Never Write a Bad Cover Letter Again

Why I Stopped Reading Embrace Letters

Classroom Management #i: First post in an occasional series on lessons learned from instruction and how they've shaped my management outlook

The general consensus from students is that taking tests sucks. I don't have statistics on this, merely, I feel pretty confident in this assertion. I'm on the fringe in that I actually savour the force per unit area of taking tests, but even I nonetheless call up they suck at reflecting my actual cognition/skill fix in a given area.

When I offset became a instructor, I speedily realized that the simply thing worse than taking a test is being the person making, proctoring, and grading the tests. Ask whatever teacher friends you have; in this, I am not on the fringe.

These days, the all-time teachers (or at least those whose schoolhouse leadership allows them to do so, merely that'south a whole 'nother blog mail service) are moving beyond unit tests and finding more than creative means to measure out student learning. For some awesome examples, check out this list Edutopia put together of 53 ways to bank check for understanding. We know that there are more fun ways, for both the instructor and the student, for students to prove they sympathize things.

The goal of pedagogy is much more than merely passing a test. What nosotros really want is for our students to be able to utilize concepts to their daily life, to make connections, to share, to analyze, to evaluate, to interact, to debate, to create… So, equally educators we should always be looking for better means to measure that learning.

My team can tell you lot that oft I employ learnings from my teaching exercise to my management practice. Thus, the title of this series.

The general consensus from job applicants is that applying for jobs sucks. I don't have statistics for that one either. But, come on: resumes, comprehend messages, interviews… Fifty-fifty those who brand information technology to the final rounds generally don't savour the process.

Especially cover letters: No one actually likes writing comprehend letters. I dear to write… just non embrace messages. Have yous ever written a cover letter and idea to yourself, "Bully, whoever reads that one folio encompass letter will definitely have a holistic thought of who I am every bit a person." No? Me neither.

Later a few years of being involved in our hiring process, I can now definitively say: the only thing worse than writing encompass letters is reading and evaluating cover letters. Once I became responsible for hiring a squad, cover letters quickly became the blight of my existence. First of all, when you are actively recruiting candidates, it feels like you lot are reading a meg of the same embrace letter over and over.

Besides the repetitiveness of reviewing many encompass letters for the same position, having written a proficient cover letter or resume is at best marginally indicative of whether or not a person will be a good fit for the job or culture. The difference in cover messages from our very best candidates, the ones who became crawly superstar teachers; and the worst candidates who… well… don't… are not THAT different (with some exceptions). Someone who is a terrible fit for your company might write a decent enough cover letter of the alphabet. Someone who is a great fit might not shine through in 1.

To illustrate that point, we one time received a professional person, well-written, and relevant cover alphabetic character from a candidate with all the pre-requisite feel and certifications. Everything seemed ship-shape; so nosotros went forwards with the interview procedure. But, during the first round interview, for a pedagogy position, this particular candidate constitute it appropriate to discuss both his sex life and (and!) his gambling habit. Let me reiterate that this person was applying for a educational activity position. At a school. Where we teach children.

Suffice it to say, this candidate was not offered a task. Betwixt reading his application, scheduling logistics, and actually interviewing him, I spent almost i.5 hours of my life on this guy. And in the cease, all I got was this lousy anecdote.

In the world of private tutoring, test-prep, and language learning centers, it is not uncommon for candidates to smash xx+ centers with their application at the same time. I'll admit that I was sending out nigh 4 per 24-hour interval the first week I moved to Vietnam. It makes sense and so, that on multiple occasions I accept received cover letters that either a) don't list our school'due south proper name at all; or, and it'southward hard to say which is worse, b) list the name of some other school.

Equally a manager, I had ii main problems with our hiring procedure:

1. Nosotros were wasting a lot of time reading applications and conducting get-go circular interviews of candidates who were just not a good cultural fit for our school.
2. Most candidates really had no sense of how we were different from whatever of the other 20 schools they were applying to; and so why should they come up work for us? Why wouldn't they just have the first chore they got offered?

With every bad encompass letter, I would remember, "Surely, there must be better way than the 'Cover Letter + CV' application for candidates to show that they are a proficient fit for the company and the position."

Then, I read the IDEO Stories post "Dramatically Unproblematic Trick to Improve Hiring at your Startup" and I was sipping the Kool-Help faster than yous tin can say "OH, YEAAHH!".

Basically, the OI Engine team at IDEO did away with cover letters. Instead, they inquire candidates to submit 10 questions almost the company and/or the position they are applying for.

The IDEO team establish that it helped them place candidates who would be a good fit much more quickly and accurately.

I know it makes a improve story if I say it took a long time to convince the "big guys" in upper management to go for it, but that would exist a prevarication, and we're all nearly transparency. Don and Tony, our Co-CEOs, were on board inside x minutes. That's a combined figure.

It's early to call this, merely in the beginning calendar week of going alive with the new application- I'thousand already so glad we copied IDEO.

We can get a much better sense of cultural fit right off the bat. It's obvious who has put the effort to scan our website, and who hasn't. It'southward obvious who is just interested in the logistics (working hours, bacon, and locations). And it also becomes obvious who shares our values and motivations as educators!

More chiefly, it'southward been instructive for united states, as a learning organization. Some of the questions we read enquire nearly our bones philosophy- that really should be easier to intuit from our website. That tells united states of america we demand to improve our website content. Beyond that, it also gives us candid insight into what candidates are looking for in a great work surround.

Nosotros are still working on improving it; but hither's some of the positive feedback, so far:

"It gave me the feeling who I might be working with in the time to come."

"This is a unique way to make a task application and it really got me to retrieve."

And, perhaps nearly importantly, information technology has fabricated myself and the balance of the hiring team experience genuinely excited to meet some of this batch of candidates!

In conclusion, I'k really looking forward to never reading a cover alphabetic character again.

P.S. In case information technology wasn't obvious, nosotros are hiring like crazy. If you're looking for a teaching job in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, here is the link to our new application page for pedagogy candidates + we accept a ton of other positions listed here! If you've read this far, then I encourage you to apply + give united states of america your feedback!

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Source: https://medium.com/a-thousand-e2-things/why-i-stopped-reading-cover-letters-6b862812c470