Top Five common Cover Letter mistakes
With every resume submission, you should have a cover letter that accompanies it and presents you as a positive and qualified candidate for the job. If mistakes are made in the address line, it is likely that the potential employer will discard the letter and you will lose an opportunity to be considered as a candidate for the job that you want. The following Top 5 mistakes are most common in addressing the cover letter and should be considered before your cover letter is sent to the employer:
1. Addressing the cover letter using a generic greeting, or misspelling the name of the personal contact or the company. The address line is the most prominent part of the cover letter; it should be included even if the cover letter is sent via email. Generic greetings are not favored; they make it seem like you have a template for your cover letter and you simply send it to all employers you are interested in working for. Do the research and find out who the appropriate contact is for the cover letter. However, make sure that they name and the company name is spelled correctly. If your address line contains errors, your cover letter is likely to never make it to the hiring manager.
2. You re-state your resume. Do not go over the information that is in your resume in your cover letter. Your CV is meant to entice, and provoke the employer to review your resume in great detail. Re-stating the information in your resume doesn’t address what the employers want to know.
3. Telling the company what they can do for your career. Simply stated, employers care about your qualifications and what you can do for the company. Do not spend your time telling the company how working for them can be great for your career. While that could be true, it certainly is not what the employers want to hear. Your potential employers want to hear how you can benefit their team; they want to know what you can bring to the table that is innovative, and focused on results.
4. Starting every sentence with “I”. While your CV is about you, starting each sentence this way will make your employer believe that your communication skills are not up to the level of your professional background. Discuss your qualifications, your main goals and what you bring to the table in terms of the company, (and) your professional attributes.
5. Asking the employer to call you at their convenience. The most generic closing statements in CV ask the employer to contact you at their convenience. If you are truly excited about the opportunity with the employer, you won’t want to wait for them to call you back whenever they feel like it. What you should do instead is let them know when you want to follow up – and then do follow up. Close your CV by letting your potential employer know that you will contact them, as well as the manner in which you will do so. This shows your interest.
So, Revise your CV until you feel comfortable that all the information included is truthful and will not raise any questions by the employer
