Industry sign banking michigan business letter template fast
alright let's get started hello everyone welcome to the no fear job search webinar series or welcome back my name is Linda and I'm the marketing coordinator at chop Stan and if you're not familiar with job scan yet we are a seattle-based company dedicated to making the best online tools for job seekers we put this entire webinar series together in response to you know all the uncertainty in the world and the job market right now our goal with this series is to get as many job seekers as we can in front of the people and the tools that can help them right now and today series is the eighth of fifteen and the no fear job search series so we're just about a little over halfway through and today we have Monica launch men speaking about how to quickly craft a cover letter that makes a difference we hope to see you at some of the other sessions tomorrow and next week as well you can check out that chomskyan CEO / - here and I am delighted to turn it over to today's presenter Monica Foxman welcome Monica and he's taken away nee thanks Linda hi everyone thank you so much for being here my name is Monica Marsalis watchman and I am a career coach and resume writer and thrilled to be with you today to talk about crafting cover letters love seeing all of the people in the chat already talking about where they're from that's fantastic seeing people from Malaysia Toronto Wisconsin New Jersey I'm from New Jersey born and raised so again career coach certified professional resume writer I'm also certified on the myers-briggs Type Indicator born and raised in New Jersey went to college in Boston and now I live in Michigan I am a wife mom to two boys and I love to read and write so I actually have the perfect job for me and my business is Sheldrake consulting I am the founder and owner of that company and I work with clients from across industries and specialize in mid-career professionals and professionals wanting to shift industries so what you are going to learn about in today's session is why you need a cover letter what it looks what it looks like what to include and then part of that is also what not to include how you can get started and also how to proofread alright so do you need a cover letter yes if the only thing that you take away from today's session is that it's this yes you need a cover letter you absolutely needed one before coronavirus and before all of us were in this very uncertain bizarre world that we're in right now you needed one before all of this and you definitely need one now okay your cover letter is your elevator pitch your speech your brand on paper your opportunity to tell your story so that you get to the next phase of the process okay some of you might have seen or heard read this meme before so this is of course inigo montoya from Princess Bride right so how to be good at talking and I would suggest that this absolutely applies to writing a cover letter as well so this has four parts hello my name is Inigo Montoya you killed my father prepare to die so he begins hello polite greeting that's part 1 part 2 he identifies himself gives his name part 3 you killed my father relevant personal link and then for he manages ex rotations what can you expect for me what's going to happen next and so this is a formula that you should keep in mind as you are preparing to write your letter so you might say something like hello my name is Monica Foxman you and I are connected now through the job scan no fear job search webinar series I'm a career coach and resume writer and I'd love to see if you and I are a match if you are interested in something like that please feel free to email me after this call ok so I addressed all four of the parts all right other reasons why you need a cover letter okay again you needed one before you definitely need one now it shows your attention to detail and your willingness to do more your willingness to go above and beyond again it's your elevator pitch it's your brand on paper it is your opportunity to make a direct connection between you and the role that you're applying for and we'll talk about this in a few minutes but a lot of people submit cover letters that are very very vague they have lots of words but they don't say a whole lot okay cover letters are concise and direct it's especially important if you are using this opportunity to pursue an advanced position or you are thinking about changing industries okay the cover letter is also your opportunity or your place to briefly explain the current situation so if you have unfortunately been laid off or furloughed made redundant if you were searching prior to this current situation if you've had to step away from your career or current role to be a caregiver you can very briefly share all of those things in the cover letter direct and honest is always the best approach you don't need to hide anything but you also don't need to give them more information than they need up front okay the goal of the cover letter is to get you seen so that you get to the next stage of the process okay so what should you include in the letter so the letter is highlights it is if you think about a house it's a window right you're gonna look through the window and go into a specific room and that room is a window and time into your career history it's concise and direct and you're confident okay so you are not repeating your resume you're not giving them the whole house okay they don't need the whole story hey it's not wordy or vague hey it doesn't need we're gonna talk about this formula but you're gonna do a 1/3 formula a one-page letter three paragraphs okay so it's not five six seven paragraphs it's not two pages it's one page okay and it's not big I don't know if any of you have ever interacted