With my new book, Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling to Get Jobs and Propel Your Career, about to be released (April 1, no foolin’), I thought I’d run this excerpt that also appeared on Quintessential Careers:

Why would you went to employ storytelling in cover letters — or indeed in any part of your job search?

Cover letters offer job-seekers great latitude to tell stories because letters are quite compatible with the narrative form. Learn more in the article, Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling that Propels Careers.

In a cover letter, you can engage the employer, make an emotional connection, show results, and become instantly memorable by including at least one paragraph in the form of a powerful story. Not all employers read cover letters (about a third don’t), but those who read, do truly read the letter, unlike the resume, which they almost always skim.

This article details the types of stories you can tell in a cover letter and provides examples of how to tell them. The article is excerpted from Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling to Get Jobs and Propel Your Career, releasing April 1, 2009.

Types of stories you can tell in a cover letter:

• Stories of early interest in your career path and determination to reach your career goal.
• Stories that depict your motivation, enthusiasm, and passion for the job you seek.
• Stories describing specific projects you’ve led or collaborated on, including results.
• Stories detailing problems you’ve solved for your employers.
• Stories describing other accomplishments and successes.
• Stories that reveal your personality.
• Stories describing long-term interest in, knowledge of, and admiration for the organization you’re targeting.
• Stories that describe how well you fit in with the organization’s culture, values, and mission.
• Stories — for new graduates — of how your education has prepared you for the targeted job.
• Stories that touch the heartstrings.
• Stories to back up your claims about yourself.
• Stories that tell how you are uniquely qualified for the targeted job.
• Stories that capitalize on networking contacts.
• Stories to explain unusual or potentially negative situations.
• Stories to explain a career change.
• Future stories that address employer needs and challenges and tell how you would address those issues.