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Why a Cover Letter is One of the Most Important Letters You Will Write
The cover letter that accompanies your employment resume is perhaps one of the most important letters you will ever write. Other than your resume, it is the single key document that will introduce you to a prospective employer and, if well-written, pave the way to that all-important job interview. It is an integral part of your overall job hunting campaign, and it can make or break you, depending upon how well it is written. Construction of this document should therefore be given very careful attention. The care that you give to writing this letter will certainly be a major factor in getting your job search off to an excellent start. Conversely, a poorly written letter will surely scuttle your campaign before it even begins.
Harvard Career Expert Explains The No. 1 ‘Desirable Skill’ That Very Few People Have
When young people ask me for career advice, I always tell them: “Don’t just focus on your own accomplishments. Be a collaborator.”
Through a decade of teaching and research at Harvard’s business and law schools, I discovered an important and often overlooked insight: People who figured out how to collaborate across teams gained a major competitive edge over those who did not.
The advantages of collaboration skills
When it comes to hiring, smart collaborators are highly desirable candidates. They deliver higher quality results, get promoted faster, are more noticed by senior management, and have more satisfied clients.
But here’s what shocked me the most: Collaboration skills are surprisingly rare, especially among men.
A 2021 McKinsey study found that women leaders, compared with men at their same level, were about twice as likely to spend substantial time on collaborative efforts that fell outside their formal job.
How to be an exceptional collaborator
Being a collaborator isn’t easy. But the primary goal is simple: bringing people together to solve problems and learn something new.