with someone who talks a lot but doesn't say much I sometimes we do that in cover letters as well we have a tendency to want to tell them every single thing that we've ever done to try to sell them and that broodiness and that vagueness actually reduces the quality of your argument for the position okay and you want to be confident but not ready okay so confident indicating you're fit for the position you're direct match between what they are looking for and what you have to offer but not overconfident or braggy okay we all we all know those people we've all read those letters I have so much experience and you would you would be honored and it would be a gift if you chose me okay no you want to strike that middle ground of confident and concise okay but not but not overtly in-your-face Monica can you yes stand on what you mean by window absolutely yes thank you for that question whoever that was yes so again our temptation is to write every single thing that we've ever done because we want to give them the full story so we don't miss anything right and that that's what I mean by the whole house you say I've got 15 years of experience five years here ten years here or eight years in this position seven years in this position when maybe that seven-year role has nothing to do with this particular position that you're seeking right now so the window is just just the facts ma'am right I'm thinking I think that guy was Joe Friday from that very very old TV show so it's a window into a certain period of time that is a direct connection to the new position that you're seeking okay so if the role that you had two years ago that you only did for a year maybe isn't related to this position then you don't need to spend too much time talking about it you want to provide a window into whatever a period of time directly connects to the role that you're seeking hopefully that that helps the participants question if not feel free to shout it out again yes I think that clarifies it okay great thanks Linda okay so it is super tempting especially when there is a sense of urgency as many of us might be feeling right now it is super tempting to sit out on our computers and just type and think like oh I'm just gonna bang out a cover letter today I would actually challenge and encourage you to not do that and the reason is this you will actually remember more if you take pen to paper there's all kinds of science out there about the mind brain-body connection and that you will remember more if you handwrite information so before you start this process I strongly encourage you to get pad and paper to physically write things down then you take all that information and translate it onto the computer okay you also before you start writing you want to gather information this will actually make the process faster in the end so that when you are ready to physically type it'll go much more quickly okay so again thinking about inigo montoya and your elevator pitch and what you want people to know before you start typing I want you to write what are you known for okay what do people consistently say about you what do they come to you for what problems are you known for solving okay you also want to think about your relevant experience skills education degrees or credentials if you have them okay so that's part one part two of the information gathering process is what do you know about this position hey what you know about the company what research have you done on their website on LinkedIn on indeed or Glassdoor do you know anyone at the company that you are applying to if you do it is totally appropriate to mention that person in the cover letter with their permission of course you always want to say do I have your permission to mention you in my cover letter okay again especially now people are busy and overwhelmed recruiters are no exception to that so if you have a direct connection you should indicate that on your letter okay part of the information gathering process is also finding the keywords so again I suggest that you do this pen to paper so if possible you should print out the posting or postings that you are applying for and highlight key words from that posting okay key words are industry specific okay they will be used repeatedly throughout the posting they might be software processes that you use degrees or sir vacations right and then whatever one of those keywords you have and are confident in those are the ones that you are going to put into your letter okay so here are some examples again you'll see that they wide a gamut run a gamut okay they are industry specific these are these will appear multiple times in a posting and these are words that you should put into your cover letter and your resume okay okay if everyone just a quick second to look over those okay so again this is what you would have highlighted from the posting and then what you are going to drag and drop into your letter okay other keywords again are going to be really industry specific or directly related to technical skills this is especially relevant to anyone who might be in tech engineering finance healthcare any industry where there is very specific programming and/or processes that you are using to do your work so these are also key words that you should use in your letter why keywords okay there are two reasons for this the first is to make it past the applicant tracking system we've probably all heard about that 80's 80s is a software system that companies are using to scan your document your cover letter and your resume and once you have met the threshold for whatever they have set that to be once your documents have met that threshold then your materials go into the next round and you meet hopefully a person okay so the keywords are a strategy to help meet the