common mistakes people make in an interview?
Being surprised at basic questions. If the position is Public Services in an academic library expect to be asked about information literacy assessment, teaching approaches, etc.
Being unprepared. If you’re doing a presentation using your own technology make sure it works beforehand.How has hiring changed at your organization since you’ve been in on the process?
It hasn’t.
Anything else you’d like to let job-seekers know?
We’ve hired many times since I’ve been at my institution and the one thing every person who landed the job had in common is that they had personality. Don’t be afraid to laugh, make a joke, ask a stupid question. As I said above, we’re hiring a person, not a robot. Let us know who you are. That’s just as important as what you can do.
One thing I forgot to add – another piece of advice: be assertive. Don’t say “I think I’d be a good fit” or “I believe I can do the job” etc. Say “I can” and “I know.” Show confidence even if you don’t completely believe it. It’s a tired old saying but still true – if you think you can you will.
#academic #careers #coverletter #Employment #Hiring #interviewers #interviews #JobInterview #jobs #librarians #libraries
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Công cụ viết thư giới thiệu miễn phí! Cover Craft giúp bạn viết thư giới thiệu dễ dàng. Dự án sử dụng 100% vibe coding, đơn giản nhưng hữu ích. #CoverLetter #ThưGiớiThiệu #CôngCụMinPhí #WritingTool #SựNgànhNghề #CareerDevelopment
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Made this app to make it easy for people to create a cover letter. Feedback is welcome. Be sure to pitch in some money if you find it valuable.
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#Hiring #coverletter “I have delivered over 400 projects in last 3 years”. OK next. How can someone “deliver” SW project every 2-3 days. And event if that possible those are small change requests, not projects.
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4 fatal #coverletter mistakes—and how to avoid making them
https://www.fastcompany.com/91300988/cover-letter-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-making-them
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If you send an AI generated cover letter for a job application, please save us the pain and do not send any. It's so tiring to read the same AI generated BS. #job #coverletter #ai
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After pasting another slight variation of #résumé bullet points and #CoverLetter into yet another company’s unique snowflake instance of an applicant tracking system, I am ready for JSON Resume to kick them and the big job boards down to the curb: https://JSONResume.org
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Are there any #academics out there who have had to reapply for the same job they were currently doing in order for a line to go from temp to permanent? Struggling with finding the right tone/approach for a hiring committee made of people I know and who are at least somewhat familiar with my work at the institution.
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So I reran this experiment with a more sophisticated model and ... it ended up really pretty good. Far too long to really paste into Mastodon, but you can see the job description at https://gist.githubusercontent.com/jbfink/99149d402645bbaa898ba9ea2fcd4dc7/raw/aaac45de381a1ac0cd91e5bf9d7ed74a26760fdc/digitization-librarian-description.txt and the cover letter at https://gist.githubusercontent.com/jbfink/99149d402645bbaa898ba9ea2fcd4dc7/raw/aaac45de381a1ac0cd91e5bf9d7ed74a26760fdc/wizard-vicuna-13b-response.txt .
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I wrote a bit more about my experience with #ChatGPT and how it's teaching me that the things a computer can do well aren't the important parts of a cover letter.
https://careerwise.ceric.ca/2023/03/13/how-chatgpt-taught-me-what-isnt-important-in-cover-letters/
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Writing a cover letter seems to be hard for many people. Instead of re-telling your CV, try to talk about
‣ how your experience enables you to help the company you’re applying to
‣ what you’ve achieved so far in your career
‣ why you will fit the company and team.
What else would you add?
#uxjob #uxdesign #productdesign #jobsearch #coverletter #storytelling
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