Resume Cover Letter Help - Part 3

It was the next Friday morning. Being recently retired, I had been enjoying sleeping in on many days. I was just waking up about 7 a.m. when the phone rang. Now who on earth can that be this early I thought to myself and I debated whether or not to answer it. My friends all know not to call that early. Then I thought, it could be an emergency and I quickly picked up on the 4th ring so it wouldn't go to voice mail.

There was a hesitant timid voice on the line, "Aunt Cyn... I know it's early but..."

My heart sank, "Are you okay?"

"Yes, yes, I'm sorry, did I wake you?"

"I'm awake but I haven't had my coffee yet. What's up?"

"Well....ummmm...."

There was so much hesitation in her voice I could tell she wanted to ask for a favor so I just said, "How much do you need kiddo?"

"No, no it's nothing like that...I...uh..."

"Just spit it out."

"Well, I was showing Sandra the cover letter we wrote and she wants to ask if you could help her write a resume cover letter too. There's a company she really wants to impress and she needs a really good cover letter to go with her resume."

"Why don't you just tell her what we talked about?"

"Aunt Cyn, I tried but I'm not as good with words as you and I'm not explaining it right. Can you help her?"

Now, my niece knows she could ask me for just about anything and I'd do it so instead of making her beg I just said, "Bring her out this weekend if you want and I'll try to help her."

Now that I agreed to it, she started talking in her normal chipper way. "Thanks Aunt Cyn, you know she's my best friend and this job is right here in the city so maybe we can stay in the same place."

I didn't tell my niece this because I didn't want to put any pressure on her or limit her in any way but this was music to my ears. She must be trying to stay in the area. Hip hip hooray!

I had met Sandra several times before. She was a delightful young woman and about as bright as they come but she was an engineering student and like my niece writing just wasn't her forte. They had met in an ethics class their freshman year and had become instant best friends. They had become so close, in fact, that Sandra felt comfortable calling me "Aunt Cyn" too.

When I opened the door to greet my niece and Sandra that afternoon, I could see they were both loaded down with dirty laundry.

I just laughed and pointed, "Basement... and you're both doing your own loads!"

They giggled and headed downstairs dropping socks along the way.

At dinner, Sandra said, "Aunt Cyn, I wanted to thank you for agreeing to help me with my resume cover letter."

"Glad to do it... but don't expect miracles now."

"I won't... but it's got to turn out better than what I've been writting. I just have no idea what to say in my resume cover letter. I want to sound professional but on the other hand I don't want to sound boring. How do you do both?"

"We'll figure it out baby. We've just got to find a unique angle - a way to sell you. You're the product and we've got to sell you to the company."

We all had a great time that evening and the next day after a long discussion I found out some things about Sandra that I never knew before. The most interesting thing revealed was why Sandra had gotten interested in engineering in the first place. When she was 14, her little brother had gotten seriously injured when some playground equipment malfuctioned. He was in the hospital for weeks and almost died. This sparked Sandra's interest in engineering design. She found herself studying the way things were built after that experience. During Sandra's junior year in college, she attended a city council meeting in her home town during Christmas break and spoke during the public comment period. She reminded them all about what had happened to her brother, told them about her classes in engineering, and suggested several ways to improve the playground equipment in the local parks to make it more safe. The city coucil was so impressed with her, they set up a meeting with the city manager. This was evidently followed by a flurry of emails and conference calls. In the end, it turns out they actually implemented some of her suggestions and are working on finding funding to do more.

I was in awe. I had always been impressed with Sandra but it just hit me how outstanding this was for such a young person and I suddenly shouted, "Put that in your resume cover letter - put it right at the top!!"

"Really?!?"

"Yes, of course... that's your unique angle. It shows your passion. It shows your motivation. It shows your ability to follow through on things."

"But I really didn't do anything but make some suggestions... wouldn't they rather hear about the job I had last summer..."

"Sandra, think about the positive impact you've had... it's very impressive... you affected a whole community and you've helped children."

Sandra started to cry. "Thanks Aunt Cyn. I don't think anyone else could have given me better resume cover letter help. You are so inspirational."

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