Of course, you understand that you have to make your resumes as appealing as possible for hiring managers to consider you for a job. You highlight every bit of information that is related to the job you’re applying for. Put emphasis on your special skills. Provide a perfect chronological overview of your job experiences. Do the necessary editing and revising of any mistakes you find on your resume. Everything is perfect until you realize that your cover letter is nothing but trash. Job seekers tend to forget the importance of cover letters preparing an application. Cover letters are often too generic or poorly written, like they’re crafted as an afterthought. What’s worse is that it’s your opening gambit, your placeholder bid, your pick up line – you can describe it anyway you want, the fact is: it’s the first thing the hiring manager reads. Here’s the worst part; a hiring manager can spot a terrible cover letter from miles away. So if you don’t want your cover letter all over the place, avoid these common mistakes:

• Boring introduction. You can never hope to grab anybody’s attention with a ho-hum cover letter, so come up with a catchy introduction. Some waste this chance by writing a boring introduction about themselves. Nothing could get the rest of your resume to the trash bin faster than a cover letter that starts with “My name is…” you definitely can’t edge out other candidates with such an opening. Give your cover letter a new spin or inject a new slant to it. A great introduction (such as a short statement on how you learned about the job opening) may just encourage the hiring manager to count you in – even if only as a wild card. This kind of opening also tells the prospective employer you’ve already done some preliminary research. That’s already two points in your favor!

• Unnecessary information. Don’t forget, it’s a cover letter, not your autobiography! Apply the principle of need-to-know basis here and include only information you think the hiring managers should know – and more importantly would want to know. Leave some stuff that is better discussed during the interview. No matter what you write, don’t replicate information already found on your resume.

• Self-focused cover letter. Go easy on the ego thing. I’m sure you’ve heard this before: your cover letter is not about you. You can toot your horn all you like but only in the context of how the company can benefit from your virtuosity. There are ways you can convey this without sounding like an egomaniac.

• Awkward and inept request for interview. Don’t let your cover letter make you sound desperate (even if you have been in embrace of a long drawn out job search). Showing your desperation to land a job doesn’t work on cover letters. Neither does a long-winded, awkward transition to that request. Be yourself, get straight to the point, but always be respectful.

• Too many errors. Grammatical errors, misspellings, overused jargon and washed-out words can make the hiring manager cringe. You may have heard of this advice a thousand times but it can never be reiterated enough. Just like your resume, proofread your cover letter a dozen times to make sure you don’t miss a thing.

If you’re a job seeker without that much experience to speak of, you must try and compensate with a cover letter that can place the odds on your favor. Be creative and give your cover letter the touch of originality and humanity it needs to give it some focus and flavor!

Tags: career change, cover letter, job, job duties, job history, job hunt, job interview, Job Search, job skills, job tips, jobs, new job, Personal Branding, professional

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 at 1:13 pm and is filed under Applying for a Job, Career Changes, Cover Letters, Job Search Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.