Cover Letter Rubric: Fill & Download for Free

What does faculty recruiting committee really look at first, CV or cover letter?When I was on search committees, the typical process was that the search chair would use an agreed upon rubric to weigh the applications. The 5 or 8 areas of the rubric were more or less directly pulled from the job ad, so maybe education would be one, with a doctorate in the field counting as 5, a related doctorate 4, a direct masters a 3, or whatever. Repeat for research background, teaching experience, and so on. Then there was an area for notes and comments.Then the CV and cover letter would be used in completing the rubric, so probably read in that order, typically with some back and forth.Then the committee would get electronic copies of all applications, maybe with the chair’s rubric, and asked to evaluate the applications as well. We’d meet and come to a consensus of the rank ordering, and the chair would reach out to maybe 5 or 6 for phone interviews. I think we had to talk to some minimum, but would sometimes invite more if, say, 6 and 7 were close to 5. After that, another eval, and we’d invite 3 to campus for face to face interviews, and recommend our final choice to the dean.

I am super biased, but I highly recommend HireArt. Here's why:1) Banging selection: we recruit for non-technical roles at amazing startups, as well as larger tech companies that people sometimes forget are not actually startups. Just check out our site to see.2) We are the only recruiting firm that doesn't give a shit about pedigree. I won't name names, but job seekers from places that sound like Flarvard, Floogle, and McFlinsey have to prove themselves through our app process just like everyone else does. We care what you can do now, not where you've been before (even if it means that you never went to college).Our video interviews and work-sample text questions have been designed to test for the hard and soft skills that our employers want and need. We then have humans talk to said employers to tailor our rubric to their desires (prioritizing traits based on the role, understanding personality fit, etc.). Finally, we have more humans assess the video interviews based on the tailored rubric.We also don't use machines to filter out resumes if they don't have the keywords we're looking for. We look at every. single. application.3) Effectiveness: A completed HireArt interview is five times more likely to result in an actual hire than a resume sent through a job board or corporate posting (numbers for job board/corporate posting from a recent Glassdoor report, numbers for our own success culled from our database).4) Transparency: our support team is happy to answer any questions about your application, as well as give you advice on how to improve it (you can review and edit your application as many times as you want). We really want to help you find a job.Cons:1) The HireArt process definitely takes longer than simply giving your profile to a recruiter, but our clients (the startups) understand this. They trust us to give them people they will really like, so if you make it through our funnel, you'll have skipped the cover letter and phone screen portions of the hiring process and go straight to onsite interviews.Essentially, the hour that you spend on your HireArt application is balanced out by the hour that you won't spend writing a cover letter or prepping for a phone screen.2) Location: we're currently only in NYC, San Francisco, and LA (but expanding soon! Looking at you: Austin, Boston, Chicago.)Ultimately though, finding any job is really tough, and I advise job seekers to take any and all advice posted in this forum. I particularly like Craig's advice about skimming VC portfolios, and Jason's advice about begging your friends to introduce you to people :)You never know where or how you'll land your next job!

Thanks goes out for the worthwhile question being asked here by Jay Harewood under the rubric of Quora’s Career Advice section is, “[W]hen writing a cover letter for a job, is it better to be personal or stay impartial and stick to the facts?” In brief, yes, the latter rather than the former, but in an upbeat yet not impersonal manner, if that makes sense to the reader. So, personal and impartially sticking to the facts are not mutually exclusive as another observer has already perceptively observed.Cover letters are important insofar as, unlike the resumes which they customarily transmit, are valuable useful tools allowing prospective employers toObtain an initial impression, a first person introduction in writing from the job candidate as to who you are, and how you present yourself, in a professional situation. A well crafted professionally typed cover letter thus serves as a fine example of one’s producing a polished professionally written factually based work product, as one might well expect, from a potential employee joining the organization.An opening for a cover letter being such as, for example: “Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is ____ and I am writing to you regarding the position of _____ which you recently advertised in ________. Since month/year to present, I am and have been serving as a (position) at xyz organization in Podunk Hollow and have acquired experience and skills such as…a…b….c….”The well crafted cover letter especially allows, unlike a resume per se, to have the candidate demonstrate to the employer - the tangible ways in which he/she’s background and special marketable skills — are a good match for the various stated requirements for the position being sought. This calls for tailoring language (matching ones skills sets to the particular job and its requirements at hand) making these “matches” powerfully clear in the mind of the hiring official that you are the ideal candidate for the position for many reasons.The cover letter allows the candidate, in a single page written pitch, to essentially “sell themselves” as the best candidate for the position with a proven track record in terms of requisite education and specialized training, professional work experience history, internships, relevant publications, honorary achievements, and any other factors regarding the applicant vis-a-vis the position which will be favorable.The cover letter also allows the writer to close the letter with one’s followup intentions of “looking forward to hearing from you with a view to our meeting to discuss the position in person and the ways in which I can make a mature contribution to you and the work of your organization” or similar words to that effect. The cover letter allows the writer to suggest the best way in which the prospective employer may contact the candidate to arrange such a meeting (i.e., telephone number, email, etc.) at a mutually convenient date and time.