Common Mistakes Made When Writing a Cover Letter

Unless it’s entirely relevant to the job you’re applying for, leave it out. Recruiters are short on time, and generally just want a quick snapshot of who you are. Yes, it can be good to mention a hobby or interests outside of work, but this is not what is going to get you the job, so keep the emphasis on your relevant experience; skip the paragraph about your cupcake-baking skills.

On the other side of the coin, cover letters that are too short (less than two paragraphs) will often look too sparse. As a general rule, aim to fill roughly three-quarters of an A4 page when writing a cover letter.

If you’re the sort of person who writes cover letters directly into an email, ready to be sent off to the next unsuspecting employer, then you might want to start taking a different approach.

Although it’s likely your email system will already have an in-built spell checker, the chances are that it isn’t quite as rigorous as an actual word processor program. This may cause you to miss a number of spelling or grammatical mistakes or even cause you to use spell check in the wrong language (US English instead of UK English, for example).

Even when you’ve used a word processor, written your text up and meticulously checked for errors in grammar, spelling and punctuation, you should check again. Twice more.

Nobody likes braggers, and that includes hiring managers. The difficulty with writing a cover letter, however, is that in order to sell yourself and show off your skills, you’re going to have to talk yourself up quite a lot.

The secret in treading the line between confidence and egotism is to phrase yourself matter-of-factly when mentioning skills. If you have working HTML skills, say ‘I have working HTML skills’ and back that up if you can. Try to avoid claims such as “I’m a master of Microsoft office” or “I have superior leadership skills”. By using unsupported hyperbolic language like “master”, you may sound as if you are exaggerating your skills. How are you a master? Did you train with Microsoft Office monks for a year in Tibet? No? Well then.

This one is definitely an easy mistake to make, due to the fact it is your cover letter, your job application and your future. But employers really don’t care about how their company fits your needs (before they hire you, at least). What they do care about is what you can bring to their company and how the company will benefit from hiring you. Structure your cover letter from the viewpoint of your prospective employer, and talk about yourself in relation to what you can bring to the company, not the other way around.

There’s never an excuse for clumsy language, whether you’re applying for journalism jobs, accounting jobs or engineering jobs. It may seem harsh, particularly if English is not your first language, but you’ve got to remember that more and more employers today will rule you out for the slightest of linguistic mishaps, simply due to the mountains of applications they have to wade through.

If English is your second language or writing is not your strongest skill, you may want to get someone (a native speaker) to read through your cover letter before sending it off.

You might not be applying for a job that requires design skills, but this doesn’t mean you can entirely neglect the layout of your cover letter. To make your cover letter look visually pleasing, use a standard font, break up your paragraphs into small, readable chunks and use the same font size throughout.