3 Things to Avoid and 3 Things to Do When Writing Cover Letters

If your answers to interview questions aren’t generic, and your resume isn’t generic, why would you write a generic cover letter?

Everything you do in your job search campaign should build your brand and advance your candidacy.

When you write a cover letter, and I encourage all my clients to do so, it should whet the appetite of the recruiter or hiring manager who’s reading it.

Writing a cover letter should not feel like writing the five-paragraph expository essay we all learned in high school.

Three things to avoid in your cover letter:

• Rehashing what’s on your resume.
• Focusing on your responsibilities instead of your impact.
• Explaining why you’re looking for a new role. Save that for the interview. Stay positive and focus on the future, not your past.

Three things to do when writing your cover letter:

• Identify keywords and phrases from the job posting to include.
• Discuss what attracts you to the company, its culture and this role.
• Briefly describe how you solved problems like the ones they’re facing.

The question is, what about the bots? Should you even send a cover letter when you apply to a job online?

My answer is “yes.”

A well-written cover letter costs you only the time you put into it. If it’s scanned by AI or bots, you’ve optimized it for keywords and increased the likelihood of being a match.

If it’s read by a person, you’ve raised their interest in you as a candidate and improved your chances of landing a first interview.

If nobody reads it, you’ve still done important work to solidify your value proposition and give you the talking points to emphasize when you’re in an interview.