You’re in a room with 800 other people, all vying for 10 spots on the same team. If you want one of those spots – really want one of those spots – you had better find some way to stand out from the crowd.
This was the position Jared Teitel, a second-year law student, found himself in recently as the coveted search for summer intern posts began.
While everyone beefs up and refines their resume, sending multiple copies across the country, Teitel decided to take things a step further. How about a video cover letter?
“I was trying to think how could I stand out on paper and then thought, ‘Maybe I won’t stand out on paper. So I’ll take it a step beyond,’” says Teitel, who is eyeing a position with a Toronto firm. “It really was that walking down the street ‘a-ha’ moment that compelled me to do this. It was definitely a risk. I tried to mitigate it as much as possible by polling some recruiters and pitching the idea to them and if they’d be open to receiving something like this.
“There was certainly that moment when I sent it that I was like ‘Okay, I’m doing something different.’ It’s completely out of my hands now. At this moment I have no regrets. But it’s still early, so it’s hard to tell.”
Heavily structured in Ontario, the intern hiring process has three stages to the hiring process – sending out resumes and cover letters, followed by on-campus interviews in late October and follow-up interviews in November. Students are allowed a maximum of six interviews.
With more than 400 views of his video cover letter, which he jokingly hoped was more than just family and friends, it may have paid off for Teitel, who has four interviews on the horizon for next week.
So it seems that extra step may have paid off.
“The response to this has been absolutely crazy, and all I did was make a video. I’m hearing from people I haven’t spoke to in a while. So far I have heard positive early response,” Teitel says. “The inherent risk is that the law profession is quite conservative, especially with recruitment, so arguably it doesn’t lend itself to new trends like this.
“So from that standpoint, it was a risk. But it gets their attention.”
Now he’s hoping this attention get him the gig.
