I've had good success with what I do believe is a just-OK cover letter template. Lame opening, paragraph about how my experience matches what they are looking for, sentence or two about why I specifically want to work there (especially important for nonprofits, I think). Boom, the end. But I haven't tried to sell myself for a job I wasn't an obvious fit for in years and years, so.

Agreed that the tell-a-story bit is a good idea (and can be pretty simple), and that tracking down the name of the hiring manager is a bad one.

Also, as someone who's done several rounds of hiring in the last few years, I'd posit that the people who will be reading your cover letter aren't necessarily people who know anything about recent cover letter trends. They're just people looking to hire someone who will do well in the role. You already have an advantage in that you're a good writer. Give yourself permission to write a shitty first draft, ask a couple friends to be your beta readers, and I bet you'll come up with a perfectly good letter.

Kate makes a very good point. You are a good writer, Zen, lean into that.

Wow, I've missed a lot since I last skimmed/read. Support and vibes to Sophia, Zen, Maria, Dana, and anyone else who needs them.

I am not making this up:

You know how I mentioned the current trend in my neighborhood's FB group is to take selfies with the lone small cart at Kroger and post them in the group? Someone talked to Kroger and our store is getting 50 new small carts AND -- again, I am not making this up -- Kroger is throwing a party at the store for us on Sunday.

This is the BEST THING EVER.

Oh, fuck me, I think I have a fever. If I have the flu, I'm going to be pissed. And also unable to sing the concert on Saturday.

Steph that is hilarious! And awesome. I love the tiny carts. I usually end up doing my shopping with a basket and then wishing I had a tiny cart but not wanting the big cart.

Yep, fever of 100.3. Naturally, the urgent care closed 25 minutes ago.

I'm sorry, Dana.

Woo tiny cart party!

ETA it seems like the kind of thing Li'l Sebastian would make an appearance at

At my work, you rarely would be able to figure out who the hiring team is unless someone referred you; and even then, applications generally go into a pool (we tend to do hiring campaigns more than one-offs because budget cycle) & one hiring team might hand one off to another if they think it might be a better fit.

My last pool, for 4 positions in dev/ops/engineering triaged over 500 apps. First pass is resume for basic quals, then cover letters to filter those qualified on paper or whose experience interested us. And then it's like, did they read the crappy job description? Try to engage it? Something demonstrated that seems a good fit? Which is to say, cover letters are a crapshoot, just use your voice & hopefully it'll connect to a good fit.

I hate/love being on the hiring team. We found good people from our process. That I love. I hated knowing I probably rejected equally good ones.