 on this. I'm just going to share my screen here. So as you're all aware today, we're going to be talking about how to create a beautiful cover letter. And so we'll just jump right in because we don't actually have a ton of time. My name is Tim Workman. I am the Western Region Outreach Associate with an agency called Upwardly Global. I'll talk about what that is in just a second. And my co-host is Lorena. Good morning, everyone. My name is Lorena Ortiz. I'm an Employment Service Advisor at UpGlo and I work mainly with job seekers in the engineering tech as well as finance fields. Thanks, Lorena. So a little bit about Upwardly Global. If you're curious, if you know anyone who might benefit from our services, we're really the first and only nonprofit in the country that focuses specifically on helping immigrant and refugee professionals get back to work in the U.S. This population tends to struggle with getting back into their career fields for a number of reasons. We exist to help them get out of transitional jobs like Uber, Lyft, restaurants, retail, etc., making sure that business professionals, medical professionals, architects, engineers, teachers, you name it, are working in the career fields that they were trained to work in. We work across four major markets. One of them is the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area. We are operating at about 1,000 job placements per year. That's full-time professional job placements with a $64,000 average annual salary in the Bay Area. Our program is free. We are donor funded. We're funded by private philanthropies, state and local governments. It's a really great program. It would otherwise cost our program participants thousands of dollars on the private market. So I really, really encourage you, if you know anyone, dig deep into your contacts who could benefit from our services. You can send them to our website and our application page. We'd be happy to review their background and qualifications for our program. So talking about cover letters, we're going to just review the basics. What are cover letters? What are some of the best practices related to cover letters? And we're just going to go through section by section. Talk a little bit about proofreading, some things to keep in mind when you're sending your cover letter off into the ether. We're trying to have a little time for Q&A at the end, but like I said, this is kind of a new presentation for us. So we don't really know where we're going to land on time. So we thank you guys for your patience. I'll leave our email addresses at the end. If you have any questions whatsoever, if we don't get to the Q&A, especially feel free to reach out to us. If you have any specific questions about your cover letter. So what are cover letters? Well, in the simplest terms, they are to basically introduce you to the hiring manager, the HR rep, saying who you are, what do you have to offer, and why do you want the job? So people frequently consider these letters a real headache. They consider them boring. They approach them in a very gross manner, but I'm encouraging you guys not to take that approach. They really represent a great opportunity to share who you are. So they're not boring. You're not boring. You have a lot to share about yourself. So some people ask, do cover letters even get read? The answer is an unequivocal yes. In fact, they are the most important screening tool for some hiring managers. Typically, the hiring manager has already seen your resume, and now they want a little context and a little insight about who you are. That's why you should not write bad cover letters. And I assume that's why most of you are here. So our aim should really always be to create a cover letter that is thoughtful and persuasive. And that's really easier said than done. And it's mostly because you have an extremely limited amount of time and space to do it. So let's go into some best practices. Great. Thanks, Tim. So one of the main important things to remember is to be thoughtful. And what we mean by that is to really think about how are you presenting yourself? How are you marketing yourself? In addition to your LinkedIn, to your resume, this is your marketing tool. So you're asking yourself why you. And in that question, you also want to consider what are some possible pain points. That means areas that you may be able to bring your skill set and experience and expertise into this position and into this company. The other question you want to ask yourself is how does the brand of this company or the culture of this company resonate with you? And why does that align with your personal goals and values? So that is in a way sending you apart from other applicants when you hit on that point. And then lastly, it's important of course to stand out. So you don't want to ever copy or paste. You really want to customize your cover letter. Same thing with the rest of your application, but the cover letter really, really should be as customized to the opportunity as possible. So take the time to think about all of these points carefully and really take some extra time in the cover letter. And one more thing to add here is that when you're reviewing the job description, that's also a really great guide to create a thoughtful cover letter. So reviewing that job description, asking yourself what are the responsibilities? How does my past experience relate to those responsibilities? What are the current needs of the company? Are they growing? Or is there something that they're a project that they're really needing support on? So you're presenting yourself as that key person who can step in and take on that role and really support the company organization in whatever they are currently working on. Absolutely. And just a note on pain points. So when you're thinking about, when you're trying to figure out what the pain points are of the particular