Cover Letters...le sigh

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Resources of the Week!

1. More niche job boards from Adam Karpiak!

2. Here’s why I always say to search for posts about jobs, instead of just the jobs board on LinkedIn! It’s expensive to post jobs - so some companies aren’t going to add jobs on LinkedIn, but they’ll still post about hiring!

3. One of the things you’ll often hear me and others in recruiting say is to show the skills in context. But what does that mean? Here’s an example for “team player” and another for “self starter”.

4. I put together a few templates for things like recruiter outreach, thank you notes, negotiating compensation, etc. You can find them on Instagram!

5. And sign up for a networking chat!

Cover Letters

Cover letters used to be standard practice for a job application.

But that was also in an era before we had social media to learn more about someone. Before people were applying for hundreds of jobs to land a single role.

In 2024, they feel like an unnecessary part of the process, and fortunately, many companies have stopped asking for them.

But when they DO want you to write one? Well, then you write one (in my opinion).

Need tips on how to do that? Check out this blog post I wrote for Teal that includes step-by-step guidance. 🙂 

🙋Answering Your Questions🙋

Each week, I’ll answer a few of your questions in this section. You can submit your questions here.

Recruiters ask this question because they want to get a sense of your timeline, urgency, and sometimes to gain insight into your enthusiasm for the role.

If you say you’re expecting an offer that week, they may note that they are unlikely to move that quickly, and ask if it makes sense to move forward.

If you say you’ve had no other interviews, they’ll know they don’t need to rush the process.

And human nature is to believe that someone with more options is a stronger candidate - so I never say that it’s my first interview, or only option. (If a company plays games in their negotiating process, this could also put you at a disadvantage).

Personally, my suggestion is to say something like, “I’m lucky that I’ve had some great conversations with a few companies, but I’m really excited about our conversation today because this role seems like a particularly good fit. I want to move quickly of course, but I am also going to hold out for the right opportunity.”

This way, you balance urgency and showing you’re desirable with also communicating genuine interest and not artificially inflating the timeline.

I’ve seen some online coaches recommend saying you’re expecting an offer soon to try to speed up a process. Personally, I wouldn’t say this if it’s not true because they may decide you’re not a winnable candidate and move on with others only to leave you with no offers at all.

Ugh HR roles are SO tough right now because we were so heavily impacted by layoffs.

A few steps I might take:

1. Explore contract opportunities - staffing agencies may have short term opportunities as some companies have outsourced more of HR while determining if they need full-time capacity.

2. Consider leaning on other skills. For example, you likely did a lot of project management in your role so adjusting your title to “Project Manager (People Ops Generalist) might be a way to appeal to those hiring for project management roles. Executive Assistant, Operations Manager, or Coordinator roles could be a good fit too!

3. If you have other experiences from the past, this might be the time to consider revisiting those fields as well since HR has been a difficult space to find work in for so many!

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