Recently a good friend of mine alerted me to an opening at the organization with whom he is employed. The prospect of working again with this fine engineer is certainly not something I would easily pass up, so I set about updating and polishing of my technical resume. Somewhere along the line this document became large and a bit unruly. It is not colossal by any means, but does fit the baby giant classification of a MTU frame size (a baby giant is slightly larger than a IEEE 802.3 standard 1500 byte frame). After doing my best to limit the scope to 4 pages, I thought I was ready for the next step, but was pointedly reminded that I needed a good cover letter to go with it.
Always one to start with a little research first, I looked for the best possible cover letter format. The Harvard Business Review postulates that a 5 line cover letter is in all instances ideal. (https://hbr.org/2009/06/the-best-cover-letter)
A bit of Hello, I heard you had this position open, This is why I would be great on your team, lets talk soon, regards...
Short, succinct, and to the point. While it covers all the necessary bases it really doesn't stand out. So I, with all my extra time, decided that the best approach to gain a Penetration testing position would be to build a boot-to-root hack-able virtual appliance, and embed my resume as the prize for owning the box. To wit, I present my cover letter, that does indeed follow the HBR guidance:
3st33m3d V13w3r,
I am writing in response to the opening for a Security Pen Testing & Assessment Engineer.
I offer over 20 years of highly technical, detail oriented, troubleshooting and analytical experience. I also have solid certification backed project-management skills, and passion for Information Security, all of which should mark me as a value added candidate for your team.
My resume is buried somewhere within [omitted for privacy], if you can gain access to the resume then I deem you worthy of my skillz, and would be willing to entertain a conversation about employment with your fine organization.
Best regards,
XXXXXXX XXXXXX
We will see how it goes.
I hope you enjoyed my musings.
Yours in Security,
Justin
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