ATS requirements so that's the first one the second one is it demonstrates that you know organization and that you know the role that you are applying for so that when it does get to a person right that person reading it says Oh Fred he knows us Shawn knows us Luke knows us Margie knows us and we want to talk to her we want to talk to him okay it creates that sense of match of fit of direct connection between you and them so they say oh yeah this person speaks our language this person gets us and we want to talk to you Monica I think yes widely known that applicant tracking system scan resumes but Tony asks do cover letters get assessed by ATS as well yes yes they absolutely do and on some applications and this is actually on a future slide I suggest that again clients you should always have a cover letter and if possible that you submit it as one document with the resume so the cover letter is first and then your resume is after of course you should always be following the instructions that are on the company website some organizations will request that you submit a cover letter as a separate document that's fine but yes a cover letter it gets scanned for 80s as well thanks for the question and feel free to keep shouting those out and Linda and Paige are doing a great job of funneling those to me so okay believe it or not writing should be fun okay clearly this woman feels confident she knows herself she knows her story she's ready to celebrate and if you've done the information gathering process first and you've done your homework on yourself the actual sitting down to type the letter should be pretty fun and it really hopefully shouldn't take you too long if it is taking you a long time and you're spinning then I would suggest that you go back and do more of these other steps first okay but writing should be fun because you know your story better than anyone else and this is your chance to sell it to the organization okay once you have all of your information and you are clear on the story that you want at OU about yourself you're going to format your letter okay you should have a header that goes across that include name email and phone number your customized LinkedIn URL and your location maybe there's debate about this but if you are a local candidate and your physical location would be an asset to the organization then I encourage clients to include it if you are relocating especially if you might be making a move say from Chicago to LA or New Jersey to down south okay in that particular instance your location isn't necessarily an asset so you can leave it off okay but you're gonna create a header that goes across that's going to go on your resume as well and then cover letter resume if possible you're going to save it as one document and submit it as a PDF if possible again you should always be following the directions and instructions that are on the company website not every system will allow a PDF but if it does that's the preferred method because it will keep all of your formatting here are something and just to clarify here what I think when Monica says header she means the header portion of your resume not the header within Microsoft Word where you can put in a header thank you yes thank you yes that's yes thank you that's exactly what I mean yeah and some headers actually headers and footers in words some of those won't get read actually so yes you're better off not using a header on your resume so yes thank you for the clarification when I say header this is what I mean so it's your name bold and centered here's your customized LinkedIn URL your phone number your email address and your location okay and these are actually examples names changed of course but these are examples that I created for clients okay it's very clear Who I am it's very clear what I do and it's very clear on how you can reach me okay here are some examples without the location but again has email address phone number and my customized LinkedIn URL okay so that is at the top of your letter okay then the actual letter itself you are going to do a 1:3 template one page three paragraphs the opening paragraph is again think of an ego metoya right what position are you seeking and then you're going to tell them very briefly one paragraph so that's about five to seven sentences present past future so the formula is this is what I currently do one to two sentences about your current role you maybe talk about your role immediately below that one so past prior to that I taught how these relate to this position is dadada they present past future the middle paragraph is specific accomplishments directly related to the role and it can be bullets I actually encourage all of my clients to use the
ullet template and I when I am writing client cover letters for clients I use bullets as well in that middle space then the closing paragraph confidence in the match okay I am and to say exactly that I am confident that I have the knowledge skills and experience to contribute to your organization I welcome the opportunity to speak with you and then again you're giving them how information on how to contact you yes it's in your header tell them again people are busy people are tired and overwhelmed so the easier you can make it for them the better off you will be throughout the process okay so the one three template one page three paragraphs now that you have the template remember that each letter that you write is a snowflake hey it is unique and it is tailored to the position and to the company so yes you've got your template or you are changing things is the details in each paragraph okay and always always always make sure that you are proofreading and editing so that you don't send the wrong letter to the wrong place okay that's we've I've done it or I've