Job hunting - A different kind of happy ending

[Celery Man 20929]

So it’s a weird backdoor recruiting thing but if you just submit a cover letter with an eggplant and a winking emoji they’ll move you right through to manager interviews.

[Handcruser 2805]

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name="Celery Man" userid="[emoji[emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji[emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji[emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji[emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]]]][emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6][emoji6]][emoji[emoji[emoji6]][emoji[emoji6]]]]]]"] So it’s a weird backdoor recruiting thing but if you just submit a cover letter with an eggplant and a winking emoji they’ll move you right through to manager interviews.

Celery Man is spot on.

[Chewbacca 7766]

6 hours ago, Parliament said:

Applying for an internal role with my current employer and I see the application page lets me post an optional cover letter.

I’ve worked with the hiring manager in the past and will likely get an interview. So help me pro/con this.  How much does a cover letter help you beyond getting an interview?  What all should I say in the letter.

To get it out of the way, so you don’t hafta ask:

I have my profile pic on our internal “LinkedIn.”

It’s a virtual interview but I’m gonna dress a little bit better than I would at the office.  And wear pants.

I may be required to give a brief presentation.  I’m already prepping for that.

TIA

Can you talk to the hiring manager before the interview and get their thoughts?

[Parliament 14227]

I know the hiring manager and we have spoken.  There will be 2-3 other interview panelists and I'm not going to know who they are until day-of.

[Celery Man 20929]

Cover letter probably not necessary if hiring manager knows you are applying and is expecting to talk to you but I’d probably send one anyways on the basis that it is unlikely to hurt. 
 

my general cover letter format is something like -

 

Hello <company name> hiring team,

I am writing to you today to express my sincere interest in the <position>. <one to two sentences of career summary with an emphasis on relevant accomplishments>. <sentence where i convey my philosophy and explain that i am uniquely qualified to help their team [insert company mission statement]>.

I am currently searching for my next opportunity to <something that aligns with my experience/trajectory and also with what the position is>. <sentence that relates to the above about what is interesting to me about this position/team/product/company.>

I would greatly appreciate the opportunity to meet with you and discuss the position further. Please let me know if you have any questions or if there is any additional information I can provide. Thank you for your time and consideration.

🍆😉

[choripan 790]

On 9/24/2024 at 8:12 AM, choripan said:

TLDR: I'm getting frustrated by the AI/HR grind, am getting rejected in large part for being overexperienced/overqualified so far, and want advice or word tracks for contacting hiring managers, especially where LinkedIn shows 1+ quality connections (not recruiters, not spammy connections).

I am FEELING this. I have been searching for about 9 months and am beyond frustrated by the algorithm/HR grind. For the first 8 months of the 9, I applied to jobs for which I was a great fit, typically slightly or greatly overqualified, and touched up my resume and crafted a directly on-point cover letter. I got ONE interview, where I did well and made it to the hiring manager. I did not get the job and, in fact, the hiring manager contacted me and told me I'd be great for the role except that she was uncomfortable managing someone with more experience than her.

About a month ago, I was out for beers with friends -- one who is in IT and was applying for jobs, another who is in HR/training -- and they told me that almost all medium- or large- companies run all resumes through an AI-based screen prior to a human ever seeing them, and that was probably my issue. The IT guy suggested a particular platform (Teal) that uses AI to synthesize your resume and the job description, plus any custom prompts you give it, to create a cover letter. I do this and then touch up the cover letter because sometimes there's AI weirdness.

This has been great for getting past that first step. I'm up to 5 interviews in the last two weeks. 2 jobs I was a finalist and not selected, 1 a semi-finalist, and I have two pending. So that's progress. but I guess I a frustrated as fuck to keep getting stonewalled when I'm so close. For two of the three where I wasn't selected, I got feedback that they had concerns whether I'd be a good fit for the role because it was a more junior/mid-career role.

