Good manners are important. Hopefully, that’s obvious. What’s even more obvious is the fact that you shouldn’t use texting language in your cover letter. No “C U L8ter” or “I’m so awesome all your Customers will 
me”. Never in a million years did I think people would actually do this, but it turns out that they do. Check it out…
http://www.39online.com/news/local/kiah-good-bad-manners-story,0,1972155.story
Oh boy (or girl), here we go again. I hate to make you leave this blog, but as long as you promise to come back then I want you to check something out. I found a sample cover letter for an accountant. Look at it here: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/accountant-cover-letter.html
Honestly, what do you think after reading that letter? If you’re like me, you think that this person seems strange and is definitely NOT someone I want to work with. Am I alone on this? Isn’t this common sense? Why would you make a cover letter calling out the fact that you’re annoying? I don’t mean to rant, but c’mon. Please don’t ever submit a cover letter like this.
A few things to take away from this awful letter.
1) Read your cover letter. If you sound annoying, then you won’t get the job.
2) If you’re unsure if you sound annoying then ask yourself, “Did I start my letter with ‘Respected Sir/Madaam’?” “Did I end my letter with ‘be one of your best employees’?” If you used either of those then you definitely sound annoying. Start over.
Sure, in the cover letter, you need to make it obvious that you’re qualified and are a great fit. But you can’t do that by saying you’re qualified and a great fit, because that just makes you seem annoying.
At last, I’m linking to another blog that I think is awesome. Resumark.com created a blog about the top 20 most hilarious mistakes made on cover letters and resumes. Check it out, you’ll definitely enjoy it – http://www.resumark.com/blog/andrew/top-15-of-the-most-hilarious-spelling-mistakes-on-resumes-and-cover-letters/comment-page-1/#comment-1436
I don’t want to give too many away, but my favorite is definitely “I’m attacking my resume for you to review.” haha, good stuff. In my opinion, anyone that is willing to attack their own resume is a definite winner.
I’m tempted to keep making fun of these things, but the truth is, we all make mistakes like this. I review cover letters for a living, and I also run different websites (including this silly blog). If I were to review my past three posts I’m sure I’d find some very ridiculous mistakes. By not spending the time to proof your cover letter, READ IT OUT LOUD, and then have other people read it out loud to you, you are setting yourself up to be on a blog making fun of you .
Every day I review nearly 100 cover letters. In addition to reviewing cover letters, I’m also always checking out blogs and books about cover letters to make sure I’m up-to-date on the best information. Every once in a while (actually, most of the time) I come across blogs that are just providing wrong information. Sometimes, I like to poke fun at these.
Check this blog out: http://ezinearticles.com/?Simple-Cover-Letter-Tip—Gratitude-Magic&id=3893113
Roland, the author, says it’s important to be gracious in your cover letter. Say thanks. Let’s be clear, I completely agree with that, but Roland’s definition of gratitude is desperation. Just take a look at some of his examples:
“I really appreciate how busy you are”. Really? You appreciate how busy they are? That’s like telling someone that you like their personality because you don’t think they’re good looking. Or, like telling a sumo wrestler that you appreciate the size of their pants. It’s just not a good compliment and certainly not genuine. Never appreciate how busy someone is. Be sincere with your thanks.
“I would very much like to have the opportunity to show my gratitude in person.” First of all, that sounds dirty. Second of all, you shouldn’t be looking forward to showing them your gratitude, you should be looking forward to getting yourself an awesome job.
Oh, with other people giving advice like this, it’s no wonder I’m in business .
Cover letters are important. Super important. A cover letter gets your foot in the door, and sets a great first impression. This blog is focused around cover letters, but from time to time I like to give pointers on other parts of the job search process. Today, I want to talk quickly about the importance of a Really Useful Attitude when it comes to a job interview.
Nicholas Boothman wrote a book called “How to Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less.” You can see how getting someone to like you in under 90 seconds would provide you a huge advantage in a job interview. As objective as the world likes to think that interviews are, in reality they often come down to the question, “Do I like this person?”
So, read the book for full details, but one quick tip is to choose a really useful attitude. When going into the interview you could think, “There’s no way I’m going to get this job”. But, this attitude will show through in the words you use, AND your body language. The person interviewing you will pick up on this and have a gut feeling that you’re not right for the job. However, if you go into the interviewing thinking, “I am a GREAT fit for this job and will be happy here,” then it will show through as well. It seems like a little thing…and it seems too easy to work. Trust me, it works.
Here’s another site offering free cover letter samples: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/samples-of-a-good-cover-letter.html
Let’s look at the third sample that they provide, since that is their sample of someone replying to a job posting. There are a TON of things wrong with this cover letter, but I’m only going to talk about one or two of them here to save us some time. By the way, in an unrelated note, it’s fun to say “a TON of things wrong”. A ton is pretty darn heavy (2,000 pounds), so to imagine a ton of things being wrong makes me smile. Anyway, back to business.
First thing wrong with this cover letter – it is a letter version of the resume. Boo! The HR professional has just read your resume, they don’t want to read a different version that has more words. You need to know that HR folk read resumes and cover letters together. By putting the same information on both you’re wasting time, not making use of the opportunity you have, and are being a bit silly. Don’t do it.
Second thing wrong – it’s only one paragraph. Cover letters should have 3-4 paragraphs. Again, you have one page to wow someone, use all of the page that you can. Breaking up your letter into paragraphs is great because it makes your cover letter easier to read, seem friendlier, and seem better. Breaking a chunk of text into paragraphs may seem like a silly thing, but it’s PROVEN to make a difference.
That’s all for now.
So, this is the problem with other cover letter templates. Check out this page which offers a free template: http://www.docstoc.com/docs/27211423/Resume–Cover-Letter-Template . The problem with this template is that it won’t work. Anyone can put up a template and tell you how to format a cover letter, but there’s nothing like seeing cover letters that have actually worked. Also, this template just says “Enter your text here” but provides no direction with what text to enter. I always give sample cover letters that are PROVEN winners and give clear direction with how to write your own. High five to me .
Although this is a bit outside of the realm of cover letters, I’m willing to post anything that will help you get a job. Here’s a quick tip that can help set you apart from all other applicants – write a thank you note after the interview.
Don’t turn it into a salesly thank you card. Don’t say things like, “Thank you for the interview. The one thing that became clear from the interview was how amazing I am and how I would do such a great job for you.” I know, it’s a little exageratted, but I hope it proves the point. Don’t use a thank you card to pump yourself up – use it to say thank you.