misspelled someone's name or mistyped my own phone number so make sure that you are editing and proofreading so that you don't send the wrong snowflake to the wrong company okay here is an example so this is the opening paragraph the position is an opportunity to combine my passion for social justice and my strong advocacy skills in a dynamic nonprofit environment and I'm excited to submit my application for your review I have pretty it's that's direct I currently serve as an outreach specialist with the Luke foundation in okis Michigan where I what do you do to 2 3 5 brief words here about your current position the coalition building work that I've done is directly related to the position okay so you'll see these purple colored texts that is where you're plugging in the keywords from the posting ok so opening paragraph who are you what are you applying for why this is another example of an opening paragraph this one's a little bit longer this particular applicant had a little bit more experience as you can see here ok and again you are quantifying you are telling them everything that you want them to know you control the narrative here and you are always leading with what you have right the experience the knowledge the skills the education so again you can see the purple are the keywords that you are going to plug in after you've looked at the posting ok and you are using their words back to them as much as possible ok so this particular person worked at a bank and actually oversaw a team of collection agents hey middle paragraph again I suggest that you do that in bullet format you certainly don't have to but it's easier it's easier on the eye and faster for both the system and a person to actually read it and make the connection okay so this is where you're really drilling into the specific highlights and accomplishments whether across to your career or from your current or most recent position okay to be direct to say highlights from my current role or highlights from my career directly related to this position include and then here are my bullets okay you'll notice in this particular example that there are four if you are going to use bullets you need at least three you don't ever pull it out one or two okay because a bullet is you are directly calling the reader's attention with their eye to this text so it needs to be worth it right so you are explaining highlights okay again remember that window analogy this is where you're putting in the window stuff okay you're using key words as much as possible and you're specific so you'll notice that almost every bullet here as either a key word or some sort of metric or both okay managed companies social media account with 15,000 followers quarterly newsletter to 300 subscribers make collaborative partnerships policy makers these are key words that you have pulled from the posting okay Alison has a question here she's asking should these bullet points her accomplishments only come from my current role or most recent role or can she pull things from her previous ones as well great question thank you I would say yes it can absolutely come from a previous role or over the course of your career that's totally fine as long as you have a reason for choosing that particular bullet and hopefully that bullet is directly connected to the position that you're applying for but yeah if something is and maybe your current role isn't the best fit and that's why you're searching and so maybe then inexperienced two or three rolls back is more relevant it's okay to use use bullets and accomplishments from those experiences all right here's another example of a middle paragraph my resume is enclosed for your review he accomplishments for my career that are directly related to this position include okay so this particular candidate to the question actually we just answered these are over the course of a career not necessarily from one role again you'll see that they are loaded with keywords and metrics okay so you want to quantify quantify quantify on this is data that tells your story and creates again that direct match between you and then you are saying to them I can do it for you because I've done it before and here's how here is my evidence that backs up my story okay and a couple people asked should the bullet points be in past tense or present tense great question it really it doesn't matter as long as you are consistent and so certainly if something is a current role then it would be in present tense if something was from past roles than it would be in past tense so this particular example is past tense and then this one is present tense except for the last one okay and then here in your closing paragraph think of an ego montoya again I who are you what are you known for I'm enthusiastic passionate and a quick learner confident that I have the experience and project management database management building stakeholder relationship skills communication skills organizational abilities I have the Python programming skills okay you're gonna plug in a keyword there I have the skills needed to contribute positively to company I welcome the opportunity to speak with you about my qualifications in more detail it can be reached at phone number email I look forward to hearing from you soon thank you okay it's concise it's direct it's honest indicates that you are ready to speak with them and how they can contact you so this this example is a little bit smushed because I wanted to try to get the whole thing onto one page but visually this is what a letter should look like so there's your header across the top company address if possible of course you want to try to address it to a person you can try to dig for that information on LinkedIn or indeed or Glassdoor I'm not really a fan of to whom it may