Cover Letter Tip

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allaboutwaves
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Joined: Mon Nov 24, 2014 11:16 pm

Cover Letter Tip

Post by allaboutwaves » Tue Nov 25, 2014 1:06 am

I am going to be applying for physics grad programs for the fall of 2015 and am currently working through applications for the first round of deadlines on Dec 15. However, I don't know exactly what to write for the cover letter because I've never been in graduate school and don't exactly know how I can convince the admission boards to accept me.

So, I decided to instead write cover letters for jobs I will never have to get some practice and the creative juices flowing such as: a professional detective, a greenhouse manager, and a biological field scientist. I encourage anyone else to try it, and you can quickly see the types of skills and qualities you'll need to include in your grad school cover letter. Practice makes perfect.

Of course I just made up facts about the skills I would need to be accepted for these jobs, but others could take them more seriously I suppose.

allaboutwaves
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Nov 24, 2014 11:16 pm

Re: Cover Letter Tip

Post by allaboutwaves » Tue Nov 25, 2014 1:23 am

If anyone posts one of these, I'd be happy to post one too! All in good fun.

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Aether73
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Joined: Wed Jun 19, 2013 10:52 pm

Re: Cover Letter Tip

Post by Aether73 » Tue Nov 25, 2014 1:50 am

Applying to be a Ghost Buster.
I was 10 years old when I had my first paranormal encounter. It was a cold winter day and had my mother fetch me a cup of hot cocoa from the kitchen. She asked why, and I told her "but meeeerm I want hot cocoa!" With a quick "okay poopsikins" she did my bidding. I sat on the couch watching a Canadian television show for about a half hour when she came back and gave me a large mug of chocolate-brown liquid. It had been a bad day and it was only getting worse. There were no marshmallows in the cup. I told her again "but meeerm there's no marshmallows! I want marshmallows in my cocoa! What do I look like, some sort of homeless child?!" She quickly realized her mistake and with a "sorry poopsidoodle" she went off to the local grocery store to buy marshmallows. I drank the cocoa that she gave me and waited for about a half hour for her to return and for another half hour for her to finally bring me a second cup of cocoa. She handed it to me and I looked into the cup to find 5 large marshmallows swimming in a sea of chocolatey goodness. To my annoyance, one of the marshmallows started talking. I asked the marshmallow what it wanted - why was it in my cocoa? It said "can I get about tree fiddy?" I then realized that the marshmallow was eight stories tall and was a crustacean from the protozoic era! I yelled "merrmm there's a loch-ness monster in my cocoa!" That was the moment I realized that I wanted to be a sixteen story tall stay-puff marshmallow man.
Tell me what you think, am I ready for physics grad school?

allaboutwaves
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Nov 24, 2014 11:16 pm

Re: Cover Letter Tip

Post by allaboutwaves » Tue Nov 25, 2014 2:07 am

I'm not sure if your essay had ALL the elements I think are important, but certainly gave some good vibes! Perhaps you could elaborate on the link between hot chocolate and crypto-zoology more explicitly. Well in this spirit I'll revise and shorten a little bit...

I'm applying to be the Greenhouse Manager and wanted to discuss some of my personal skills and qualifications that are relevant to the position. My first experience with plants was care taking an initially small deciduous plant that lived mainly through digesting the blood of mammals. I was concurrently managing a small floral shop for a family of professional gardeners. I learned marketing skills and attention to detail while keeping the shop clean. However, as the small plant grew into a singing man-eating monster, I refuse to tell you the ending to this movie. I'm excited to use my new skills to handle similar situations in the greenhouse with employees. I look forward to hearing back from the anonymous judgement of internet strangers.

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Aether73
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Re: Cover Letter Tip

Post by Aether73 » Tue Nov 25, 2014 2:14 am

Have you thought of submitting your greenhouse experience to the SCP Foundation http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1180?

allaboutwaves
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Nov 24, 2014 11:16 pm

Re: Cover Letter Tip

Post by allaboutwaves » Tue Nov 25, 2014 2:25 am

That plant seems inherently untrustworthy. I'm not gonna have another situation like back in '60. Has it really been that long? So many decades of fear...

Weird, cool anomaly! Coconuts already make interesting sounds though, may I refer you to the King of the Briton's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8bqQ-C1PSE



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