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I used it extensively after being introduced by it...and got few hits. Very
few. Of course, I was looking for a job when Sept. 11 happened, and we all
know what happened to tech writing jobs over the next year.
Then, in April of the next year, I decided to go back to school, and had to
take a psychology class who's day job just happened to be job counsellor.
He was not that great a teacher, but was willing to give advice about
searching for jobs. I asked him to take a look at my resume and cover
letter. His response was that my resume was good - it only lacked solid
experience. His comments on the T-Letter weren't complementary...he though
it was too reminiscent of a resume (in fact, his question was why should I
even bother writing a letter if all I was going to do was rehash the
resume - the hiring person doesn't need to read the same info twice).
Overall, the impression a T-letter gave was that the resume couldn't stand
on its own, but needed rehashing and reemphasizing. What's more, he felt it
was too factual and dry: His idea was that the cover letter should be
reflective both of the "real" person and the "professional" personality.
His advice was to make one complement the other. The resume should present
all the dry facts, skills, et cetera, formatted to highlight strengths and
"hide" weaknesses.
For the cover letter, he suggested I distill myself down to three or four
things I most wanted people to remember about me, place them in the
"professional overview" section of my resume, and expand on them in
paragraph form in the cover letter, and use the experience section to
"prove" this overview if possible. This approach gives the potential
employeer a good summary of my professional self.
After I revised the cover letter (well, it's still routinely revised as I
find better ways of saying things and better ways to point out the traits,
or discover new things about myself), I started getting a lot more call
backs. In fact, the person who hired me at my present job told me after the
interview that the only reason she interviewed me was because of the cover
letter - my resume was weak with experience, but the cover letter was unique
and personable enough to make her take a closer look and review my website
to see what I had done in the past, and she realized that I was a really
good match for her writing style and personality (so far, that hasn't proven
completely true, but we fit well enough).
This isn't to negate any else's experience with the T-letter. I've heard
people praise it to high heaven. For some reason, however, it didn't work
for me.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Diane Evans" <diane_evans -at- hotmail -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2003 11:55 AM
Subject: Re: T-letter, a good, good, thing.
>
> >I know it's been said before, but I'm having a good morning and just felt
> >the need to say it again that the T-letter is a good, good, thing.
>
> I am probably one of the biggest advocates of the T-letter
> (http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/employmentarticles/tletter.html).
> Although it doesn't guarantee you a job, it really can increase your
resume
> hits and interview percentage.
>
> Diane Evans
> Technical Writer
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