finding career zen

A New Perspective on Cover Letters

• Pete Newsome • Episode 52

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HR consultant Ricky Baez joins Pete Newsome again on Finding Career Zen, but this time, he's in for a bit of a challenge. Pete is on a mission to shift his stance on cover letters, and by the end of their chat, you might be rethinking their relevance too! They get into the nitty-gritty of employment gaps, frequent job changes, and early career dilemmas, proving your resume alone can't tell the whole story.

You're in for a debate that's anything but dry as Ricky and Pete fight over the purpose and potential of cover letters in securing your dream job. This episode will give you some insights that could completely change your approach to getting hired. Be sure to tune in for a conversation full of laughs and the kind of career advice you can't afford to miss!

Additional Resources:

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👋 FOLLOW PETE NEWSOME ONLINE:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petenewsome/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PeteNewsome

👋 FOLLOW RICKY BAEZ ONLINE:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/efrainrickybaez/
Blog Articles: https://www.baezco.com/baezco-blog

Pete Newsome:

You're listening to the Finding Career

Ricky Baez:

Zen podcast.

Pete Newsome:

Today we are talking about cover letters, and I brought back Ricky Baez, who is not a fan of cover letters, because today is the day. Ricky, I'm going to convince you that sometimes they come in really handy. Are you ready for that? Place your bets, folks Go ahead, let's see what happens. So, ricky, you're an HR consultant. This is what you do. You live in this world. You have for a long time, and in recent discussions we're on record where I am a fan of cover letters. I think there is a place for them, even in today's modern marketplace, even in our digital world. But you think well, I don't want to put words in your mouth. What do you think about cover letters?

Ricky Baez:

I think they're a waste of time. I don't pay attention to them at all. Now again, this is just me, from my experience. I rather get straight to the point to see what the person has to offer.

Pete Newsome:

So to me, yeah, Spoken like someone who's been in recruiting. Because you want to get, you just want the facts, baby, right, you want to get right to the point. We don't have time to read cover letters and hear someone's life story, and I generally agree with you. But there's exceptions to every rule life story and I generally agree with you, but there's exceptions to every rule, and it's those exceptions I want to talk about today and I believe that I can change your mind. So if you're up for it, I'm going to do my best. I'm up for it, let's do this. So let's think about it from two perspectives. One is situational and then one is how the cover letter gets presented or delivered. So let's start with the situation Now.

Pete Newsome:

We all want to be that candidate whose resume is beautiful. It looks just like the job description, there are no blemishes, there's no question marks on it, it is pristine. But reality at times is different. There's gaps that are on resumes, sometimes through no fault of the candidates. Maybe they were out saving the world on a mission, right? It doesn't mean they were sitting at home not working or in prison, right? Maybe they were out doing something really good and there was a reason it was necessary to have that employment gap. Or another example could be that if you had a lot of jobs, now many modern employees, young employees all say don't think that job hopping is a lot of jobs. Now many modern employees, young employees I'll say don't think that job hopping is a bad idea. But as someone who's done a lot of hiring, what do you think about that?

Ricky Baez:

You know somebody, somebody who's trying to make sure that you find the best person for the position that's going to be there for a while. Job hopping is really going to raise a red flag for certain recruiters.

Pete Newsome:

And let's just call it for what it is.

Pete Newsome:

If an employee has a history of job hopping as someone who's considering hiring that employee, we naturally assume that they won't stay at our job very long either. That's right, and no matter what people who are in the situation of the employee think about it, we know that that's real and it will not be looked at favorably. But there's also, like we said, a lot of good reasons where that could happen. If you were in Silicon Valley and your company, you happen to work for a string of companies that went out of business despite you accomplishing great things during your time there. That can happen through no fault of your own, and we know that to be true. Right.

Pete Newsome:

And there's a third example that I'll give, and this is why it's on my mind right now. It came up yesterday. I was speaking with someone who was relatively new in their career and they acknowledged that their resume the words and phrases, job titles, the descriptions of the work they've done doesn't and qualified to do a lot of different jobs, and they want to be able to tell their story, they want to state their case, and in each of these scenarios, you can't tell that story through the resume.

Pete Newsome:

You can't You're right, you know the gap is just a gap, right? The multiple jobs in a short timeframe are just multiple jobs and the keywords on the resume and the background that doesn't exactly match up with the job description is going to be nearly impossible for a recruiter to put those pieces of the puzzle together.

Ricky Baez:

So, so, so let me ask you because I think a good recruiter could put those pieces together, pete because if I was looking at that, if I'm impressed so far with what I see, and then I see a gap, I'm like, wait, let me call this guy, let me call this girl. Hey, why do you have? Let's talk, come on in, explain that gap. Now, if I'm not impressed with the technical aspect, with the experience this person has, regardless whether they have a gap or not, I'm not calling them. So to me, if the resume is written in such a way that it captures my attention and then I see that gap, that's more than a sentence for me to pick up that phone.

Pete Newsome:

Well, you'd be in the minority of recruiters who do that. We know that recruiters are looking for the ideal candidate, and so let me challenge that statement. If you have to fill one position and you're a recruiter and you want to be as efficient as possible with your time and how, the time of the hiring manager is going to be spent and you have 200 candidates to look through and one of them who has a giant gap in the resume, and you're 10 resumes in. You've already found a couple that look pretty good and you have 190 left to go Are you really making the phone call to the one?

Ricky Baez:

No touche, I am not, I am not. Yeah, yeah, I'm with you there.

Pete Newsome:

The point being is the market is driven by supply and demand. So if you have the basketball skills of of Caitlin Clark, then you can afford to have a gap on your resume, right? If you're the Caitlin Clark of of of job.

Ricky Baez:

She hasn't worked in 20 years, but did you see her play last week?

