3 Ways Your Cover Letter Lost You the Job

  1. It wasn’t tailored.
  • Just like your résumé, your cover letter should be tailored to the particular position you are applying for! It should not contain general statements regarding our desire to work there, or how impressed you are by the organization. Chances are they already know how impressive they are! Employers and organizations can tell whether you tailored your document specifically to match their job description. Therefore, generic letters will go into the trash! Don’t let that be you!
  1. It has a typo.
  • Maybe your cover letter raves about your attention to detail- but then there’s a typo! You immediately lost credibility regarding your skills simply due to a pesky error or autocorrect. Make sure you review your document several times- proofread, proofread, proofread. Get your roommate, friend, uncle, cousin or whomever to review your letter for spelling, grammar, and other errors. Even worse, maybe accidentally have the wrong company name or hiring manager. Make sure you look over your document before hitting send!
  1. You simply repeated your résumé.
  • Typically, your cover letter will accompany your résumé when applying for positions. This means that the person looking at your documents will review both and you don’t want to simply repeat your résumé! Your cover letter an opportunity to introduce your résumé or CV and serves as a marketing tool. It should also convince the employer to invite you for an interview, prove you can do the job, and help show your enthusiasm for the job and the organization. Be sure to select experiences from your résumé that highlight your skills and explain why you are a strong fit for the position! Remember, show don’t tell. Expand on experiences that illustrate you have a skill, without stating you possess a certain skill. It’s much more impactful to say you supervised 3 undergraduate students or were the president of your fraternity than it is to simply state you have leadership skills.
By Corinne Golash
Corinne Golash