The cover letter sample gold rush has flooded the job market with these over used cover letters. Prospective employers are seeing the same old cover letter coming across their desks from countless applicants. Prospective employers are no longer taking a real close look at these cover letters before sending them to the trash can. Job seekers have spent so much time and energy into putting together their resumes that they leave little time to writing a cover letter. They grab up a sample cover letter that they found on the internet or out of book and use this sample as their cover letter. Little thought and effort is put into creating the cover letter that will accompany the job seeker’s resume. Prospective employers after seeing this same old cover letter countless times are realizing the minimal effort put forth in the creation of the cover letter.
With your competition using the same run-of-the-mill sample cover letter that you are using, you are not setting yourself apart from your competition. To set yourself apart you need to refrain from using the sample cover letters that you are find on the internet or out of a book. Instead you need to write up a cover letter yourself that is fresh and unique from what the competition is using. Take the time to create a cover letter that speaks directly to your prospective employer. Which is something a cover letter sample is not going to be able to do.
Another point that job seekers do not look at when joining in on the cover letter sample gold rush is the source of the cover letter sample. Does the source in which you are getting your cover letter sample known how to effectively write a cover letter? Or are they putting together what looks like a good cover letter for the person that knows nothing about cover letters? Job seekers are sometimes unaware that the cover letter sample that they have grabbed up to use was poorly put together. Sending a cover letter off to a prospective employer that is poorly put together is a sure death for your career.
Also the cover letter gold rush that you may be taking part in will give the impression of laziness to your prospective employer. This is not the first impression that you want a prospective employer to have about you. After all the main reason for the cover letter is to land an interview and the appearance of laziness will not land you a job interview.
So avoid the cover letter sample gold rush and write your own fresh and unique cover letter. Create a cover letter that speaks directly to your prospective employer by first addressing the cover letter to an actual person. This one area will speak volumes to your prospective employer considering the competition may be using a cover letter sample and those samples usually address ‘to whom it may concern’ instead of an actual person. Sample cover letters also start off usually with a generalized line or two about referring to your resume and this again is not going to set you apart from the competition. What you need to do is put together a paragraph yourself that addresses the needs of the prospective employer and your qualifications that will allow you to fill those hiring needs. Also most sample cover letters offer a generalized account of why you like the company in which you are applying for. This generalized account can fit for any company you are applying for and not for one specific company. Prospective employers like to see cover letters that specifically address their company from start to finish. The cover letter samples that you may come across and decided to use may also end the cover letter with a passive voice. Your cover letter is not the time to be passive, instead you need to be assertive and ask out right for an interview. After all the purpose of your cover letter is to get and interview and prospective employers take note of applicants that come across as serious about the position in which they have applied for. Remember when putting your cover letter together that by joining the cover letter sample gold rush, you are condemning you resume to the trash can along with all the other hopeful applicants that joined in the gold rush.
Image taken on 2008-03-05 20:51:04. Image Source. (Used with permission)
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