WEBVTT

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Hi, my name is

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Lauren Reed

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and I am here with Kimberly Cooper again.

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Hi, Kimberly.

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Hello.

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So in this video,

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when we're talking about things

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that you need to do

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to prepare for applying for jobs,

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we're going to be talking

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about the cover letter.

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And a question

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I get a lot from students is,

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why do you need to write a cover letter?

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If most of your job

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information is on your resumé or your CV,

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do you have an answer for that?

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Kimberly?

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Yes.

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It's basically the purpose of it

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is to introduce yourself

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in a professional manner

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and to explain

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why,

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this position,

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would be a good fit for you

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and why

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you would be a good fit

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for this potential employer.

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And it adds a more personal flair

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than just a simple resume or CV that

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just kind of lists

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your accomplishments and experiences.

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It adds a little bit of a

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personal flair to it that,

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kind of catches their attention.

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Maybe a little bit

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better than a resume might.

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Yeah, I think that's so true.

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I really feel like it fills in the gaps.

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Things that you can't tell people about,

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your work history

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or skills that you might have.

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So the handout

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that's on the website to accompany

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this video looks like this.

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And it might look a little overwhelming,

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really colorful.

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But the idea is just to give everyone,

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kind of outline

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for the information that people

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might be looking for

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in your cover letter.

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So we have two versions of cover letters

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that you can look at,

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one for people

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who've had previous work experience.

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And then once people

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who haven't

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had a lot of work experience,

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just like on your resume,

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you can find things

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to say about yourself,

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even if you haven't had a real job

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before or a job in your field

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and you're just graduating,

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you can still share

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a lot of really important information

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about yourself.

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And while you're y

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you are ready

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for the job that you're applying for.

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So all cover letters have a pretty,

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simple format.

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If it's not online or

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it's not through a, online

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portal, you would want to have the,

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address in the, top corner.

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And then you want to have a professional,

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greeting to the person reading it.

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If you know their name,

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you don't need to put something

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like search committee.

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You could say, dear Kimberly Cooper or,

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doctor, I don't know how

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you can address it to the individual

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that, you know, will get that, letter.

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What else is important

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about the formatting, Kimberly?

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What are some things that,

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you would want somebody to know

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writing their first cover letter?

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Well, first of all,

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it needs to look professional.

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Which just basic, consistency

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and font size and style.

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And spacing, making sure that it's,

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it doesn't look like you copied

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and pasted things together

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in a thousand way, and it just

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it looks messy.

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So making sure, the margins are very,

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clean and, you know, it's clearly like

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they're paragraphs,

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not like one giant block of text.

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So these are just kind of basic things,

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that,

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you know, it might

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you might be the most qualified person

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in the world,

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but if your cover letter, or resume

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or CV or anything,

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any of the documents

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that you're submitting,

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if they look really messy

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and unprofessional,

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it's really going to hurt you in your,

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quest to find a job.

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Yeah.

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I think anything important

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that you're writing

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for other people to read,

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especially people

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who've never met you before,

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it's important to have a friend

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look over it.

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You can, bring a cover

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letter to the tutoring center.

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And somebody would

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would be happy to read through it, too.

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Just make sure there aren't any mistakes.

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I even I have people read my,

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cover letters and resumes

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and everything to make sure that I'm not.

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I know what I wanted to say,

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but I, I want to make sure

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that it actually says that.

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So small

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smelt

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spelling errors and things like that, or,

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hard to catch on your own.

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So it's important

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to have a proofreading friend.

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Exactly. Everyone.

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And I mean everyone

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makes grammatical mistakes

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and just,

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you know, that it's so easy to make a,

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you know, a little mistake here or there.

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And so it's always,

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always a good idea

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to proofread your cover letter.

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And,

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you know, if you have the option,

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you know, have someone else look at it

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and, give you feedback on it, because,

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you know, two eyes,

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you know,

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to, people looking at

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is better than one.

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Absolutely.

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And I think my last piece of advice

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is just to also

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look online, that these aren't

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the only examples of cover letters.

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There's probably

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lots of examples out there.

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And they might say things

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that you could also say in your letter,

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something that would

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also be true for you.

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They probably could give you

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some more suggestions

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for things you would want

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to say to a future employer.

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Okay, so, good

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luck writing your cover letters.

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And don't forget that you can come,

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to a tutoring center

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to get help with them.

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Good luck.