I've been submitting a lot of cover letters, and for my own sanity I've been trying to customize them as much as possible. The whole find-and-replace method for cover letters is really not my cup of coffee.
If I don't know that much about the company, I'll make sure I go through their website and find out what they're really about, read their blog (engineering blogs are even better), and comb through the Internet for any relevant articles about their products. Then I'll think of why I'd want to work there and how I can contribute to their platform, which is sometimes hard to do without having access to use it.
Then, I'll craft a well thought out cover letter and submit it along with my resume, links to my LinkedIn/Twitter/GitHub, etc. I can't not submit a cover letter when the option is there, that's my policy. I don't like to do things half-heartedly because I can't help but wonder: what if that one cover letter makes all the difference?
I've always believed that positive sentiments outweigh the negative, which is why my cover letters are all focused on the positive stuff. I'm optimistic about my skills as an engineer and I'm excited to talk about the projects I've enjoyed building on my journey to becoming an engineer. These things I can go on and on about.
However, I'm not oblivious to the areas where I'm lacking. Studies show that sometimes, all it takes is for one negative thing to ruin everything. So let's think of it in terms of my skill level as an engineer. I don't have a CS degree. I don't even have 1+ years of engineering experience. Already I can think of two basic requirements in almost all software engineering job postings that shed a negative light on my background. Which is why it's a hard pill for me to swallow that I can't dispute these cold, hard facts.
Instead of tiptoeing around my lack of a CS degree or years of experience, I wish I could address these points of deduction head-on in my cover letters. That being said, since I can't bring myself to invite any negativity into my cover letters, I realized that I can address these frustrating points in my blog:
1. I know I don't have a CS degree. I wish I did! I thought about it senior year of college but didn't want to have to go through all the prerequisite classes to get to the CS major classes when I was so close to graduating with two already-complete majors. However, I did self-select to enroll in Hackbright, where I was able to become proficient at Python, Javascript, and SQL (along with some other frameworks and tools like Flask, SQLAlchemy, jQuery, AJAX, etc.) enough to build a web application from start to finish, backend to frontend!
2. I don't have a full year of working experience in software engineering. And I'm not going to pretend and say I do because I can't speed up a year any more than the sun can. I do, however, have the work ethic of someone fresh out of college. I just graduated! Not from a 4-year institution, but from a 3-month full-time program that made sure I had a lot discipline (hello, 0 income life) before, during, and after the program. I had to save up enough $$ prior to applying to Hackbright, quit my job to attend Hackbright, be present and engaged in classes and lab all day, work on assessments that required hours of my time, design a project front to end, and present it in front of other engineers. I'll be damned if I let all this hard work go to waste by not giving it my all at whichever company decides to take a chance on me.
3. I have incredible experience in other industries (read: lots of soft skills). Prior to becoming a software engineer, I was in marketing. I've done marketing both in-house and at an agency. I've worked with 15+ different clients from the tech, lifestyle, and hospitality industries, many of them at the same time. I've managed our marketing team, and was described by my boss as her right hand. I know how to tailor my speech around different clients, email them at the right time, and decipher what they say and want so I can convey these requests to our project manager and designers. I'm great at empathizing, and I think that's something incredibly valuable that's incredibly hard to convey in a cover letter.
4. Because I just graduated, I'm like a sponge! I know I have a lot of catching up to do, which is why I want to continue learning. Since graduating Hackbright, I've attended a hackathon, helped a coding nonprofit write lecture material, attended many many coding meetups, signed up for a few classes on React and built a few apps with this framework, and I'm going to start learning Node.js next. Here's the thing: I'm just getting started. I'm not dead-set on my ways of how things should be in the world of programming like how some seasoned engineers may be, because I don't know what the "ways" are. I'm still discovering my way and having loads of fun while I'm at it, and I wish I could convey this excitement over the ATS.
So there you have it. If I think of more, I might add to it, but here it is. The addendum to my cover letters that have been/are going to be sent into the abyss of job portals.
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