company or team organization that you're applying for, that's one strategy for writing a cover letter. And some people might say, well, how do I find that out? Sometimes it's written right in the job description. For example, we need to double our team in the next two months. We're looking for a recruiter to help lead the charge or we're looking for someone to drive online user engagement so we can reach two million users. Something like that, right? But sometimes it's not so explicit. Sometimes you have to hunt around. You can lean on your network. You can find somebody on LinkedIn who might be connected with that team or hiring manager. Try to figure out how you can tailor your application and really get some insights about what they're really hoping for, for someone in this role. You can also do research on Glassdoor. You can track down people who work in similar roles and see what some of their biggest challenges are. It's always important, I guess, the main point here, the point about being thoughtful is to really, really focus on customizing your cover letter and making sure that you're speaking directly to the person on the other end. That can't be overstated enough and that's part of being persuasive. So how do we be persuasive on a cover letter? Here's some ways. You want to make a good first impression. Firstly, I think a great way to make a good first impression is to address the right person, verify the contact name. If you can't find it in the job description or online, sometimes you might have to call the company and ask who the HR rep or who the hiring manager is for the role. You want to make your first sentence a stunner, so we'll talk a little bit about this. Your first sentence, your first paragraph, there should be a nice book in there, okay? Some other points about making a good first impression. Don't talk about your salary expectations in the resume. This could signal that all you care about are the benefits that the role might provide you. That's very, very premature. You should bring this up in the second round of interviews earliest, okay? Typically it'll come later. Don't discuss why you're searching for a new role if you're trying to jump ship. So resist temptation to discuss anything that might come across as negative towards your current employer. Just focus on this role that's part of making a good impression. Another part of being persuasive, highlight the right skills, okay? So the most important duties and skills will typically come first in the job description. They'll be mentioned more than once as well. So highlight these critical skills and you want to highlight these skills that you have in the sense of highlighting your achievements rather than simply job duties in your past roles. You want to brag. You want to show how you went beyond expectations, okay? And added some value. Also, don't focus on skills or experience that you lack. Example, I don't know. I mean, I know I'm not the perfect fit for this role, right? We've seen that before. People writing cover letters like that. Don't do that. Don't apologize. Only focus on your strengths. You can address your skill or your experience gaps in the interview. It's best to do that face to face. That's why they typically ask you questions like what are your weaknesses, right? Throw in some numbers. Hiring managers, they love statistics. So did you bring in a lot of clients? Okay, how many? You organize a lot of events. How many? Did you make a process more efficient? By what percentage? How much did you bring down costs? You always want to quantify. This helps provide support for your claims. It makes them, it makes sure that they understand that you're not, you know, a fabulous or you're not like making things up. It greatly strengthens your covered letters. So quantifying is very important, especially nowadays. Everything's database. You should also be doing this on your resume. So some points on style. And I'll just add to the last slide to that, you know, in some rare cases, they will ask you to state your salary preference or range in the cover letter. In that case, you do want to, you know, address it. But like Tim said, in most cases, you won't be needing to do that, but just wanted to add that in. Great. So style points, right? So don't be too formal, right? This is not an essay that you're writing. The average time that someone actually takes to read a cover letter is under a minute. So you want it to be, you know, easy to follow, easy to read. Again, it's not a technical paper. So, you know, conversational is a good kind of tone to take, of course, not too casual or too conversational, but, you know, pay attention to your tone. And of course, be brief. You don't want to ever exceed one page. If you can even stick two, three to four paragraphs, even better, because again, there is a limited amount of time the person is taking to read this. I know that, you know, for job seekers, I have worked with there is a desire and tendency to want to put everything, right? To list off, you know, I did this, I did that. But really, again, this is going back to the point of tailoring and customizing. Really just mention what would be relevant to that position. And it's like giving a taste, right? It's not everything. You're going to hopefully land the interview. There's information in the resume that, you know, you don't need to repeat in the cover letter. So be, be as brief as you can, while also, you know, giving an introduction to what makes you a great candidate. And then the last point, you know, use consistent responses may seem kind of trivial, but the, again, this is branding. This is marketing. So you want it to be visually easy to read, visually pleasing. You don't want to have, you know, a mix of like Times New Roman and a different font or different size fonts, right? This is important to just stay consistent, not just within the