Mention that I'm a Non-Traditional Candidate in Cover Letter?

I'm a HYP liberal arts major interested in S&T. Alongside my major, my ECs are pretty "liberal arts" as well (think political organizations). They do involve lots of pitching of ideas and cold calling so they aren't totally irrelevant to S&T.

Rather than beating around the bush, would it be a good idea to mention that I'm a "non-traditional" candidate in my cover letter? Something roughly along the lines of "My university experiences makes me a non-traditional candidate for this field" but that my resume "demonstrates interpersonal skills that are directly transferable to S&T."

2 Comments
 

I don't think you need to mention that you're a non-traditional candidate, but you should focus the cover letter on the key skills you have that are clearly relevant to S&T. This is what's relevant to them. Working in a high-volume or high-pressure sales role is great experience for a position as a salesman. We placed someone in Sales at a BB who sold knives door-to-door.

Take a look at the middle of this advice for the sample IB cover letter. This approach is one that might work for you, where you focus the letter on the key skills.

Investment Bank Cover Letter Example - http://bit.ly/lOjRK

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