I struggle to write cover letters for applications[1], despite being self-aware. The obvious remedy would be to lie and make up what skills or abilities I have based on the application, and hope there’s no negative repercussions later. I see my difficulty in writing cover letters as part of a wider pattern of being unable to answer the question “what am I good at—that people need enough to pay for?” which is a fundamentally different to the questions “what am I proud of?” and “what are my passions?”. Writing a cover letter involves not only identifying the tasks which are easy or hard for you and skills you possess; but then ranking those against a theoretical sample of others—such as the pool of other applicants you’re competing with. How accurate you can rank yourself improves your cover-letter writing and general application strategy.
You can be really good at calling out the title of a Tin Pan Alley song from someone just playing a few bars, but who’s (realistically) going to need that so much they will pay you regularly for it?
Why did I mention passions: there is a common sentiment that you should follow your “passion” and find a career in that, rather than do something “for the money” and end up hating your job and your life. I personally think following your passion over money is bad advice, but I feel like if I don’t mention “passions” someone will in the replies.
Some people are really passionate about Taylor Swift’s music, like they might be able to talk breathlessly about her discography and the enumerate minute differences between (Taylor’s version) and the first recordings. But there’s probably a glut of supply for those skills making it virtually impossible to monetize.
If we change the question entirely to “what should I upskill in?”, this certainly opens up new possibilities, so much so, that the breadth of possibilities leads to analysis paralysis. It might be easier/wiser to instead ask “what must I not upskill in?” and shrink the possibilities based on some principled “whys?” and reasoning.
I struggle to write cover letters for applications[1], despite being self-aware. The obvious remedy would be to lie and make up what skills or abilities I have based on the application, and hope there’s no negative repercussions later. I see my difficulty in writing cover letters as part of a wider pattern of being unable to answer the question “what am I good at—that people need enough to pay for?” which is a fundamentally different to the questions “what am I proud of?” and “what are my passions?”. Writing a cover letter involves not only identifying the tasks which are easy or hard for you and skills you possess; but then ranking those against a theoretical sample of others—such as the pool of other applicants you’re competing with. How accurate you can rank yourself improves your cover-letter writing and general application strategy.
You can be really good at calling out the title of a Tin Pan Alley song from someone just playing a few bars, but who’s (realistically) going to need that so much they will pay you regularly for it?
Why did I mention passions: there is a common sentiment that you should follow your “passion” and find a career in that, rather than do something “for the money” and end up hating your job and your life. I personally think following your passion over money is bad advice, but I feel like if I don’t mention “passions” someone will in the replies.
Some people are really passionate about Taylor Swift’s music, like they might be able to talk breathlessly about her discography and the enumerate minute differences between (Taylor’s version) and the first recordings. But there’s probably a glut of supply for those skills making it virtually impossible to monetize.
If we change the question entirely to “what should I upskill in?”, this certainly opens up new possibilities, so much so, that the breadth of possibilities leads to analysis paralysis. It might be easier/wiser to instead ask “what must I not upskill in?” and shrink the possibilities based on some principled “whys?” and reasoning.
Jobs, grants, proposals, even lead generation as a freelancer—anything where you need to “sell yourself”