document, but also with the resume that you've submitted, right? So this is like one whole package. And so you need to make sure that those fonts you use in the resume are also consistent with the font of the cover letter. Absolutely. And you'll find that that's also important because in the sense that, you know, applicant tracking systems, they can't really read like wild fonts. So you have to keep it simple, keep it consistent. Otherwise, there's a risk that your cover letter won't be seen by anybody. Okay. So the outline simple, it's a letter. If you've written a letter, you certainly, you'll find this intuitive if you've written an email or anything like that. So basically what we have up top, a little bit different from an email is some contact information, you'll have a salutation, you're opener, your middle paragraph, your closer, and then your sign off. So this is perfect. This is a nice, short, succinct, sweet cover letter. Like I said, we want to keep it boring in terms of the font. We want to keep our margins at one inch if you're not an American, that's 2.5 centimeters, no indentation. All right. So the return address is very simple on this one, right? So there's no actual address. So you're submitting these by and large digitally nowadays. So you don't really need to elaborate on the receiver's name, their title, their address, or even your physical address. Okay. Another thing to note, there's attractive white space between each section that reduces the cognitive load when someone's trying to read. And what else? Yeah. So this type of consistent formatting, it really, really stick to it. Try not to be too creative. Again, applicant tracking systems really hate wild fonts, crazy outlines, and file formats. So there you go. Great. And let's talk a little bit more about the header, right? So as you can see on the slide, there are two kind of most common options. You have the modern option, which does not include things like the date and the address of the employer. That is more the traditional option. This is still, it's really up to you what you prefer to use. But I think a good thing to consider is the traditional format taking up too much room. If you're short on space and you're sending this, of course, over email, as is the most common form these days, then you may want to go with that one. It is important, again, to stay consistent with this. Make sure that your name is spelled the same way as on your resume, that your email is correct. And I think some people breeze over this, just writing it really quickly. But just take the time to go over is all this information accurate, especially if you're including the more traditional form. Make sure that the name of the person you're addressing to is spelled correctly, that they have the correct job title on there, that the address is correct. I've seen that in some cases, companies don't necessarily even have an address anymore. Maybe they're located in different locations. In that case, again, you may want to go with a modern form or omit that information. But it is just important to take a look at that closely and make sure that everything is up to date and accurate. Absolutely. So now let's move on to the salutation. So this is really simple, obviously, but it's also very impactful. It's kind of like the handshake of the cover letter, right? It's your first salvo. So you want to, as with the rest of the cover letter, really strike a balance between too casual and too formal, right? We want to keep it professional, but what does professional mean? So there are certain things that we should best practice is to follow. We want to avoid email greetings like hello, hi, right? We want to not just use somebody's first name, dear Tom, avoid the stuffy ones like to whom it may concern or dear sir or madam. I put dear Mrs. Smith in here. There's actually an argument against using gendered titles, right? So the U.S. workplace culture is rapidly becoming gender neutral. So we maybe want to omit Ms. Mr. Mrs, especially Mrs. Because that implies marriage, right? So we want to avoid those. You can use doctor or professor if it applies. Those are gender neutral terms. So what we really wanted to do is dear first name, last name, okay? Dear Alex Johnson. Simple. Again, you need to find the name of the person who will be reading your letter, okay? We discussed how you can do that. It's not in the job description. You might have to call the organization directly. If you can't come up with a name, it's considered acceptable, but it's not ideal to put Dear Hiring Manager or Dear Hiring Committee. So simple but impactful to get your salutation right. So the opener, right? What you really want to do here is grab the person's attention. It's like if you're starting out a book and the first page is extremely boring, you're not going to continue the book, right? So same idea with the cover letter in the beginning. Grab the reader's attention. Also make it easy for the reader to understand your intent, right? So that means in this case, really making sure you reference the role that you're applying for. In some cases, it's going to be not just the position title, but also the job reference number. A lot of hiring managers reading these are reading hundreds per day. They don't have the time to look through their files or emails to understand what position you're applying for. So that's really key. Just keep it basic. Always mention that in the beginning. You want to make their job easier. Secondly, right? Mention any contact that you have inside the company if that's applicable. That's really, really great if you can do that. Your chances of landing, you know, the interview do increase with that. And just so maybe you all are familiar with the statistic, but around 70 to 80 percent of jobs that people actually land are through some personal connection. So that's why if you have the opportunity