Do hiring managers read your cover letters? Do they have time to read letters? Some say that writing a cover letter is a waste of time. That could be true if your document is with full of cover letter mistakes.
But there is no reason to fear if you have a letter that is written correctly. Because then you’re ready to go for the battlefield of job hunting with an armed suit.
Do you like to see that your application is getting rejected? Absolutely NO, right? So, continue reading this article to learn top cover letter mistakes to avoid in 2024 and how to make your cover letter perfect and make sure your application is secured.
Cover Letter Mistake #01 – Not taking cover letter as a serious factor
Most of the candidates think that a cover letter is not a must to submit with your resume unless the job advertisement specifically requests one. So many of them avoid sending a cover letter. That will be the biggest mistake done by any candidate. A cover letter matters in your job search, indeed. So even if the job advertisement doesn’t ask for one, you have the responsibility to send a cover letter along with your resume.
When should I not send a cover letter? If and only if the job advertisement strictly says that not to send a cover letter, you may avoid it.
Mistake #02 – Start with a casual greeting
Yes, the cover letter is your space. But you are using that for getting your job, right? So you must protect your professionalism. Therefore don’t try to destroy it with casual greetings like, “Hey buddy” or “Yo Nigga, Wassup?”. Instead, you can use a professional greeting such as, “Dear Mr. John Doe” or “Dear Hiring Manager”.
Mistake #03 – Writing a novel
A cover letter should always be interesting to read. You already know that hiring managers are very busy with their work. So don’t make your cover letter bored them. If they need a nap they will stay home and they will sleep. They are not going to read your cover letter to sleep.
Therefore, don’t fill out your cover letter with inappropriate content or irrelevant information. That will only make your cover letter lengthy. Don’t make your cover letter more than one page. The ideal cover letter consists of a word count between 150-300 or between 3-4 concise paragraphs.
Cover Letter Mistake #04 – Using an unprofessional email address
If you are still using your high school email address which totally sounds unprofessional like “bolndegirl@example.com”, create a new professional email address right now. Professionalism matters in your cover letter, even in resumes. Also be sure to create your email address with a renowned email service provider such as google, Microsoft, yahoo etc.
Mistake #05 – Starting with a weak opener
A great cover letter should have a great opener. Don’t use a lazy opening to your cover letter. Boom your cover letter with an opener like, “Looking for a high-performing, certified digital marketer with 10+ years of experience and a renowned guy in the field for top quality and proven success?”. This kind of opener triggers the hiring manager to hire you without a doubt.
Mistake #06 – Rehash the resume
A cover letter is a document which applicants used to attach with a resume. So after you apply, the hiring manager will get your resume. So what’s the point of repeating your entire resume in your cover letter. But many candidates forget this and include all their experiences and education qualifications back in their cover letters. This is kind of filling out your cover letter with irrelevant information and makes your document longer. Therefore, include only the major selling points of yourself. Then only a recruiter will be impressed about yourself. If you continue these kinds of cover letter mistakes, getting a job in 2024 will become just a dream.
Mistake #07 – Lack of research
Before applying to a company, you should research the company, the position, the work environment and even the person to whom the cover letter is addressing. If you do so, you can show the recruiter about your knowledge of the company and your interest in joining the company.
Cover Letter Mistake #08 – Not using keywords
Your cover letter must be tailored to the job with the keywords from the job posting. For that, what you can do is, carefully read the job advertisement and pick the keywords and key phrases and think smartly how to paste them in your cover letter in an effective way. Using keywords from the job ad is the best way to tailor your cover letter.
Mistake #09 – Overusing “I”
This is one of the most common cover letter mistakes done by the candidates. Everyone tries to talk about their experiences, qualifications and skills in the cover letter. But nobody tries to describe how you are going to benefit the company or the employer. If you describe yourself too much by using “I”, “me”, and “myself” that will be not interesting to the reader. So, try to show your value to the reader by describing how you will benefit them.
Mistake #10 – Being rude
You write your cover letter for your future employer. Due to that, you need to write your letter in a polite, professional and respectful manner. Do you know that a recruiter can see yourself through your cover letter? So if you wrote the cover letter in a rude, impolite way your application can easily go to the trash bin. Recruiters always prefer to hire polite and gentle people for their vacant positions.
Never forget to give your thanks to the recruiter at the end of your letter for sacrificing their valuable time reading your cover letter.
Mistake #11 – Addressing the wrong person
One of the critical mistakes you can make when writing a cover letter is addressing the wrong person. Don’t make this mistake anymore. Instead of addressing directly to a person, you can address it universally such as, “dear hiring manager” or a formal greeting like “to whom it may concern”. But if you can address the person directly by their name that will be ideal.
You can have a call to the company and ask to whom should you address the cover letter for the particular opening. Then they will say the exact person or the hiring manager’s name to whom you should address your cover letter. And keep in mind that not to misspell the name of that person.
Cover Letter Mistake #12 – Lying about yourself
Think twice before you exaggerate your experiences and qualifications not only in your cover letters but also in your resumes. Because if you lie on your document that will get caught by the potential employer. He may call your references or he may ask you to perform a task to get to know about your skill level. You may get selected for the job. But the truth will reveal and your journey with the company will end soon plus it will be a huge black hole to your career.
Mistake #13 – Using fancy fonts
A Cover letter is a professional document which you need to make it professional, not beautiful. Many of the candidates used to write the cover letter with cursive, stylish and decorated fonts which are totally recommended as bad fonts in resume writing such as Mistral, Papyrus, Comic Sans etc. Instead, you can try using good resume fonts to write your cover letter such as Lato, Avenir, Helvetica, Calibri etc.
Mistake #14 – Typos and grammatical errors
You must be very careful about your typos and grammatical errors in your cover letters. It is better to use an online spell checking tool like grammarly to check your typos. But don’t rely only on online tools. Before submitting your document be sure to proofread your document with one of your best friends or your family members too.
No matter if you review it twice or thrice. Do not remain a single error in your document. As there may be a lot of qualified candidates for a single position, a small typo mistake in your application is enough to eliminate you from the crowd.
Mistake #15 – Not including a postscript
Including a postscript at the end of a cover letter is one of the great cover letter hacks and most of the candidates do not even know what it is. This is the final text in your cover letter. But sometimes this may be the first paragraph read by the recruiter in your cover letter. Therefore making an impressive postscript will be an added advantage to grab the attention of the recruiter.
Cover Letter Mistake #16 – Apologizing
Never apologize in your cover letter for having a lack of experience and educational qualifications. You may have a smaller amount of experience or qualification which is required for a particular job. Or else your resume might have a work experience gap due to a personal reason. Whatever the reason, you should not apologize to the employer. It will create a terrible negative impact on your personality.
Never beg the hiring manager to promise you a job. If you are the right fit for the role they will catch up with you by the contact details which are provided. Always keep your professionalism and personality parallel.
Cover Letter Mistake #17 – Forgetting to replace the template information
Using a cover letter template is a great idea when making your own. There are tons of cover letter templates available on the internet. You can choose a suitable and relevant cover letter sample from any website and then after you should customize the letter according to your job posting. That means you need to tailor the cover letter with the keywords from the job ad. Be sure that the cover letter sounds as if it were written in your own words. If the cover letter has included some example information you must replace them with your real details.
Key Takeaway
Most of the applicants make these mistakes over and over which makes recruiters want to remove them from the pile without any hesitation. If you can reduce the above cover letter mistakes in your job search, finding a perfect job in 2024 is not a difficult task anymore.
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