Job Search 2013: The Best Cover Letter I Have Ever Written -- We'll See If It Works

Post date: Jan 17, 2013 9:18:2 PM

Happy Belated 92nd Birthday to my Great Aunt Rita! (Tuesday the 15th)

Happy 91st Birthday Betty White! (Today the 17th)

Yesterday, after my fourth job rejection about this week “not hiring at this time but we’ll keep your resume on file”, “we went with another candidate but good luck with your job search”, “we’re all staffed up at this time but we’ll keep your resume with your file” and “we don’t feel that meet all of the qualifications required for this position [like filing, answering phones, typing, faxing and scanning], I sent out the following tweet:

“YAY!! I just got denied from my fourth job this week!” #hallelujer #collegedegree #experience #positivethinking #sarcasm

Shortly after a this tweet went out, I received a response from the Volt NorCal, a workforce solutions firm (I love that wording) asking me what I was looking for. I gave them a few ideas and they asked for my resume. I sent it to them with this rather lengthy cover letter outlining my background, what I want and some of my frustrations with this current search. I should send this with all my resumes.

Whether Volt ultimately finds me this great job I have envisioned or not, I thoroughly appreciate the personal touch of our Twitter exchange and our email exchange. Far above the approach of the useless temp agencies I’ve been trying to work with of late, my first impression of Volt is that they have an understanding of the frustration of the job search process and the mindset that we all deserve a job that we love – and not just one that we accept because we sometimes need to in order to survive.

Whether we get it or not is another story and largely out of our control. What is in our control is the trying to get it part.

Good morning,

Thank you very much for responding to my snarky Tweet yesterday.

My name is Terrence Moss. I recently moved to the Bay Area from Los Angeles, where I spent much of my nearly decade-long career in the TV advertising industry. During my first four years, I gained experience in media buying and ad sales. At that point, I took some time off and lived in New York. I then returned to Los Angeles, where I had the opportunity to work directly with advertisers, albeit on a direct-to-consumer basis. That job led to a similar job in Massachusetts following a merger with an advertising agency in that area. After about two years, I left that job and returned to Los Angeles to pursue a writing career.

I did that while simultaneously working for yet another advertising agency in the same client service capacity. I worked for that advertising agency for a year-and-a-half before being laid off on account of lost business (none of it mine). I took the opportunity to write full-time. I profiled local actors. I expanded my ongoing short story series. I built my own website from a Google template. I worked on three different web series -- two as an actor, one as a writer. All the while I gained some preliminary knowledge of online marketing approaches through outlets such as Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus. And of course I talked myself up so as to establish myself as some sort of brand.

None of this panned out as I would have hoped -- largely because LA is so industry-oriented and I lost interest in that. So I came up to the Bay Area and am now looking for new opportunities to take what I've done and what I know to learn things that I haven't done and that I don't know. I would love to get in on the ground floor of a startup. I find that exciting and believe that such enterprises allow for more risks to be taken and more out-of-the-box thinking to be applied to the business than more established ones. I would also like to gain more knowledge in online marketing. I would like to help refocus some of the current methodologies that seemed to have jumped the gun in terms of trying to monetize the internet before its capabilities and affect on consumer habits were fully understood. Lastly, I would also be interested in an entry-level positions with a tech company -- with some training.

I am a diligent, capable, smart, reliable, self-starting but rather headstrong individual (not necessarily a weakness). I have always been an asset to any organization on several levels -- personality, ability to learn, willingness to take on projects outside of the scope of my position as a means of expanding it and a solid work ethic. I thrive on support, trust and latitude to do the job hired to do.

But what I'm finding is this: two years ago it was all about diversified experience. Now it's all about specialization. I've always been a jack-of-all-trades and a master of none. I've always found that to be best. Still, with a little bit of training I can become masterful at something that is of demand in the current marketplace.

Attached is my resume. I can be reached at [my telephone number]. Thank you very much for anything you can do. I am available for immediate hire.

Sincerely,

Terrence