• The experience/overqualification issue: For background, I am a lawyer with 15 years' experience, 16 years out of law school. I have some pretty good schools on my resume (Michigan undergrad, Northwestern law, Harvard management) and am an honorably discharged veteran. I spent the first 3 years at a large law firm focused on finance/banking before one of our clients, a public transit agency, hired me to go in-house. I was there for a year and a half before switching cities and staying in house a a quasi-governmental airport operator (900+ direct employees, 19,000+ badged employees through contracts). In that role, I rose to be General Counsel and also had the Government Affairs and Government Departments under me. So I was a do-it-all generalist  -- with a focus on contracting and procurement, as we ground through a few hundred contracts per year -- with significant leadership and budget management experience. COVID hit and I left that job after a few months, in June 2020, because we had two kids under two, my wife has her dream job, and daycare was closed while we were in a ~750ft^2 rental while our house was being renovated. Once daycare and school normalized around here, in September 2021, I went back to work with a large law firm as Counsel, in its Transactional/Commercial Contracts Group. One, I wanted a job, and two, I wanted to rebrand myself outside of the public sector or public sector-adjacent space. This has been good but not great. A couple months after starting, I was seconded to (embedded with) a nascent spin-off of a F500, reporting directly to its GC. Loved this role. But about a month ago, the engagement ended and I'm back to billing hours rather than just entering "Secondment day" and am now reminded that tracking and billing time, frankly, sucks. Also, I really want to get into something more permanent and direct than a counsel/contract relationship.

So the challenge I have on this front is that anything with 10+ years experience I see wants SPECIFIC experience. For example, they want a generalist but someone that's spent [X]+ years in automotive, or at tech startups, or at wherever. Obviously, I don't have this so I haven't bothered applying. OTOH, I'm applying for less experienced in-house jobs with less specific industry requirements and getting through to interviews, but getting the vibe that someone with ~6-10 years does not want someone with 15 years, including leading a large department, reporting to them. It's come up multiple times, and in each case I mention that I took some time off and pivoted industries a bit, so I understand and am completely comfortable with repositioning myself. I suppose either this is not a good answer or it's not coming off as genuine (?), although it is. the fact that this keeps coming up is frustrating. I'm not an ego guy and have reported to people older/more experienced and younger/less experienced than me.

• Contacting people directly via Email/LinkedIn - Catching up on this thread, I see some of y'all have had success reaching out directly to recruiters/hiring managers. Is anyone willing to share examples of word tracks or messages that worked? I'm kind of at a loss at how to approach it with someone I don't personally know but with whom I have connections. For example, "Hi Jane, I'm reaching out because I applied to your open widget sorter position. I see that we have x, y, and z as common connections and I'm sure they'd be happy to vouch for me, if asked. I am very interested in the position and hope you'd be willing to make sure my cover letter and resume get a look. Thanks for your time! - Choripan" But it's hard to make the cold call ask and some forms I could modify would be great.

I realize I've written a novel here, but it's been therapeutic to do so and I'm at a loss. I've never felt so lost and frustrated professionally. Thanks for reading and I'd really appreciate any help with word tracks and advice on how to position myself with respect to being "overqualified." Like, does my answer above just suck?

 

Follow up: Just got a call from the hiring manager at a good opportunity that I'm getting an offer and that HR is putting a package together! It can happen! I just interviewed with her boss at the HQ (Euro company) this morning our time, so they moved quickly.

And when it rains, it pours. On Friday, I got a call from the hiring manager at another letting me know I'd hear within a couple days after today's holiday and to keep an eye on my phone. Not something you typically do, in the manner she said it, if they're going with the other finalist.

The former was through networking. I finally swallowed my pride and reached out to key people to grab coffee/a beer and to say that I was actively looking. Universally, the response was, "Why didn't you say something sooner? Let me pass your info around and put you in touch with x, y, and z."

The latter was through AI-assisted applying. 

It really is a gauntlet out there, and you either need help from a person or AI. It's nothing like applying to the help wanted ads back in the day, I tell you that.