concern it's it's a good one it works I search committee dear recruiter hiring manager I'm actually surprised that I use to whom it may concern on this particular example but so this eris so and visually it's very pleasing to the eye it has good whitespace it's visually balanced there aren't paragraphs that go extremely long or hang over the sides see here in the middle is four bullets and then the closing and actually those bullets should they're okay they should be even more specific okay Linda I think that's a good place to just pause for a quick second and see if there are any more questions before we start to wrap up a little bit sure and Monica do you have an idea um font or size that you recommend for cover letters yeah great question thank you so your font should match the industry that you are in so my personal favorite it's the the Microsoft Office default right now but it's Cambria Cambria and then calibre e Arial is a good one but if you are in a more creative industry say maybe marketing PR advertising maybe you work for yourself as a consultant you are a social media manager those industries it would be totally appropriate to have a more creative font century gothic or railway actually is one of my personal favorites but whatever you are comfortable with I don't ever use Times New Roman just it it looks kind of dated and I use Times New Roman when I was in college I would say you know long ago that was but yeah whatever you're comfortable with and it should really match your personality and the industry that you're in also color is okay very very sparingly I would never ever use colored text here but it would be totally okay to have maybe a colored line here in the header or your name in a color never read ever but some really deep green blue purple is okay again if that is the if that matter is the industry that you're in great and in closing paragraph someone asks is it okay to you know let them know that you'll be following up with them in a couple of days are in a week or should you leave it more open-ended like you did here I think either is fine honestly as long as you do what you say you're going to do so if you say you know I will be reaching back out to you in two weeks to confirm receipt of this message and ask questions about the process that's totally fine but just make sure that you actually do that so that in two weeks you follow up with them let's see here we have we have a couple of questions of you know how to address if there was a layoff or you know if you took some time off to take care of family I know you mentioned you know being really honest about it can you share anything else or yeah I think the silver lining if you will of what's happening right now is companies are becoming more and more accepting of those gaps because so many of us are in that situation now whereas before they might have you know maybe given you a little red red flag for those and you know there's you know crazy numbers of unemployed people it's in the millions of people at least here in the states so yeah I I would be brief be direct and say I was recently furloughed from my role as a computer programmer at Gordon Foods look forward to continuing to advance my career and contributing to this industry okay you don't want to give them too much information but you also don't want to hide it either you also don't have to say anything about that in this letter you can if you choose if you feel that's important to you to your story to while you're looking right now put it in there and it could go in the opening paragraph or in the closing but you there's no there's no hard and fast rule about you having to include that information but if you if it helps you feel more confident think about that picture of that woman right and she's celebrating herself and her story that's how you should feel when you submit the letter so whatever information makes you feel that way and helps you tell your story and go for it I think we can move on and okay she's at the end great fantastic thanks Linda and thank you everyone for your questions all right the biggest step that most people miss when they are writing cover letters is editing and proofreading okay do not give it to your friend don't give it to your mom or your your partner or your spouse okay cuz they know you they love you they care about you and they're going to just read it and be like this is great so the best way honestly is to put it away for at least a day if possible and then come back to it editing is when you are moving texts you're changing bullets you are changing the letter for content style flow the best way to catch editing errors is to read your writing out loud hey proofreading is where you are checking for spelling and punctuation the best way to catch errors this way is to actually read from left to right bottom to top so it actually it hurts your head the first couple times you do it but once you've done it it you actually get used to it and you will catch so much more stuff because we have all been there we've looked at something a hundred times we submit it and then you find something after you've clicks in it so as much as possible you want to edit and proofread before okay if you are feeling stuck if you're spinning and this process is taking you way too long take a break go outside take a quick 15-minute walk have a glass of water and then come back and try again okay it really should this really should be fun because remember you control the story it's your career it's your work experience and you get to craft the narrative um happy to take more questions or comments and thanks so much for your participation it was great to be here with you today Thank You Monica let's see Monica any suggestions for new graduates when crafting a cover letter and where