how to write a cover letter, according to leonardo da vinci - quartz

18 7 2014 How to write a cover letter, according to Leonardo da Vinci - Quartz

http://qz.com/234824/how-to-write-a-cover-letter-according-to-leonardo-da-vinci/ 1/6

COMPLE T E G UIDE

How to write a cover letter, according to

Leonardo da VinciBy Michael Silv erberg @m bd_s an hour ago

Selling yourself often feels like a grotesque act. So job applicants cover letters seem

unlikely to contain much great prose. Instead, we tend to fill the page with false notes and

empty phrases. (I believe my skills make me the ideal candidate, and I would appreciate

your consideration)

But it doesnt have to be that way. When a 30-something Leonardo da Vinci sought work in

the court of the duke of Milan in the 1480s, he wrote a short, bulleted list of ten skills that

would have been sure to catch the eye of any Renaissance-era ruler: he could

design portable, indestructible bridges; build unassailable vehicles; destroy most fortresses;

and so on. (He also could execute sculpture in marble, bronze and clay, and wasnt so bad

with a paintbrush, either.) His letter was brisk, convincing, and a pleasure to read.

Other fine examples of the form can be found in the cover letters of Eudora Welty and

Hunter S. Thompson, among other great minds. Quartz has distilled their wisdom into a

rough guide to cover-letting writing.

Its worth noting that these letters arent templatesit would be pointless to copy

correspondence thats so individual. Theyre here as prods, reminders that its possible to

make a necessity of business a bit less of a drag to write and read.

Fear and loathing on the job hunt. Reuters/Mario Anzuoni

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Cut through the noise

Be specic about your skills

All but one of the letters mentioned here come from the recently published book Letters of

Note: An Eclectic Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience, an anthology of Shaun

Ushers wonderful blog of the same name. Its well worth picking up.

The trouble with most cover letters is that they

sound canned. Using boilerplate

formalities wont make you sound serious; it will just

make it harder to tell one cover letter from another.

Use your personality, even if it means channeling

your anxieties about the job you hope to get. For

instance, Eudora Welty opened with a bit of

disarming humor when she applied for a job at the

New Yorker in 1933 as an unknown 23-year-old

writer with no experience:

I suppose youd be more interested in even a sleight-

o-hand trick than youd be in an application for a

position with your magazine, but as usual you cant

have the thing you want most.

And she closes with a self-deprecating joke and an amazing pun:

There is no telling where I may apply, if you turn me down; I realize this will not

phase you, but consider my other alternative: the U of N.C. offers for $12.00 to let

me dance in Vachel Lindsays Congo. I congo on.

Both you and the person reading your application know that youre engaged in a dull little

ritual. Anything to break up that monotony is likely to get you noticed.

Da Vincis letter to the ruler of Milan, Ludovico

Sforza, overwhelms the readers defenses with

details of his war-waging abilities, from

constructing secret subterranean passageways to

designing very beautiful cannons and catapults:

1. I have plans for very light, strong and

easily portable bridges with which to pursue

and, on some occasions, flee the enemy, and

Eudora Welty AP Photo/file



Try to show your skills in action

Tell a story

and, on some occasions, flee the enemy, and

others, sturdy and indestructible either by

fire or in battle, easy and convenient to lift

and place in position. Also means of burning

and destroying those of the enemy.

and

4. I have also types of cannon, most

convenient and easily portable, with which

to hurl small stones almost like a hail-storm;

and the smoke from the cannon will instil a

great fear in the enemy on account of the

grave damage and confusion.

Weltys talents were less martial but equally

impressive:

I recently coined a general word for Matisses pictures after seeing his latest at the

Marie Harriman: concubineapple. That shows you how my mind worksquick, and

away from the point.

Its one thing to say you can do the job; quite another to show it. In 1934, Robert Pirosh

was a young copywriter who wanted to break into Hollywood. The brief cover letter he sent

to directors vouches for his abilities better than a lengthy CV could:

I like words. I like fat buttery words, such as ooze, turpitude, glutinous, toady. I like

solemn, angular, creaky words, such as straitlaced, cantankerous, pecunious,

valedictory. I like spurious, black-is-white words, such as mortician, liquidate,

tonsorial, demi-monde.