to get, you know, a contact within the company, really, really go after that as much as you can. And then, you know, it's always good to give the person a sense of the impact in prior roles upfront. So what that means is including two to three skills that you possess that make you a strong candidate for the position. This is not going into, you know, an extreme amount of detail, but again, you're giving that person an intro of why you are a strong fit. And then including within those skills also key words from the job description, right? So you're not throwing out just any random skills, but you're really, again, tailoring it to what you have seen in that job description to what you've researched about the company and, you know, remembering that because that's the opening that those are the top skills. Like if this position requires bilingual English Spanish ability, that's like a key requirement, then that's something you may want to consider putting in that opener to draw on their attention and to really make them want to keep reading it and, you know, have the sense that, yes, this person is, you know, going to be a strong fit. Awesome. So let's look at a few examples. Okay. Of strong openers. So the first one we'll call him Mr. Keyword. I am writing to apply for financial counseling manager with Community Corp. So he's expressing his intent up front. That's the best practice. My 10 years of experience working to better lives of low income communities, we can call that an accomplishment 10 years of experience. And my strong skills in program design and bilingual communication make me ideal for this role. So program design and bilingual communication, we can assume based on this that those are two top keywords from the job description, you're throwing them right up front. So the recruiter, the person reading it knows boom right away. These are the this guy has what we need. So if you really want a plug and play first paragraph, this is probably as close as it gets. Your intent, you can talk about your experience as you know, if that's applicable, and then throw in two or three keywords. Okay, that's really the best plug and play format. Another one, Miss Connected. I'm very interested in the digital marketing position at products.com. Boom, they know what role you're going for, what she's going for. My colleague Jane Do recommended I contact you directly about this position. Boom. Now the reader is saying, oh, I know that person, they work in our company, right? Or they work, they work for us. Owing to the years I have spent developing successful ad campaigns for XYZ company, perfect, she threw in a little brag at the end. So that all draws it together. And she worked in that contact. Now there's Mr. Confident, okay. Some people, they experiment with tone in their cover letters, it's up to you as to whether or not you want to do that. So this has a really strong hook. It uses a lot of charm. Okay, I understand that you've been deluged with resumes since the weekly release, their list of best companies to work for. Mine is one more, but I do have experience that is hard to come by. Okay, for 20 years, I've helped some of the biggest companies on earth transform their operations. This is experience that I bring to global as director of operations. So you can see he's hitting those elements, talking about his achievements, he's expressing his intent, it's a little buried towards the end. This works really well, but you risk sounding brash or arrogant if you're being pretty outlandish in your tone. So if you're trying to be a little flashier, it's always good to get a second or third pair of eyes to make sure that your tone is working for the cover letter. Great. So now that you've introduced yourself, it's time to dig into your most relevant experience and talk about the specific qualifications and skills that make you the perfect candidate. So you really want to show that you've done the research. For example, you know, knowing, again, I'm going to go back to that point I said, knowing that your bilingual fluency in Spanish and English, you know, and familiarity with a certain, you know, market makes you the ideal candidate to join the team in one or two paragraphs, but preferably one paragraph you want to make the connection between your past accomplishments and your readiness for this new role. You want to think of these paragraphs as a way to pitch yourself again as the ideal match for the role employers will likely have read your resume. Right. So knowing that you want to avoid repeating any of the bullet points in your resume, you know, if there is a bullet point that's really relevant, then use the chance to kind of dig into that further, including more details to illustrate that highlight. And a really great tip that, you know, I use over and over again with job seekers is the par structure that stands for problem action result. And that is a method not just only in resume and cover letter writing, but also in interviews. So if you're not familiar already with that concept, I do recommend, you know, just Googling it, there's a lot of great YouTube videos giving examples of how to use par. And it really provides all the relevant information, right? It's giving the context, it's giving the actions that you took, and it's giving those results. And again, like, I think Tim mentioned this, but results, if you have numbers, if you have statistics, if you have percentages to add into that result, that is going to make it even stronger. Some people also refer to this as the star method, which is, you know, conceptually really the same thing. Right. So you can think of the problem as like a situation or a task as well. Okay. So for our examples are three protagonists. You can see that these are, and I don't think I have time to go through each one of them in extreme detail, but it's very plug and play, right? So