to write a cover letter

I have applied for too many jobs. I was in a job-seeking season and I was applying for anything and everything that was within the broad scope of anything educational that wasn't teaching in a regular classroom. For each of these applications I rewrote my cover letter.

I was curious when my brother sent me the link to determine how I came across. I put in a cover letter. I pulled one from the files and simply copied and pasted it into the email machine...

You are inner-directed, shrewd and strict.

You are driven: you have high goals for yourself and work hard to achieve them. You are energetic: you enjoy a fast-paced, busy schedule with many activities. And you are empathetic: you feel what others feel and are compassionate towards them.

You are motivated to seek out experiences that provide a strong feeling of self-expression.

You are relatively unconcerned with taking pleasure in life: you prefer activities with a purpose greater than just personal enjoyment. You consider achieving success to guide a large part of what you do: you seek out opportunities to improve yourself and demonstrate that you are a capable person.

Hmm, inner-directed, shrewd and strict? Not exactly warm or someone that you would want to interview. I am driven, goal-oriented, and enjoy having a lot on the go. And I'm compassionate? How can I be both shrewd and compassionate? Well, at least there is a heart somewhere inside of all of this shrewdness. They, like my cover letter, should really start with the last paragraph. I come across as a much kinder and outward focused person than the inner-directed strict drill sergeant I sound like, I wonder if it is because I start out with Dear So-and-so?

I was curious to see if this was how I came across in my emails for work. I obviously do not want to be shrewd when I am contacting people about team building, leadership development, and general personal improvement. So I snatched a longer email and plugged it in the the ol' Personality Insights computater. 

You are a bit dependent and easily rattled.

You are down-to-earth: you prefer facts over fantasy. You are organized: you feel a strong need for structure in your life. And you are energetic: you enjoy a fast-paced, busy schedule with many activities.

Your choices are driven by a desire for well-being.

You are relatively unconcerned with both tradition and taking pleasure in life. You care more about making your own path than following what others have done. And you prefer activities with a purpose greater than just personal enjoyment.

Dramatically different. Well, except for the fact that I am driven. In case you didn't know that about me, now you do. What interested me the most, and I didn't see this column on the previous analysis was that they had a little marketing breakdown for me...

You are likely to______

 Reply on social media

 Buy eco-friendly

 Avoid taking risks

You are unlikely to______

 Click on an ad

 Follow on social media

 Buy healthy foods

I am highly likely to respond on Social. I sometimes buy eco-friendly, and I just recently learned in a financial assessment that I am surprisingly risk-averse. I absolutely hate pop-up ads and I will leave a site if the ads are disruptive in any way. If I follow you on Social but then don't like what you are offering, I will unfollow. But I really like healthy food, the majority of our grocery budget goes to produce. I was a little offended at that and wanted to redo the assessment with another email.  

To feed my curiosity I went back to the cover letter. This version of me:

You are likely to______

 Click on an ad

 Follow on social media

 Use a coupon

You are unlikely to______

 Reply on social media

 Buy eco-friendly

 Treat Yourself

Wow, I'm uptight in my cover letters. How do you find the balance between being sociable but not a ditz? Or driven but not shrewd or risk averse? And I am unlikely to treat myself? That's a laugh since I have quite the collection of nail polish. 

I started to understand why I didn't get a call back for most of the jobs I applied for, I was a cold, calculating, driven, unconscientious (eco-wise) person. I guess I should have infused more of my work emails into my cover letter. 

Give it a spin with your correspondence, either email or cover form, you might gain insight into why people either don't reply or are eager to interview you. 

That's all.