4 Things That Will Ruin Your Cover Letter

Other than your resume, a cover letter will be one of the first things that will give a potential employer their first impression of you.

The last thing you want to do is make simple mistakes on your cover letter that will hurt your chances of getting the job.

1. The wrong person or address.  Always make sure you are showing the correct person and address on your cover letter.  If you're sending out a lot of applications at a time, it could be easy to forget to change the information from a previous application.  Make sure you have the correct spelling for the person you're sending it to, the company name, and their address.
2. Spelling or grammatical errors. This falls right in with the last item. Your cover letter should be free or any mistakes that could distract the reader from the content of your letter.  Word processor software should catch most mistakes but you still want to proofread your letter.  Software can't distinguish between the correct meanings of there, they're or their.
3. Being conceited or arrogant.  While showing confidence in your skills and abilities is a good thing when applying for a job, you still will want to keep it in check for your cover letter.  If you say something like, "You'll be impressed with my skills" or "You won't need to look for another Accountant again...", you'll come off as offensive and not much of a team player.
4. A letter more than one page.  As we've mentioned numerous times over the last few weeks, potential employers have very little time to go over all of the applications they receive.  Your letter needs to summarize your skills and qualifications in one page or else you risk it being tossed.

If you need help in writing your resume or cover letter, we offer affordable rates for resume and cover letter writing services.  Please contact us to set up a free 10-minute consultation.