should you should they incorporate their education or how would you go about that when you're applying to that first job yeah thank you for the question yes especially if your education is directly related to what you're applying for you can also talk about any co-curricular leadership experiences that you had study abroad in internship in externship a job that you had on campus were you involved in Relay for Life or our fraternity or sorority did you have leadership roles or active roles in those organizations and if you did what did you learn from them those are all totally appropriate things that you could include in a cover letter and in the closing you you would in that situation as a new grad in that first job want to be more enthusiastic I would I would say then say someone who's like myself mid-career like you would really make the pitch that I'm ready I'm hungry I'm eager and the fast learner I'm ready to make a contribution and I'm ready to learn and participate and hey asks how do you highlight your experience without repeating what's on the resume or is it even okay to you know pull things from your resume for your cover letter for example with those accomplishments mm-hmm yeah great question yes it's okay to repeat what's on the resume because you're not retelling the whole story remember the window and you're choosing and you're calling those bullets very very carefully and your resume could be two three one page full of bullets on a cover letter you're picking the highlights the top four or five that are going to make the connection so yes totally okay to repeat what's on the resume and to use that header right you can say experience highlights from my current role directly related to this position my resume is in closed key accomplishments okay you're calling their attention to specifics and we have a question here asking in the opening paragraph is it relevant to mention where you found the job or how you feel yep sure yeah absolutely I you know I saw this boat I was excited to see this posting on LinkedIn I you know got really excited and eager when I saw this on indeed and in that opening paragraph that's also where you would mention if you know someone personally right Linda Linda Hewitt job scan referred me to this position okay that's that's the perfect place to mention that person specifically and you know we've talked about layoffs we've talked about cover letters for recent grads what about career changes how should those be addressed on the cover letter yeah great question thank you yes so keywords are always important they are even more important for someone making an industry shift and so what you're going to do in the cover letter and the resume on the cover letter especially is you're going to make that translation for them and so for example my my previous industry was education and so I would always refer to students well in my new industry as a coach they are it's prospects participants right so it's the same people and I'm doing the same work but how I refer to them as different right so you want to match the industry that you're going to and not overemphasize the industry that you're coming from and you can say eh I am eager to make this shift from program management to nonprofit leadership because why why why are you making the shift what are the skills and experiences that are direct translations to the new industry via keywords really really important in an industry changing cover letter and Denise asks should you page one of your resume when you are applying or as two separate documents and with that you know is there a
file format that you recommend submitting your mm-hmm so if the application portal whatever you're on will let you do it yes I would do cover letter as page one and then resume after that I would submit it as one file and as a PDF if possible because that will preserve your formatting not every system will let you do that and so usually word is is the standard Sara asks what if I notice a mistake in my cover letter after I send it I know we all roof read but sometimes things slip through the cracks it's damage control that can be done mmm great question Sara thanks I appreciate your honesty yeah we've all been there I would say it it depends it would depend on how big it is if you've missed a period or maybe you've transposed two letters I would let it go because again I think the advantage but this time that we're in right now is where everyone is extending more grace to ourselves and two applicants and so I wouldn't call attention to it however if you have addressed the wrong person you have addressed the wrong company you maybe have switched the company in the role then I would resubmit if possible and email a person you know my my sincere apologies in my excitement for this position I accidentally submitted the wrong letter I hope that you'll consider this one instead someone here is asking should you disclose a disability in your cover letter hmm and I think along the same situation here any tips for you know older jobseekers should they address their age or is this a no-no yeah great questions disability would I disclose it my first instinct is no because it shouldn't matter right you are an amazing complete whole person who is capable however if you feel that it is a barrier to them and/or an accommodation that you would need to do the roles successfully especially in an interview situation then you might disclose so for example you might say I utilize a wheelchair for mobility and would request that we talk about that before but beyond that I don't I don't think I would disclose because you should all of us should lead with what we have and foreground are awesome and foreground are amazing and not not give them information to just to exclude you and I would say