An Open and Very Candid Letter to Employers

Tonight I dashed off a cover letter and emailed it, with my resume, to what could be my dream job: a library aide position. Now, it's a part time position, but the pay is very, very good, even at the bottom of the pay scale. I'm terrified, though, that I won't even get an acknowledgement, much less a call for an interview, and that my resume will be lost in the pile of applicants deemed unworthy.

Dear employers, I beseech you. My resume doesn't look impressive. I've only been working since I was 21, and that's only three jobs. And yes, you're going to look at the most recent job and see six years of telecommunications call center work and automatically think "sales" when in all actuality, my resume lists billing and technical support first, then "transitioned to sales" several bullet points down. It's a bare outline of the basic functions of the job I performed, but not the experiences I gained, the confidence, the people I encountered. It doesn't show you how it shaped me as a person or a leader. You wouldn't know those details unless you interviewed me. If you interviewed me, I would tell you that I gained the confidence of my supervisors quickly and earned the privilege to be off the phones in a support role, that I handled escalated callers and learned to problem-solve on the fly, that I motivated my team and shared best practices in order to help others succeed. I would tell you that I had a great attention to detail and was able to manage several tasks at once and give you examples of how I used to handle multiple customer accounts and orders at once. I would tell you that I am able to handle upset customers with poise and professionalism and compromise to make all parties happy. But you don't know that, unless you interview me.

You have the outline. Let me tell you the story.