List Of Major Mistakes In Cover Letter

1. Failure to follow the rules of business correspondence : lack of greetings, familiarity, etc.)
   Examples of bad treatment:

• Greetings!
• Dear HR!
• Good day!
• Hello!

2. The information is presented in an abstract manner (there are no position names, areas of activity, skills, etc.). There is no answer to the question: Why should this particular candidate be of interest to this company?
3. 90% water. Mark Twain has a famous saying: “I would have written in short, but I did not have time.” The authors of these messages clearly did not have enough time to compose their work. There is an inverse relationship between time and quality: the more time you spend, the better your cover letter will be.
4. Contain clerical – template phrases. Beware of the clerical! More often than not, I get shapeless and vague cover letters that contain empty, meaningless, dead words. Stamp words mean nothing. And, of course, no HR manager wants to keep reading these formulas. Let every word in the letter be in its place! And nine times out of ten – in letters that I have to read – this is completely wrong.
5. Repeating the same words. How do you like this example of a job description: “Looking for a person for a job, with work experience at work”? This is how the text of most cover letters is perceived.
6. The use of a large number of pronouns: me, me, me, mine, mine, me, etc.
7. Emotional turns: “I love”, “I love immensely”, “I like it”, “I develop with pleasure,” etc.
8. Expressing your thoughts: “I think”, “I believe”, “sure”, “it seems”, “I can say with certainty”, “I think”, etc. These unfounded subjective statements and personal opinions are more annoying than impressive, therefore it is necessary to provide examples and proofs.
9. Self-harm: Disclosing information that disadvantages the applicant, admitting weaknesses or lack of experience. Example: “I consider it necessary to do many things with my own hands.” For the CEO position, “working with your hands” is not an indicator of performance, but rather the opposite – it demonstrates the lack of such managerial skills as personnel training and development, delegation of tasks, etc.
10. Self-praise : “professional”, “best result”, “I have pronounced leadership qualities”, “I work actively and effectively”, etc.
11. Lack of structure: no division into paragraphs / a large number of paragraphs, a set of single sentences without a logical sequence.
12. Grammar mistakes . According to the portal hh – 56% of cover letters contain grammatical errors, and 91% of HR consider this type of error unacceptable.

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Plan for writing a cover letter

1. Who? Any letter begins with a personal greeting. It is very important to include the name of the addressee to whom you are addressing in the cover letter.

Examples of appeals, if the addressee’s name is not known:

• Dear employees of the personnel selection department of the company “X”!
• Ladies and gentlemen!

2. What? In the first paragraph, state what position you are applying for, and explain where and from whom you learned about the position.
3. Why? Prepare 3 answers:
4. Why this industry / sphere? Why is this field of activity / specialisation / direction interesting to you?
5. Why this company? Why do you want to get this job in this particular company? Do company research to get a better understanding of the organisation. Go to the company’s website, browse press articles and find interesting facts.
6. Why are you? Write down all the reasons why you are suitable for the job. Focus on what you have to offer them. Reassure them that you are the one who can help them.

Answers to each of the three “why” questions should be approached in the context of each specific company / vacancy. Only then will your cover letter not be stamped.

From abstraction to realism

With a vacancy, everything is much easier. The employer immediately announces to you directly which candidate they are looking for. Your task is to insert the most important information for them into the cover letter and tie it to the vacancy requirements. The main purpose of a job application cover letter is to explain to the recruiter why your candidacy matches the position to which you are submitting your resume. Therefore, it is imperative that you tailor your cover letter to the job you are applying for. Check out Cheap essay writer

But, I want to warn you right away. There is only one principle of effective response to a vacancy: you need to meet the requirements. If you are applying for a particular position, then first make sure that you are suitable for the position and draw a parallel between the requirements and your skills.

● For example, if you are a sales manager and want to apply for a commercial position. This, of course, is cool, but it is highly doubtful that your resume will pass the initial selection.
● If the vacancy says: “5 years of work experience in a medical institution in a similar position is required”, but you do not have such experience, and you still want to apply. This is commendable, but unlikely to bring results.
● If the vacancy says “work experience at NSD Bank-Client” is a mandatory requirement, and you’ve read this word for the first time. Try to catch your luck by the tail, but do not hope to hold on to it.

This does not mean that you do not need to apply for such vacancies, please submit your resume, but do not expect to be invited for an interview if you do not meet the requirements.

In the next article, you will find a story about how Ivan Ivanovich, Marya Filippovna and Fyodor stubbornly and persistently respond and respond, but receive only refusals from everyone. In the second part, I will reveal the true reasons for their failures, tell you how to properly analyse published vacancies, and what to look for in order not to waste time and effort on ineffective responses. And most importantly, you will learn how to write cover letters yourself for specific vacancies.

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Coach-consultant for job search and career building. The only coach-interviewer in Russia who prepares for all types of interviews. Expert in resume writing. The author of the books: “I’m afraid of interviews!”