problem, situation, task. While at CHF Ecuador, I was responsible for the disbursement of loan and grant funds. Boom. Action. In one case, I successfully disbursed 100,000 USD to 400 tomato producers. Result. I increased their household income by 25%. Year over year. That's very, very succinct. It's very logical. Okay. You can see that they're all, it's very plug and play. They're all at RiverTech. I oversee digital marketing campaigns. Boom. Implementing strategies. Action. Return. Over the past year, I've successfully increased customer engagement online by 45%. So this is a way that you can, in a very succinct and logical way, highlight some past achievement that's relevant to the person reading the letter. So using this framework really improves clarity, can help you say what you need to say with a great deal of economy, which is an amazing tool and power to have in your middle paragraph. There's a lot of temptation to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, to oversell, to talk about too many things, right? This will help you keep it nice, simple, logical flowing. And also keep in mind, like Lorena said, this framework comes in handy throughout the interview process as well. So whenever the interviewer says, tell me about a time when, dot, dot, dot, you should have par or star examples ready. That will make your answers very nice, logical, succinct and impactful. Great. So signing off an inclusion. You really want to choose a complimentary closing that is friendly yet formal, followed by your last name. Here's some different examples, wait a mile, right slide. So you want to summarize, again, what you are bringing to this position, explaining what you are, what the impact is. And then gratitude is such an important thing in life, but especially in the application process, including this copper letter, right, thanking the person for the time they've taken to read your application, taking the time to consider you. And then it's really key to also put in an action phrase in the last part, right? So in this case, it's looking forward to speaking with you about how we can meet to increase productivity on your team, right? This is a call to action for the person reading, and it really emphasizes your excitement, your enthusiasm for this company and for this role. You want to avoid closings that are too informal, like cheers, thanks a lot, or ones that are just kind of in terms of tone, not fitting like yours truly. So, you know, think of it as you want to be respectful, not too casual and not too affectionate. So it's kind of finding the correct tone in this, and I think, yeah, keeping it simple is always a good way to go. Yeah, and I would just emphasize that for, you know, your closing paragraph, if you have, you know, any employment gaps, if you have any other potential red flags that might come up, just to emphasize, you know, like you were laid off, you were demoted, you were fired, you're kind of job hopping, you can always provide that essential context on your resume. It's kind of a damage control thing. So we want to, like, preclude the HR rep or the hiring manager in particular from forming any assumptions. So, you know, if you leave any gaps or red flags unaddressed, it could seem kind of fishy. So this is a great way to do this, you can't always address those on the resume. So let's look at some examples. Mr. Keyword. In sum, my background in program management and bilingual fluency will ensure I can contribute from the first day. So this is a nice little transition. And after taking some time away from the workforce to resettle my family in the US, I'm eager to restart my economic development career, blah, blah, blah. So you can see he's explaining here. So the reader might have already formed an impression in their mind that Mr. Keyword has a pretty significant employment gap. So he's explaining that. I would appreciate the opportunity to discuss this position with you. Okay, so there's a thank you. Again, thanking, expressing gratitude. Misconnected. In summary, I'm passionate about driving results for digital marketing teams. There's a nice little connector there, a transition. I plan to relocate to Los Angeles to be closer to family and your opening presents an excellent opportunity. So there's a little explainer. The reader might have already determined that there is a geographic mismatch. So she's working to paper over that little gap in their mind. So thank you so much for your time and attention. Gratitude. I'm available anytime for a telephone interview and can meet in person on short notice. That's a pretty decent call to action. It's a little stronger than the first one. You'll notice that Mr. Confident has a very strong call to action. So I think that this is great. Not everybody thinks the way I do, but he's really ending it like kind of like a sales pitch. I'm eager to hear about this opportunity and share with you why my last employer calls me indispensable. I'm available for an immediate phone interview. So this is really suggesting a clear action in the mind of the reader. Okay, he wants an interview immediately, right? So the phone interview and then he expresses gratitude. So this is, you know, the tone is a little edgy. It's very in the vein of Mr. Confident, but I think it works. And I think to really think about the call to action, you can say thank you. I look forward to meeting with you for an interview and discussing how we can blah, blah, blah. Right? So that's always something to consider a really nice, strong call to action as your final statement. Yes, exactly. And I'd also add to that, right? Your call to action may also just be impacted a bit by what industry are you in and what kind of is what, who is your audience, right? If you are applying for a marketing position, you're going to maybe want to be a little bit more pushy and confident, like Mr. Confident. If you're, if you're