Journal Exercises For Getting Past Cover Letter Anxiety
By: Star McCown ‘21
The thought of writing a cover letter can be anxiety-inducing, sometimes to the point where you feel paralyzed to start. As someone who has written and peer-edited countless cover letters and personal statements over the years, I’ve come up with a list of journal exercises I send to friends who feel stuck. Not only will these journal exercises help you organize your thoughts, but they will also help you figure out what you want to include before you start writing. Once you’ve completed these exercises, you will be ready to begin your cover letter!
The best thing you can do for yourself is get into the writing zone. These exercises are one way to write your way through your anxious thoughts. Answer these prompts in a separate document from the one you plan on using to draft your cover letter. You can write your answers in bulleted lists or sentences, whatever you feel most comfortable doing.
#1 - What is something that you love to do?
The objective of this exercise is for you to get comfortable writing in your voice. It will also warm you up and focus your thoughts on something positive. You can write about anything because no one except you will have access to your answers (for example, I’d write about going to the beach).
#2 - What is something you admire about xx department or company? Why?
This exercise will help you find a deeper, more personal connection to the position. Get specific. For example, if you are applying to a social media internship, look at the company’s social media and see what stands out to you, and what you could use your skills to improve.
#3 - Why do you want to work in xx position?
You could make a bulleted list. Feel free to start shallow (I need money, I l need experience, etc.). Look at the language on the job post, and figure out why you chose to apply to this specific position. Let your thoughts flow, and I’m sure you’ll come up with more specific reasons. If you are unable to, try asking yourself why that is.
#4 - What do you hope to accomplish in xx position?
This is important! Do you have a specific project you’d like to pitch to them? What is something they do that you feel you could strongly contribute to? You know your skillset best, how do you plan on applying that to the work they do?
Be honest with yourself, and be as specific as possible. If you don’t know, that’s okay! That just means you need to do a little more research into what the department or company you are interning for does (though, to be honest, it’ll likely say what they will have you do on the job posting).
#5 - Why do you want to work at xx company?
Do your homework. Read their mission statement. Look at their public-facing work. Keep writing until you get to a concrete, specific answer. This one to two sentence answer should show how A) this company connects with you personally and B) how you hope to make an impact there.
#6 - What do you hope to get out of taking on this position?
Remember that every new job should be a learning experience for you, as well. Cover letters should always include something about what you hope to get out of the internship or what you want to learn, and why. Maybe you want to further a specific skill or learn something new. Make sure to include how you hope to apply what you learn in the future.
#7 - What have you done or created that you are most proud of?
This can be anything, I promise you. For one cover letter, I wrote about my Instagram account (which is an illustrated concert diary). On the surface, it didn’t have relevance to the position I applied to, which was for a podcast internship. However, what it did do was show A) that I’m a creative self-starter and B) what I’m passionate about. If you have done something you feel proud of and put a lot of work into, but don’t think it’s relevant, you can find a way to make it relevant. If you have done something that clearly connects to the work you’d be doing, then that’s amazing!
You can connect any specific project or body of work to a broader idea, as there will likely betransferable skillsto highlight. Be specific about what you did and how the skills transfer. Also, including passion projects will give the hiring manager a view into your personality. Doing this will humanize you!
#8 - What is the one (or two) previous job or leadership experience that is most relevant to this job? Why? How do the skills transfer?
The purpose of this exercise is for you to narrow down your work experience so you do not fall into the trap of repeating your resume in your cover letter. Regurgitating your resume is the worst thing you can do because that means your cover letter adds nothing to your application. Find the one (or two) experiences that connect to what you are being asked of in the job post, or that have the most transferable skills. Once you decide this, and I cannot emphasize this enough, figure out HOW the skills you exercised in the previous experience can be applied to the position you are applying to.
Why these exercises work: Typing right into your cover letter without considering ahead of time what you want to include can make it more stressful for you to make decisions. With a journal, you don’t have to worry about someone else reading your answers. You can be messy with it or rant, whatever will help you get to the core of your thoughts. Take the time to be comprehensive with your answers, and you’ll eventually figure out exactly what you want to say.
This may seem like a lot of work, but it will be worth it, and it will help you write a unique cover letter. Having these answers on hand will also help you prepare for a potential interview, once the process goes that far.
Final Drops Of Wisdom
Cover letter language: It’s okay to relax your language and not be extremely formal. There’s no need to talk around what you mean by using big words/concepts that are difficult to understand. Be straightforward!
If you are going to use a generic adjective, like “forward-thinking” or “innovative” or “creative” etc., you have to back that up with a specific example. Here’s an example of how to frame that: “When I was able to solve xx problem with xx solution with xx organization, my supervisor applauded me as a creative and forward-thinking worker.” That’s it. You need to justify the use of those adjectives, or else they read as empty.
Remember that you are the main character of your cover letter. Let them see who you are as a worker and as a person.
My hope for you is that, once you’ve gone through these journal exercises, you’ll feel confident in yourself and your ability to write an excellent cover letter. I believe in you! For more information on correctly formatting your cover letter, you can refer to this resource from the Career Center: https://careers.usc.edu/students/write-a-resume/#letter
Best of luck on your job application journey!
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