Ten Cover Letter Mistakes You Must Avoid

Cover letter, if written correctly, do help you stand out from crowd.  Hiring managers read resumes one after another daily. After a while, all those resumes start to blend together. Then how can you make your stuff catch a recruiter’s eye?  Introduce yourself with an effective cover letter.

In most job openings, cover letter is not required. All it is asked is to submit a resume where you can pack all your experiences and skills. Then what is missing? What a resume fails to deliver is your personality. But you can express your passion and desire for a particular job in a personal letter, — a cover letter in this case.

A cover letter is the perfect media to let potential employers know you as a person: What you’ve done, what you can offer and how you express yourself. And you can break the limitation beyond resume: You can write as a warm human being, speak in full sentences instead of fragments or bullet points.

Unfortunately many job seekers don’t realize cover letter’s importance. They spend hours crafting each item on their resume but many of them don’t bother drafting a cover letter. Because they don’t that a cover letter is just as important as a resume, they often whip out a quick-and-dirty cover letter full of mistakes. In this situation the cover letter cannot help anything but even worth it may damage your image as well.

My advice -

• Always write cover letter to send with resume.
• Spend enough time craft and fine-tune cover letter.
• Fix these common blunders to keep your cover letter error free:

1. Typos and spelling errors

That’s the easiest to fix. Write cover letter using a software such as Microsoft Word. Next, spell-check the document many times. Then read the document out loud — you may catch spelling errors the computer missed (such as accidentally writing “jog” instead of “job”). Only after you have double-checked your cover letter should you attach it to your resume and send it off.

2. Incorrect or missing information

No contact name listed. By not listing a contact name, this shows lack of detail, not to mention, allowing the document to float around the office rather than sitting on the desk of the hiring agent.

Incorrect address. Again, a lack of detail. Don’t go down this path.

3. Sloppy format

Sloppy margins, font, pica, and written material. This is one of my biggest “pet peeves.” The first impression given to any hiring agent is based upon the overall appearance of the cover letter. The cover letter is the first item seen before proceeding into the resume. I can assure you that if a cover letter arrives on that person’s desk without consistent margins, font, pica, and with effective writing, these documents have the potential to be “dead in the water” before this person even thinks of turning the page.

The lack of proper business format is another common mistake. Utilize the same font, margins, and header to ensure the cover letter matches the resume closely as possible.

4. Not clear what job you are applying for

At beginning of cover letter, you should state exactly which job you’re applying for. Include the exact name of the position. If the ad provided a job ID number, then include that too. It’s also a good idea to mention where you heard about the opening.

Why must it be so specific? Because that’s what recruiters expect. That’s a small thing you can do to make a recruiter’s job easier, and put you on their good side. Many recruiters handle hundreds of job openings, so they won’t automatically know which one you’re gunning for. By reminding them of the specific opening for which you’re applying, you’ll make it more likely that your resume will be read by the right person.

5. Listing unrelated skills and qualifications

This is probably the most common mistake candidates make. A person can be highly skilled and educated with high achievements which pertain to their current position and/or title, however, once that person steps out of this environment into another, this information becomes less important, if not irrelevant.

6. Copy standard cover letter without customization

It’s OK to copy a standard form cover letter from book, but you must customize it to reveal your personality. Many job hunters simply copy a sample cover letter and send out. The chances are, a lot of job hunters are doing the same thing, — copy and send. Obviously this kind of cover letter can hardly make you stand out. Most people want to go this easy route, that why there are always many people who cannot find a job. To get your chance for the job you need, you must go extra mile and do it differently.

7. Send the same cover letter to every employer

Let’s see you customized you cover letter, but you send the exact same cover letter to every employer, only changing the name of the person to whom you’re sending it. That’s a big mistake too.

The point of a cover letter is to make a personal connection with the reader. So to write a successful cover letter, you should tailor it specifically to each company you send it to. For instance, display a knowledge of the company history or write about recent events or projects the company has undertaken. This will show that you have taken the time to research the company before sending in your resume — and prove that you really want the job.

8. Repeat too much resume contents

A common trap that many job seekers fall into when writing a cover letter is to simply regurgitate everything that’s in their resume.

But if it’s already in your resume, then you’re just wasting your breath … and a chance at the job.

A cover letter should not be a rehash of your resume; instead, it should offer deeper insights into what your resume does NOT say. Provide an in-depth explanation of some of your key achievements at your last job, for instance, and how those accomplishments could help the company. Or tell a story about a tough problem you solved. The point is: The recruiter already has your resume; the cover letter should add to it, not repeat it.

So when writing a cover letter, make sure it elaborates on what’s already in your resume or provides some new information.

9. Talk too much of yourself

When writing a cover letter, many people discuss why they need the job …

• “I need the money.”
• “I find the position interesting.”
• “I’ve wanted to work for you since I was a kid.”
• “I need more experience in the industry.”
• “Since your company is the best in the industry, a job there would help my career.”

Here’s a newsflash: Companies don’t really care about your needs. They’re not hiring you to enrich your life or provide you with an income. They’re hiring you because they need a job done.

That means your cover letter should focus on the company’s needs and how you can fulfill them, not what the company can do for you.

A good way to start: Look at the requirements for the position in the job ad. Then, in your cover letter, discuss point by point how you meet (or even exceed) those requirements. By using the job ad as a guide, you’ll show the company how hiring you benefits them and not just you.

10. Inappropriate attitude

Some cover letters sound too humble; some are over-confident. Neither is inappropriate. Try to be both confident and humble when discussing what you can offer the company. While you certainly want to appear competent, arrogance can turn off a recruiter. Show enthusiasm and keep a positive attitude, and your cover letter will take you far.