Cover Letter Mistakes - 8 Cover Letter Tips and Tricks

Cover letter mistakes can cost you a job if it's tight race. Here's 8 cover letter tips and tricks that will help you land the interview! In this video we'll explore the common mistakes people make on their cover letters, including:

-Formatting issues
-Not writing it with the recruiter in mind
-Not personalizing your cover letter
-Including generic fluff
-Getting the company name (and job title) incorrect
-Assuming the job will help your career

And more!

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Need personalized help with your career search, interviewing skills or writing your resume?

[btdarmstad]

Wish recruiters could personalize their rejection.

[clintonshort]

I'm a hiring manager for the state of California. This guy understands exactly what I am looking at when I read resumes. Please take this information to heart

[terrassascott]

I love how your delivery is straight to the point. Kind of like how we need to draft these cover letters.

[vectorialpx]

Great video, very inspiring.

I'd like to make a small summary of what you can learn from the mistakes:
- You are hired to solve a problem
- Don't just add a summary
- Don't explain why it will help you
- Be short
- No spelling errors
- Write correct details (role, company etc)
- Don't be generic and don't use templates
- Don't use very fancy terms

[preservinghistory]

I have just landed a new job in a new field, after 5 months of applying (to 411 different positions!)!! And I always included a cover letter if I was given the option to do so. I come across very well in writing, and I needed the words to explain how my 10+ years of experience in a different field (and my two degrees) were applicable to a new field and a new job. It's worthwhile. I also plumped up my LinkedIn profile and included a link to that whenever possible (including at the top of my resume).

[joylogico]

I love that you go straight to the point. More meat, less fluff. So helpful!

[breakmywalletmotorsport]

"How are you going to solve their problem" Love it. It seems obvious but hearing it certainly stimulates some thought Thank You!

[donnorman]

I will give a tip from my experience with some success to get first interviews for the cover letters (with even HR saying it was good)
It's true that we need to personalize but if it's your first job you will send 10000letters... nobody has time for that.
So what I did? Half generic half personalized. I make sure in the cover letter you have a phrase directed to the team/company
Example " I just tried your product and it has some usability issues like for example the header that is not optimized for discovery, with my skills I could help you blablabla"..
So always have somewhere in the letter some directed to the company or issue they have in your product so it seems at least you took time to look at it

Saved me tons of times I did a template word change the company name + line directed to them = Works and saves time :)

[Max.Paprika]

I sent 275 resumes in the three years I spent looking for a new job after getting laid off, and each had its own handcrafted cover letter. The first and last parts were copied, and the middle was written for the role at hand. It was a nightmare.

I remember for one of them, I typed the name of the wrong company, the one I'd applied to previously, realizing it the moment I clicked Send. This was before Gmail introduced the Undo Send button. And it was such an easy mistake to make, I'm surprised it only happened once. True, there's no excuse for it, but you sort of go into autopilot after the first dozen applications.

I didn't even follow up to apologize and correct my mistake. With the response rate I was seeing, I doubt it would have made a difference.

[benvallentine]

Great video, thanks. My anxiety at the moment is everyone is talking about ATS formats and no columns, but every resume template platform highlights resumes with a narrow colored left side column for skills and contact. You hardly see full page row resumes. Then the recruiter says you need to stand out and cannot stand out with a plain multi row word doc.

[johnmorris]

This is great! I particularly like the part where you emphasized solving the problems of the business.

[fredericapanon]

I would say that LinkedIn is more of a replacement for the resume, not the cover letter.

[TheSnerggly]

I like how he is direct and to the point.

[angieg]

I was taught in college that a cover letter is absolutely necessary. Yet, half the time I go to respond to an ad and spend an hour writing and editing my cover letter, there is only a slot to upload a resume. It’s annoying. I add my cover letter to the front of my resume PDF anyway. And the apps these companies use to import resumes never ever ever gets imported correctly. Would you mind creating a video about that?

[kismetbridgeforth]

Excellent tips. Straight to business. Everything said in herein is logical and brings together the concepts of efficient and productive.

[kushallakhani]

Loved the letter but would appreciate if you can provide how to write cover letter and maybe show us a template regarding how it should be ideally.

[ashleyching]

Shows personality
Solves business problem
Don’t rehash resume
Prove how you will benefit company
Dear Hiring Team,
Include anecdote that relates

[slaternapier]

cover letter: pretend its being read out of the newspaper but its more like a dating intro for work

[Globewanderer]

So, essentially, employees have to cater to lazy hiring managers and recruiters that don't want to read? I'm glad my sector isn't like that. I've just hired a great candidate for my team and couldn't fathom blowing then off because there are too many words on a page. Perhaps, you need to rethink your job and raise your standards.

[merritt]

To be unless you're hiring for like a small start up or a ma and pa company, a cover letter is kind of irrelevant to include. Absolutely no one recruiting for a large corporation is going to read a cover letter.