applying for another industry where that's not that kind of tone is not as common and you may want to tone it down a bit. But yeah, no, again, like no, your audience. But I think in general, like a strong call to action also signals your confidence in yourself. So think about how are you coming across and how does that create also an impression that that is favorable and moving right along to the sign-off. So don't be overly familiar. I think that, you know, we kind of touched upon this before, but before you hit send, you know, you want to make sure that your closing is ready to go and is appropriate for the context, right? So sincerely, regardless, respectfully best, thank you, instead of these other, these other examples are best. And also when you're sending another kind of note is when you're sending it digitally, most often you're going to want to save as PDF forward. PDF is like a very stable formatting. It doesn't, you know, change in the sending. And because often you may be sending through the ATS system, you know, you want to also just be really careful with those files, because we just don't want it to end up in what some people call like the black hole of resumes. So pay attention to your file format. And also when you're sending it, right, pay attention to the name of the file. These are like small details, but they can make a difference, right? So commonly that file name will be first name, last name, cover letter dot PDF. Another quick tip, right, is that if you have been applying to a ton of jobs, you may have different versions of cover letters on your desktop or in your computer and really make sure that that is the correct version. If you're going to use folders or dates to do that, that's up to you. But I think that part of the job search is really just also staying super organized in your file and having one system for staying organized. And then, you know, some folks may have sent, you know, their applications over the mail in the past, right now, the hard copy sending is not as common. But in that case, you might put your actual signature, your real signature. But that's, you know, in this case, or in these times, not as common. Great. So just some tips on proofreading. You know, for you, before you send it out, is it so some questions ask yourself, is it grammatical? So one, one thing that people suggest is read it backwards. So begin at the end and work back through the paper, sentence by sentence. So that'll force you to look at the surface elements, instead of thinking of the narrative structure. Okay. Ask someone else to read it over. This is very important. You want to make sure that you're being clear. You're not being wordy. There's not any errors. It can be hard when you've looked at the document over and over and over again to determine whether there are these smaller errors, right? So this is going to be especially important for non native speakers of English, right? Keep in mind that not all native English speakers possess the same level of written English proficiency. So if you do speak English as a second language, don't just assume that everybody is an expert in writing in English, right? So always have several people help you proofread. Make sure that you come up with the strongest possible draft. Don't rely too heavily on spell checkers. They're not perfect. They make all kinds of errors. Another question, is it simple? So you want to shorten your extremely long sentences, take out unnecessary or redundant words, use simpler versions of words, particularly with native speakers of English, we tend to use complicated words when we're trying to sound fancy and smart and make an impression. Never do that. Always swap in the simpler word instead of saying advantageous, for example, say helpful. Don't say erroneous, say wrong. Don't say leverage, say use. Don't say attempted, say tried. Don't say subsequently, say after or later, right? Take out lists of adjectives. If you have sentences like, I'm hardworking, efficient and loyal, cut those, okay? Don't just tack on positives without context. It just creates a lot of space. It takes up too much space. So if you're curious about the philosophy, you should read George Orwell's Six Rules for Writing by George Orwell. I'll let you guys look that up if you're interested. Very good practices. They're a great way to sort of think about how you compare down your written English. Another thing, is it relevant? If you've included personal information about your religion, your marital status, your race, your ethnicity, where you come from, any of those things, trust me, you're going to want to delete that. You're going to want to delete that because we want to avoid discrimination as much as possible. Another thing, is it formatted? I didn't include that, but make sure it's formatted. Again, single space, no indentation, white space, 12-point font, boring font, yada, yada, yada. Just make sure that it can get through the applicant tracking system, okay? And then hitting send, just to reiterate what Lorena said on the previous slide, you're going to want to save it in doc or PDF. Typically, that's all applicant tracking systems can read. If the job description specifies a different file format or a particular file format, always listen to the job description. Put your name like so, in this case, iman albayati resume.doc. And if you're a traditionalist, if you're sending in a hard copy, make sure you put your physical signature right there in the signature line on the cover letter, okay? And that concludes it. So we actually did pretty good on time. It's 10.44 right now. We have about 15 minutes. This has been Tim Workman and my amazing colleague Lorena. If you have any follow-up questions that we are unable to get to, please take down our email addresses here and you can follow up with us anytime. Thank you, Tim. Thank you, Lorena. We have a couple