Cover Letters That Worked: “Long Hours And No Pay? Sign Me Up!”
This cover letter was not sent to us but it is such a good example of how to get your foot in the door that we had to include it.
We reported on this amazingly honest job listing from the Illinois Valley News earlier this month. Now, Poynter.org’s Joe Grimm notes: someone’s been hired!
The posting got 70 or 80 resumes, and it was ultimately 2010 U of Oregon graduate Darcy Wallace who got the gig. She told Grimm that the subject line of her letter was “Long hours and low pay? Sign me up.”
We love this: it’s ‘tudey, just like the original posting, but also says something about the jobseeker. Not many people would write that kind of line and mean it. We suspect that’s part of what drew IVN publisher Daniel J. Mancuso to his ultimate hire.
Mancuso said on CBS Radio affiliate KRLD in Dallas that “being a reporter is a 24-365 job and you have to be available when the news is available, and just because it’s Saturday afternoon doesn’t mean you don’t have to do anything. I want somebody who really wants to be a reporter and really understand what it is. The people I’m attracting, they know what I want. I want somebody that’s just going to work.”
Wallace added that at a small paper like the IVN, she’ll be able to do everything. And she has her own desk.
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