Watch this cover letter in video form. It is fantastic. I would have hired Rachel Hattam, the applicant, in a heartbeat – and most others, I’m sure. It’s a beautiful example of what great things can be accomplished with the technical tools that everyone has with their smartphone today. We need to turn on the head to create something new.*
This video reminds me of an internship application of mine.
During my studies – in the early 90s, I really wanted to do an internship at Lufthansa. Twice my application was rejected (because children were given preference by staff and customers). I didn’t want to risk a third cancellation. I also had nothing left to lose. So I submitted an application in the form of a comic strip. I couldn’t draw, and the software on the few PCs that existed at the time was limited to Harvard Graphics and Lotus 1-2-3. The graphics cornucopia that is the Internet didn’t exist yet either.
So I took the “comics” available to me to hand: Loriot, Asterix, etc.. From them I copied a few pictures, scaled them, cut them out, glued, painted to them and copied again. Then there was a resume in comic form. I sent it to Lufthansa.
Then I actually received an acceptance from Lufthansa. On the first day of the internship – it was a lukewarm summer day at the company’s base at Frankfurt Airport – I was told to report to the HR department first. I looked for the building, took the elevator to the sixth floor, and asked my way through. “So that’s you! We wanted to meet you!” it shifted through the open-plan office. With the comic application, I had sparked the curiosity of the HR department and qualified for the internship position.
So I spent great weeks in the controlling department of the passenger division and learned how contribution margin accounting and SAP/R2 work at Lufthansa. It was the best internship during my studies.
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*Turning on the head to create something new
It’s like presentations. How does that work in many cases. You need to give a presentation and you take the slide set that is current. You pick out the slides you need and maybe add one or two more. The result is usually a boring and uninspiring presentation.
I recommend the following approach: take a pen and a piece of paper and answer these three questions ….
- …
- …
- …
Send me a mail with the keyword “3 questions” in the subject line – then I will send it to you. Click here to go to the contact form.
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