of questions in the chat. One of them is, if possible, please explain again the problem in the middle paragraph. I think this person's referring to the PAR, right? Problem Action Result. Let me allow people to and maybe Abdullah can elaborate. Abdullah, would you unmute yourself and explain your question about problem in the middle paragraph? Thank you. Thank you. Sure. Here, Lorena, I was asking about the first part of the problem, Action Result. I didn't actually touch exactly the problem at that part if you could. Sure. Great. Yeah. Thanks, Abdullah, for your question. So problem in this case, right, would be referring to a challenge that you faced in a particular position. And again, you want that challenge or problem to be relevant to whatever you're applying to, right? So if part of your position will be to, let's say, work with different teams, right, with different cross-functional teams, then maybe you can think of a challenge in the past position where you actually were needing to communicate with a lot of different people, a lot of different teams. So that's what we mean by problem. And Tim did mention, right, in the star structure, right, it might not be a problem, it might just be a situation, right? So you can either describe problem, challenge, or situation in the beginning of that kind of, in that, in that power or star structure. Does that make sense? Thank you. Yeah, I would add, I think for the purposes of the cover letter, you can just simply think of the problem. It's maybe problem is a misnomer. You can think of it as a task. So you can think of like, okay, I was in charge of blank operations management at XYZ company, right? So that's a, maybe in some broader sense, it's like a task in a way, right? And then you can discuss some actions and then results that came out of your focus area at that job. Yeah, and another way to think about it also is that is just a context. You're setting up a context, right? For the action that you took and then the result that came out of that action. They're all connected. So just think of, think of it more as like, this is a story that you're telling that you want to start off that story with context, give the person the details that would make your achievement, you know, impressive or just make sense. Thank you. There is a question from Debbie, but I think you guys probably answer it partly. Question was how to, what to do if no name it's available? Is it okay to say something like Dear Hiring Team? Yeah, you can say Dear Hiring Manager. You can say Hiring Committee. It's not ideal. So, you know, I'm really encouraging you guys to really, you know, look forward through the job description, make sure that they don't say who to address. Sometimes they will say who you should address. And if you can't figure it out, you might actually want to go the extra step of calling the organization and making sure that you're finding that name. It's really important. It's very respectful. It's considered very respectful. And it all, you know, people like being addressed directly, it adds a personalized element to the letter that can be advantageous. Thank you, Tim. Could you elaborate more about your program that you mentioned at the beginning? Any criteria to join, any fee to join, or any age range or limit? Okay, yeah, sure. No fees whatsoever. It's free, donor funded, and also funded by state and local governments. There's no age limit whatsoever, except there's sort of a natural age limit occurring because we do require a bachelor's degree or higher from one's home country. We have some immigration requirements. So you can, we require an immigrant or a humanitarian visa with work authorization. So you can look more, I'm going to just drop our program page in the chat. Feel free to copy paste that into your browser. And that should work. And you should be able to find out more about our program that way. I have a question like, do you also show how to find a search for appropriate job? Yes. So we will, so part of our program, we will help you with job search strategies, where to look for jobs, what types of job titles, best practices for applying for those jobs. And then we'll also sit down with you and come up with a career plan. Okay, so what are your hopes and your aspirations? What kinds of job titles are you looking for? What types of companies do you want to work for? What are your skill gaps? Do we have to help you with technical training? We have a number of partnerships where we can provide free technical training. So yeah, it's a really comprehensive job search service. Question, a question from a senior sheet, they asked, is there a difference between that you submit a job from a job platform such as Indeed and a company's website? I would note that, you know, from my experience working with folks that the success rate of actually applying directly on the company website is higher than applying through the automated application, you know, portals on LinkedIn or Indeed. Not to say that this is, you know, not something that people should do, but if you have the option, you know, I do recommend to my job seekers that I work with to go directly to the company website. It also enables easier follow-up. So the follow-up is, I say, even just as important as the initial application. Sometimes, you know, following up up to three times in a span of two weeks is what, you know, what needs to happen for you to get a response. So, you know, noting those differences. But Tim, do you have anything to add there? No, yeah, I would say that that's always preferable. You know, there's certain options nowadays, particularly with LinkedIn, where you can like quick apply, where it'll send like, I think it just sends your LinkedIn profile, essentially. The jury's out on that. As well. I think it's always preferable to send a full application, consistently, you know, like a cover letter in a