Pete Newsome:

But if you're just an average candidate, or one that's who is less than stellar, you probably can't afford to have a big, glaring red flag like that. So we acknowledge that it's a red flag.

Pete Newsome:

Sometimes, there may be circumstances that allow you to get away with it, but playing the odds, I think more often than not it's going to exclude you from consideration or at least potentially exclude you. I get that, I get it. So that's where the cover letter comes in play. To me, it gives the candidate a chance to tell their story in a way that the resume cannot. As a candidate, it's tough out there, right? I mean, it is tough going and you have to be able to state your case. Now, when you get to an in-person interview, you get to a phone screen. You have that opportunity, and that's really the purpose of a resume. For me, it's to get you in the door. It's the cover to the book and, like any book, if the recruiter doesn't like what they see on the cover, they're going to move on, and the cover letter is that opportunity to tell your story and to present yourself the way you want it to be told.

Ricky Baez:

And so I'm with you. I'm with you. I think, where we are, pete, is. You're saying it adds value, I'm not saying it takes away value. Where I'm operating from is because, look, I've been there right Back in the day when I thought I needed a cover letter. I spend almost more time on the cover letter than my resume. To whom?

Pete Newsome:

it may concern.

Ricky Baez:

Well, to whom it may concern and I threw a little funny in there right To let them know what kind of an HR person I am, especially in HR that we're seen as the stick to the mud, right, and I do. You know I do HR very, very differently than what the common folks does. I think from my perspective, since I don't pay attention to it, doesn't hurt you, but I don't wish you time on it if nobody's looking at it. But I do know other recruiters are looking at it, especially for what you said to explain some things that otherwise it will fall into the no pile because the recruiter very quickly decides it's not a resume to look at. So I get that piece.

Pete Newsome:

So I haven't sold you yet. You're not there, but you're warming up to the concept.

Ricky Baez:

I'm warming up. I'm warming up. I'm at the appetizer.

Pete Newsome:

So I'm satisfied enough right now if you're just at the point where you say, yep, there are some times that resumes don't tell the story that needs to be told and the candidate's going to lose out if they don't have an opportunity to tell it. Is that fair?

Ricky Baez:

That's fair because that's exactly what you said earlier. Right, it explains the gaps it explains. So, if you have a resume, so I'm, I'm, I'm gonna go back to something I said earlier If you have a resume that may not stand good on its own and you feel like you need that cover letter, then yeah, absolutely throw that personality in there. So can I, can I give a tip? Just don't make it dry, don't make it as dry as the resume. So I'm going to go give it a personality.

Pete Newsome:

So that's where I want to go to this next step, right? So I said we were going to talk about situation, then we're going to talk about delivery method. Traditional cover letters are boring, to your point. They're multiple paragraphs. They tell someone's life story. Nobody wants to read them. We've acknowledged that and I agree with you 100% that the recruiter does not want to spend any more time than necessary on a single candidate or a single resume. They are powering through.

Pete Newsome:

So here's my recommendation when you need to use a cover letter because you know your resume is not going to stand on its own, I think you should use one. But I don't think you should write a novel. I don't think you should write a traditional letter. I think you should deliver your cover letter. Let's call it your cover story.

Pete Newsome:

Let's change the way we look at these things. Your cover story can be delivered in an email, in the body of an email, not in another attachment, right? Because, to your point, nobody wants to open a second attachment if the resume is already there. It can be delivered via a LinkedIn message to the hiring manager. Right? I sent my application and resume to position XYZ and here's why I believe that I'm the perfect fit for the for the role and why you should want to hire me. Right, state your case, but don't state it in a formal cover letter. And then the other way you can deliver it is through the plain old US mail.

Pete Newsome:

Now, that sounds like it's going backwards and to be traditional, but now we're talking about shifting the odds in your favor and doing what other candidates won't do. So you can write your cover letter in a handwritten note. It can be on a note card, right? I sent my application. Here's my resume, whatever it is, and here are three reasons why I believe I'm unique from other candidates. State your case. So, ricky, I don't want you necessarily. Even I'll be satisfied if you don't buy into cover letters, but it's the cover story that goes with the resume that I think can make all the difference in the world to a candidate resume that I think could make all the difference in the world to a candidate.

Ricky Baez:

So hold on, I'm genuinely sold, seriously, as soon as you said, mail it. We're treating a cover letter like a thank you note. That's a whole different story. That changes the game, right, because that's different. If I wow this person, okay, I'm going to put this on my checking out pile. Right Now you have another pile to be checked off from. But if some, if an admin assistant says, hey, this thing came for you, what is that? People caught on a letter. It was me.

Pete Newsome:

There's no pile there's no pile, right, there's no pile.

Ricky Baez:

I like that. I okay, I'm sold there. If if it wasn't for that, we would have ended the same. You know what we're gonna have to do.

Pete Newsome:

A part two well, you threatened me with a cage match earlier, so I'm glad to know that it's not leading to physical violence.

Ricky Baez:

I'm in it for the purse because I know I'm going to lose and I'm going to get paid anyway.

Pete Newsome:

So all right. So, in conclusion, then, there's certain situations where, if you're a candidate, you need your story told in a way that your resume cannot do. We need to send that extra message along with it. So let's not call it a cover letter. We'll call it a cover story and deliver it in a way that other candidates won't do, and that will make you show yourself as a unique candidate that you are.

Ricky Baez:

I'm sold that I like. I really like that. Show your trailer.

Pete Newsome:

show the trailer for your movie there you go, and if it's good trailer, it's usually a good movie. All right, everyone, thanks for listening. Movie, there you go, and if it's a good trailer, it's usually a good movie. All right, everyone, thanks for listening. Happy hunting out there, ricky. Thank you, as always.

Ricky Baez:

Have a good one, guys.