Advice for a cover letter in consulting

[Jean]

Ok, I wrote an honnest cover letter. I don't wan't to lie there. But I need some feedback.
It's originaly written in French, I'm not asking for a grammar check, but more about what the content tells about me.
Thank you


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Dear Sir, dear Madam,
I am looking for an economic relationship that can result in an autonomous and beneficial creation.
My professional experience began in the academic world with an interesting problem, which I approached in an original way, finally to favor the publication rather than to share the conclusions that had allowed this original approach. Not supporting such an active role in this hypocrisy, I left my job in the academic world. Action made possible by the concordance between very modest financial needs and a judicious real estate investment.
Over the course of these three years, I have experimented with different lifestyles, returned to school, some internships, travel and work in my property. I have also observed the world and modeled many phenomena. This is my natural activity. In the same way that some dance or tinkle as soon as they have a minute of free time. I take a phenomenon and try to accumulate as much observation as possible until I have constructed a model that explains all the observations, then I seek counterexamples. This gives me a lot of fun. These models allow you to imagine solutions to a variety of problems. I have neither the skills nor the desire to implement solutions influencing the lives of people who did not ask me anything.
I want to have an impact tough.
Customers in "attractive consultig firm that in my city which might be restructuring now " have problems and are asking for solutions. I would be very happy to be able to contribute to the creation of solutions, knowing that it will benefit people. The "attractive consultig firm that in my city which might be restructuring now " team will benefit from my great imagination and my ability to question the most seductive ideas. I am also very keen to take a step back, to always identify all the boundaries of a problem.
I am very interested in integrating your team, and if my skills are the ones you need right now, I invite you to contact me.
Best regards.

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[chenda]

Too be blunt your letter makes no sense at all. No doubt much was lost in translation but I've no idea reading this who you are, what you can do and how you can benefit me.

Keep in short, keep it simple, keep it direct.

[BRUTE]

1.concise formulation of the extreme pain the potential client must be feeling right now (demonstrates understanding of client and client domain)
2.demonstration of how Jean has solved this pain for other clients in the past, and how happy they were
3.offer to solve the pain for potential client

[Jean]

@Chenda
Thank you.
This sucks, I don't understand your advice, but I should follow it.
To be clear, it comes with a resume presenting my education and previous work experience.
Can you help. I feel completly out of touch.

@Brute
I have no idea, I never had any clients.

[BRUTE]

for disclaimer, brute has no clue about the French consulting market.

creativity helps. surely Jean has solved problems like X before, or he wouldn't be offering to solve them as a consulting service? maybe he's solved this problem in his university career. or as an employee in the X industry. or by volunteering or for X. anything that proves Jean knows how to solve X. no lying, but creative re-application of experience is completely normal, brute thinks, as no two problems are exactly alike.

brute recommends reading Million Dollar Consulting by Alan Weiss, and maybe a few other books about consulting.

basically, clients don't care about Jean's hobbies or history. they care about solving X. the secret of consulting is to identify X, and communicate to the client that they can trust Jean to solve X, then go solve it for them. X also must be very painful, so they'll pay Jean good money for it. therefore, X better be measurable, best in money or related (e.g. hours, which translate to money for a business).

examples of X:
- extra unused stock kept every month
- underutilization of equipment
- overhead kept
- productivity lost
- extra leads coming in every month
- increase in sales funnel conversion
- downtime due to instability
- lost revenue

[Jean]

I did nothing, my only real job was a fraud.
This company doesn't says what it did before. It get customers because it was founded by a rockstar entrepreneur in a secret country, and it probably does good, because they still have a good reputation. Its not consulting like solving organisational problems. It's mostly outsourced innovation.

I precisely want to work there, because all problems I encounter are either trivial (like how to be FI) or out of reach (like how to get rid of violence on earth).
My ex was doing the same thing as this company does (at a much smaller scale), and I was many time able to help her a lot about the problem she encountered. But I don't see how talking about an ex in my cover letter wouldn't be awkward.

[chenda]

So what sort of consulting does the business actually do ?

Je peux lire le francais assez bien...

[Tyler9000]

I've worked for several "outsourced innovation" consultancies. It's a good gig if you can get it.

The goal of a cover letter is to give someone just enough of a hook to pay attention to your resume. My initial reaction is that there's too much back story (save that for the interview where you can offer proper context) and not enough content. Consultancies respect results and confident communication skills, and you need to focus on specifics that will get their attention. A good rule of thumb is to find their description of the job you're applying for and write the cover letter in a way that explains how you're uniquely qualified for what they're asking for. Give examples, and explain how you can bring something new and interesting to their team that is directly applicable to their client base.

BTW, I'd also avoid any negative words in a cover letter. "Hypocrisy", "left my job", and "I have neither the skills nor the desire" are all red flags to me as a candidate screener. Sell your positives, and leave comments like that far, far away.

[James_0011]

Why do you want a job? In any case, I would probably just throw that letter in the trash if I got it. It's too unconventional, work is all about fitting in (one of the reasons I want to leave and what makes me not understand why you would want to go back).

[Jean]

@Tyler_9000
I don't have a job description. I just heard they might restructure and hire. I have the home number from someone working there. I tried to call, but no answer. I'll try again.

My idea with this letter was to use the same strategy as I used to meet my partner. I noted a correlation beetween the accuracy of the first impression I give, and how happy my interaction with the woman was or is. I was brutishly honnest with my actual partner and the relationship is great.

So I assumed that the same strategy might work to get a job.

Thank you, your advices are helpfull.

@James_0011
I'm just very bad at selling. So nothing I'll do on my own will make money. I have enough money to sustain myself, but I want kids. So I want to build an other appartment and need some money for the permit, materials, and some parts of the work. I have other plans, but they might be less interesting, because this job might be interesting. If this job is about fitting in, I won't want it anyway, so my letter ending up in the trash might be a good thing for me in this case.
They don't have a HR person filtering, I don't know how they do it.

[James_0011]

@jean

Maybe Europe is different. But in the us all white collar jobs are pretty much about fitting in. i don't know your situation though maybe I'm wrong.

[Jean]

@James
Maybe it is too. But I want to give it a try.

But I start to think that the way I take criticism, answering it instead of pushing myself to implement it, might be part of why I didn't enjoyed my first job.

[Scott 2]

The smaller and more technical/creative the company, and more technical/creative the role, the more freedom you'll have to be you.

IMO you are better off talking to a person at the company than blindly sending a letter, especially with the approach you want to take.

Imagine hiring someone to work for or with you - what do you want to hear?


In the conversation, I'd approach it more like:

I enjoy making an impact working on tough problems. I got frustrated with the emphasis on publication in academia, had some success with a private real estate investment, and used that as the opportunity to move on. While the private real estate is providing for me, I still want to make that difference. I heard your company solves hard problems. Is it true?

*conversation about the company*

I'd like to be part of the team and learn from you. I know I'm inexperienced, but I'm prepared to work hard and a good problem solver.

*conversation about problems you've solved, work ethic, and fitting in with teams*


For a new inexperienced employee, you want someone who's going to be receptive to learning, hard working, loyal, and get along. The expectation is they will be molded in the ways of the company for at least several years before setting any directions.