And so on for another 100 or so peregrinating, bravura, gurgling words. Pirosh was hired

as a junior writer for MGM, where he wrote for the Marx brothers and won an Academy

award for Battleground.

Making our lives and experiences intelligible to others is a hard task. But if you can sustain

a narrative over the course of a few paragraphs, youll seem like a person, instead of a

faceless email. When Tim Schafer applied to be a programmer and designer at Lucasfilm in

1989, his cover letter came in the form of a text adventure game.

Your quest for the ideal career begins, logically enough, at the Ideal Career Center.

Upon entering, you see a helpful looking woman sitting behind a desk. She smiles and

says, May I help you?

Leonardo da Vinci REUTERS/Francois

Lenoir



Make your interest palpable

Be clear about what you want, and dont want

A letter is a great rst step, but try to set up a face-to-face meeting

says, May I help you?

>SAY YES I NEED A JOB

Things ended well for the games character (As you become personally fulfilled, your score

reaches 100, and this quest comes to an end) and for Schafer too, who went on to design a

string of popular video games for Lucasfilm and his own company, Double Fine

Productions.

Why couch your enthusiasm in stilted, formal phrasing? You want this job. So say it, like

Welty does: How I would like to work for you!

In his 1958 cover letter to the Vancouver Sun, a 21-

year-old Hunter S. Thompson wasnt shy about

broadcasting his abilitiesI can write everything

from warmongering propaganda to learned book

reviews, he wrote. But he also detailed battles with

his previous boss (It was as if the Marquis de Sade

had suddenly found himself working for Billy

Graham). He explained his reasoning:

I stepped into a dung-hole the last time I took a job

with a paper I didnt know anything about (see

enclosed clippings) and Im not quite ready to go

charging up another blind alley. And dont think

that my arrogance is unintentional: its just that Id

rather offend you now than after I started working

for you.

Thompsons cover letter might not seem like one to

emulate. (He didnt get the job.) But his blunt tone served a good purpose: It likely saved

him from a workplace he would have hated, and helped lead him to jobs that were more

suitable to his interests and talents. As he wrote, I would rather be on the dole than work

for a paper I was ashamed of.

After da Vinci listed everything he could do to elegantly crush an enemy, he offered to

show his skills in person, just in case his descriptions werent convincing:

And if any of the above-mentioned things seem impossible or impracticable to

Hunter S. Thompson AP Photo/Frank

Martin



Stay alert to other opportunities, and be patient

If its your dream job, dont worry about yourqualicationsjust apply

And if any of the above-mentioned things seem impossible or impracticable to

anyone, I am most readily disposed to demonstrate them in your park or in

whatsoever place shall please Your Excellency, to whom I commend myself with all

possible humility.

Da Vinci asked to join Sforzas court as a sort of battlefield engineer, but the Milanese duke

ended up becoming one of his most important artistic patrons, commissioning The Last

Supper along with important works of science and architecture.

And Welty wasnt hired by the New Yorker initially, but she did eventually end up writing

for the magazine over the course of her storied career. It just took a couple of decades of

waiting.

Sam Pointon didnt quite have the requisite education and work experience when, in 2009,

he applied to be the director of the UKs National Railway Museum. But you wouldnt

expect him tohe was still in elementary school. His letter began:

I am writing to apply to be the new Director of the National Railway Museum. I am

only 6 but I think I can do this job.

I have an electrick train track. I am good on my train track. I can control 2 trains at

once.

Like Thompson and Welty, he didnt get the job he applied for. (At least not yet.) But the

museum was impressed with Sams enthusiasm, andperhaps sensing a PR coupit created

a new position for him: Director of Fun. A museum spokeswoman tells Quartz that Sam

retired at the grand old age of 10 in summer 2012 so he could focus on his studies. Not a

bad run for a first job.

how to write a cover letter, according to leonardo da vinci - quartz

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