Why I really don’t believe in using templates for a cover letter.
When you use a template you're plugging in your info into a prescribed format. Which means…
Others might have an extremely similar cover letter. What's wrong with that? You don't stand out enough from the crowd, to get selected for an interview.
It’s like the equivalent of doing “checkbox therapy” but you’re checking the boxes in your cover letter. Boxes, that they already have in your resume, and ones which don’t give them a reason to hire YOU out of all the other applicants (70+ who mostly have similar qualifying experience)!
There’s no oof, pizzaz or sparkle. It’s just…flat. Nothing that makes them go, “Oh, that’s an interesting perspective, I want to learn more”, or "we need someone with that passion".
So, what then? If you don’t use a template how do you know “what they want”?
They want to see YOU on the paper, as in:
👉🏻Who you are as a clinician
👉🏻How you think from the clinician standpoint
👉🏻What you stand for in the voice world
👉🏻What makes you tick as a voice SLP
👉🏻Your challenges and how you’ve overcome them
👉🏻The unique perspectives you have on clinical care and the individual experiences you’ve had that have shaped that
👉🏻Your super specific goals with the why and how behind them
You just don’t get that from a template.
So, next time someone tells you to use a template or you’re tempted to base your cover letter on someone else’s to use just as “an example”, stop. Think about what would make the above jump out and have this form into a beautiful, powerful, authentic story about you as a voice clinician, not a cookie cutter version of you.
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