"7 Deadly Cover Letter Writing Sins"

Written by Vincent Czaplyski


Don't start off your job search with one (or more) strikes against you by committing any of these common cover letter blunders. Each is easy to avoid, but they can sink your chances of an interview if you include them in your letter.

1. Sending your letter torepparttar wrong person, location, or department.

Do you really want your letter to land you a job atrepparttar 135194 company you're sending it to? Then takerepparttar 135195 time to verify that you haverepparttar 135196 proper name, title and address forrepparttar 135197 hiring manager or other decision maker who should receive it.

Unless you're absolutely sure you already haverepparttar 135198 most up- to-date contact information, take a few minutes to call and ask. Otherwise you may as well not bother sending your letter - it most likely won't reachrepparttar 135199 intended recipient. And if it does, he or she won't be impressed that you didn't bother to take this simple step.

2. Irritating your potential employer with a pushy, arrogant or conceited tone to your letter.

Are you truly God's gift to humanity? If not, chances are you ought to come across with a bit of humility, not braggadocio. Saverepparttar 135200 "I am too good for you not to hire me" stuff for when you're bragging to your friends aboutrepparttar 135201 great job you just landed. (Even they probably won't be impressed - and they already like you!) Instead, let your accomplishments and skills speak for themselves.

3. Typos, misspellings, punctuation or grammatical errors.

There's no excuse for leaving any of these mistakes in a cover letter (or a resume for that matter). If such matters truly aren't your strong suite, ask a friend to look your letter over for you. Blatant errors like these are just one more reason for a hiring manager to shunt your resume and cover letter aside, never to be seen again. Why? Because they'll think you are too lazy, too uncaring or too unskilled to be a good fit at their company.

4. Writing rambling, unfocused sentences and paragraphs.

"5 Ways to Drastically Improve Your Resume in 10 Minutes

Written by Vincent Czaplyski


Follow these quick and easy tips to build yourself a better resume in under 10 minutes flat.

* Use strong, action oriented language that describes specific skills or accomplishments.

Go through your resume from top to bottom and eliminate weak language. Don't write "Was in charge of large graphic design department that increased company revenues" when you can say "Managed 12 graphic artists in major creative projects that increased revenues by over 3 million last year."

Whenever possible, eliminate all forms ofrepparttar verb "to be" (is, are, was, am and so on), as demonstrated inrepparttar 135193 previous example. Instead, replace them with strong action words that paint a compelling picture.

* Add bullets.

Bullets are a great way to transform lists that would otherwise make tedious reading in paragraph form, or that would benefit by a cleaner layout. They makerepparttar 135194 job of reading your resume more pleasant forrepparttar 135195 reader. A perfect candidate for bullets is a list of accomplishments related to a single job. For example, "Postmaster, 1998 -2003" followed by 3 or 4 major accomplishments in bullet form.

* Write a specific, concise job description.

Ifrepparttar 135196 job you really want is "Director of Human Resources at a Fortune 1000 company," say so. Don't write "Middle management position at a large or mid-size company" or something equally vague. That covers a lot of territory. You need to helprepparttar 135197 company withrepparttar 135198 exact job you're looking for find you. Put yourself inrepparttar 135199 hiring manager's shoes. Would you call a candidate for an interview inrepparttar 135200 hopes that she is a good match, or would you callrepparttar 135201 person whose job description specifically indicates she wantsrepparttar 135202 job?

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