that for the age as well does ageism happen yes it does um you know and unfortunately you know it's illegal there's it's happening but I would never ever in a cover letter say I'm 55 or I'm 60 looking for my last role before retirement always lead with experience and expertise the advantage of being a more senior professional is you have years of experience that you can rely on and so flip that script and lead with that as an advantage in your application and we have a couple of questions and comments here about the red text what why is using red in your cover letter sort of no no yes so a couple reasons one its just very jarring to the eye it's it's not a naturally pleasing or soothing color and for a lot of us it actually reminds us of being in grade school when a teacher was like crossing stuff out on your paper so it's just the connotation and what red implies it can also look like dangerous or a correction or like you're shouting so yeah and just personally I just I don't like it and what about you know the file name of your cover letter do you have any suggestions for that you know can be tenant these simple as your first name last name cover letter mm-hmm yes yep first name last name cover letter if possible first name last name role organization so maybe Monica Foxman Luke foundation letter awesome questions thanks everyone yeah thank you everyone let's see here Naomi asks should you include self talk program in your cover letter especially if you have an employment gap great question uh my my first answer without knowing you specifically Naomi is yes especially if whatever that self so maybe you earned a certificate you know through LinkedIn or some sort of I mean there's the whole thing about 20/20 is there's all kinds of trainings that are now just widely accessible to us and so if you've taken the time to go through one of those and earned a certificate yes I I would put it on there and make the connection for them right so don't assume that they are going to see something on your resume or in your letter and be like oh that makes sense tell them why it makes sense I pursued this certification because I wanted the experience I wanted the I wanted this skill set I wanted to advance my career I wanted to make myself an even more viable candidate in this industry so yeah make make the sell for them but I wouldn't say in that situation Naomi I wouldn't say to compensate for a gap I wouldn't say that and we have a couple of people asking here what length of time is considered a gap you know is it three months a year somewhere in between when should they address that yeah great question I I would not call and I don't advise clients to call three months a gap so the Nationals national standard for job searching in between roles was four months right so three to five so the average was four that was before all of this happened and so now I mean it's it's going to be much longer than that so three months is not a gap I would maybe even suggest that a year is not um if you're getting too three four five years that's a gap that should be explained again very briefly very honestly I was in school I had anita to step away to care for a nil to care for a family member you don't even need to say what their diagnosis was or if it was your mama they don't need to know that just I needed to care for a family member I know we're sort of jumping all over the place yeah no that's okay and I can see the I can see the chat now so someone asks well margins impact you know especially how applicant tracking system reads the cover letter are they important to consider I don't know that it actually impacts ATS specifically but it just impacts their the general readability of the document so you should have good white space if you'll remember the example that I had it was there was good white space on the top and around on the sides and even in between paragraphs one inch margin is the standard I don't ever go below 0.6 on all sides because and especially just no one's going to read that much text if it's going all the way across your page thank you and as you get to the top that hour here and let's take just one more question Julie s asks do you have any quick tips for converting a cover letter into maybe a brief networking letter or email what should people in food in those yeah I would suggest actually that a networking letter is easier to write because buying a major it's a little bit more informal how I would convert it I would use the first paragraph and probably condense the middle and the closing this the cell and the closing doesn't need to be as hard if it's a networking letter because networking is you're introducing yourself you're kind of doing a warm you know a warm up to get to the place where they would actually then ask for your cover letter Thank You Monica and we're just about up on our time here so thank you everyone for joining us I think we all really enjoyed your presentation and hopefully everyone feels less anxiety and frustrated frustration around crafting their cover letters now so yeah and that's it for today I hope to see some of you at our future webinars later on and best of luck to all of you in your job searches in navigating these difficult times good luck everyone be kind to yourselves thank you for being here it was great thanks you online listings make applying for jobs easier than ever so why aren't you getting a response from employers easy applications means more applicants which means more competition leading companies use automated software tools called applicant tracking systems or ATS that weed out many resumes before they even reach a real person so how do you cut through the noise with job scan job scan uses artificial intelligence to get your 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