This is so weird. I came here to post a very similar question. Can I piggyback?

In a cover letter, how do you best convey "although my most recent experience is with X, my passion is with Y. I am familiar with your organization's involvement in Y and would love to be a part of it."

How do you say it convincingly, so you don't end up sounding like "I'm willing to do anything, please hire me"?

And occhiblu, I think you'll be okay. The length of your experience in copywriting will help prospective employers infer that you're older, and that you're obviously changing careers.

I came here to post a very similar question. Can I piggyback?

Yes! Job-searching forum/piggybacking encouraged!

In a cover letter, how do you best convey "although my most recent experience is with X, my passion is with Y. I am familiar with your organization's involvement in Y and would love to be a part of it."

I have successfully used the following (for my current job):

While my writing experience qualifies me for this position and my organizational abilities would help your office, I am applying because I would like to use these skills to further a cause that matters to me. The [organization name]’s remarkable reputation for supporting San Francisco’s cultural and educational landscape, and its commitment to helping small business, appeals greatly to me, and I would love the opportunity to use my talents to foster this process.

And for a position that I came very close to getting (and for which my cover letter was specifically praised):

While my writing experience qualifies me for this position and my organizational abilities would help your office, I am applying because I would like to use these skills to further a cause that matters to me. The [organization]'s emphasis on examining, reforming, and expanding higher education appeals greatly to me, and I have been watching with interest as the culture wars and identity politics have fought with cliquish conservativism on our campuses. As the dust settles and interesting new compromises emerge, I would love the opportunity to use my talents to foster this process at [organization].

In other words, basically, "I have this skill set that would be very helpful to you, and I want to use it in a way that matters to me. Your organization (or this position) matters to me a great deal because of X, Y, and Z, and I would like to bring my talents to bear on these pressing/important/emerging issues."

And definitely use their website or marketing materials or whatever to figure out what the "X, Y, and Z" and "pressing issues" may be -- I'm definitely interested in those issues I listed, but I also tried to lift the language/framing from those organization's sites (without being totally obvious that's what I was doing).

I mean, I like small businesses and all, but it's not exactly a passion -- but it was one aspect of their work in another area that I could really relate to. Ditto with the second letter and its education stuff; I tried to pick an aspect about which I was really excited, and use their framing to convey that.

(I'm rambling because I'm craving coffee and I'm trying to outtype my emerging headache. I'll stop typing now. Really. See? This is me, stopping with the typing.)

I don't know if this is true for you, but for me it is: I worked in copywriting and print production because they were stimulating fields with wide-reaching applicability, a high career-enhancement quotient, if you will, and a practical flexibility that enabled me to give my studies the attention they deserved.

Maybe you can spin it slightly to the work-while-I-learned (or prepared to learn) angle.

I am now liberally plagiarizing. Thanks!

Maybe you can spin it slightly to the work-while-I-learned (or prepared to learn) angle.

I've actually got a pretty good spiel down with that. I think it actually *is* a transferable skill set, and my general response is that one of my favorite parts of editing and writing is finding the bones of the story and figuring out how the details all fit in to tell the story I want to tell -- which is more or less what I do with clients. We find the underlying strengths or themes, and then reframe experiences so that they can be seen as part of that story.

(I'm usually slightly more coherent with that one, but have I mentioned the caffeine-withdrawal headache?)

In any event, I'm ok with showing how former career progresses well into current career in cover letters or interviews. It's more how to frame it on the resume itself, or whether I need to worry about framing it on the resume itself.

I am now liberally plagiarizing. Thanks!

Steal away! :-)

Steal away! :-)

Ok!

IMHO, if you are seeking a new position based on your recent degree, then the degree and job(s) you did related to that degree should be first on the job listing. (think functional resume in case they only read the first few entries in order to determine their interest in you...)

It is understandable that there were other jobs/positions prior to going back to graduate school...

Was that the meat of the question? I'm having comprehension problems today it seems....

BP, that apparently was one of those songs that I never knew I knew. I don't think I've ever heard the title, or the artist name, but I know all the words.

I'm a little frightened. I'm also having a Proust moment, though it seems I'm back in a red-velour interior minivan driving toward the Wisconsin sand dunes for a family vacation.

I believe "Let's Hear It for the Boy" will be next on the radio, followed by "Heart of Rock and Roll."

The song was inescapable on the radio at one point, occhi, so I'm not surprised you remember the words. It's a funny feeling when that happens, though, isn't it?

(Sorry for the derail...)