formal, like customized resume. But things are changing. We'll see where they end up. Thank you. A question. Go ahead. Do you also help finding internship or placements? We can. Ali, if I think we can connect offline, if you'd like, and go through a little bit more about the program details. So feel free to reach out to me directly about those. Okay. I just want to make sure that everybody on this call can get their questions answered about the cover letters. But thank you for your questions. Just one more question. It's from Sonya. Regarding employment gaps, would you suggest addressing employment gaps in the conclusion with an employment caused by COVID? How would you address this? Yeah, I would absolutely address it in the concluding statement. You could say something like, you know, unfortunately due to, I mean, Lorena, you might have better phrasing. Unfortunately, due to the coronavirus X, Y, Z company, you know, downsized their blank department despite, you know, you could throw in something about it should already be apparent that you, your performance wasn't at issue at the company. What do you think, Lorena? Yeah, I think another kind of approach or method is, is to try as much as you can to keep it positive, to keep it, keep the tone, you know, positive in the sense that you may phrase it as really looking forward to, you know, getting back into my profession after leaving XYZ position due to, do hiring down, or, you know, downsized you to COVID, something of that nature where the emphasis is your enthusiasm and excitement versus, you know, this is this thing that happened to me. Does that make sense? And for what it's worth, I would say that many hiring managers, many HR reps, recruiters, whatever, what have you, they definitely are very acutely aware of coronavirus downsizing. So just something to keep in mind. It's not super, super a red flag for, for hiring managers right now, but you can address it the way Lorena said. Thank you. And if you don't feel that that, you know, I think it's up to you to, to think about placement. If you don't feel like that's a note that you want to end on, you want to end on something more based on your skills and experience, that's fine too. You can put it in a different section as long as, as long as you are addressing it in some way. Question from Mohsen. Popular automated recruiting systems such as Workday, the company use, they don't provide contact information. The email you receive, it's through a do not reply email address. How do you follow up with those applications? Yeah, it is tricky. And I, I see that I see that issue a lot with folks, but I would say one way around it that doesn't always work, but one possibility is to really do some research, you know, is there a hiring manager you can find on LinkedIn, or a recruiter you can locate on LinkedIn, can you reach out to them over LinkedIn messaging? Or, you know, is there, is there a contact on the company website that you can follow up with? It may not, you know, lead you directly to the right person, but even if they have the opportunity to, to pass on your email to, to the right contact, you know, but it does require some digging on your part. Thank you. A question from Maureen. Should the font on the cover letter match the resume font? Absolutely. Yeah. You know, doing that, it doesn't add a lot. Obviously, it's just expected, but if you don't do that, it really detracts a lot from your application package. It just, it looks a little sloppy, a little unprofessional. So yeah, just make sure that they're matched up. Thank you. A question from CNU. What can we do before we submit job application if we don't have a referral or network about the job? Yeah. So, you know, that's the best case scenario. If you do have the referral, but if you don't, you know, one alternative is again to reach out, are there, is there any way you could get in touch with someone who did previously work there or currently work there to get sort of some of you may be familiar with the idea of informational interview, that might give you some insider knowledge that could help you create a stronger resume. I've heard of people, you know, finding folks on LinkedIn and messaging them and getting, you know, even just a 10 minute conversation or having one email back and forth that can, you know, create a stronger application. That's not always possible, right? So in that case, I would say your your fallback is really know the job description, read it over and over again until you have it, you know, very clear in your mind how to pregate, you know, your how to market yourself as a strong fit. So nothing in that job description should be a surprise to you. And really just like, you know, knowing to the point of highlighting each skill and each responsibility and understanding how does your past experience or your past skills relate to that point. A comment from Orang. I'm a member of Upwardly Global for about three years now. It's a great community, including dedicated, friendly people who try the best to help new immigrants back and track. I encourage whoever it's eligible, apply, enjoy the vibe and services. Thank you so much. I really we really appreciate that endorsement. We're so happy that we've been able to help you. I don't see another question. But thank you so much, Tim and Lorena. We really appreciate you taking the time to share with us how to write an effective cover letter to boost our chances at lending the job. And I also want to thank everyone for joining the program. I hope you all find the presentation informative and helpful to you. I will send out an evaluation survey together with the slide deck and a link to the recording later today. Please give us your feedback so we can continue to improve our program. Again, thank you everybody and have a wonderful rest of your day. Okay, thanks so much for joining me. Thank you so much. Bye.