5 Cover Letter Blunders That Kill Your Chances

By Laura Smith-Proulx



You’ve polished your resume to no end, especially after finding a great job posting that seems tailor-made for your leadership skills. But did your cover letter merit the same attention?


Many hiring managers use your cover letter to gauge your interest in the company, as well as to measure your aptitude for the job.

Therefore, when you resort to “Dear Sir, I’m interested in your open job, here’s my resume,” you’re missing out on a critical chance to persuade employers to take you seriously for a top leadership role.
These 5 cover letter mistakes and omissions can quickly knock you out of consideration for the job you crave:

1 – Your opening line lacked punch.
“I am a Software Product Manager with 14 years leading product development teams” or “In response to your ad for an Operations Director, I have enclosed my resume” really aren’t compelling enough to use as opening statements.

Instead, try a hook that makes the hiring manager pay immediate attention, as in these examples:
“As Vice President Business Development, my relentless drive for sales success has brought revenue from zero to $40M—and I’m ready to deliver the same results for you.”

“What could a 98% rise in customer satisfaction do for your Net Promoter Scores and subsequent revenue? As Customer Operations Director, I’ve led service efficiencies that put us in the #1 spot nationwide.”

The idea is to speak precisely to the employer’s pain points while describing the performance impact you’ve had in previous roles.

Each of these opening lines quickly references the job being pursued, with a specific title and metrics-driven, peak career accomplishment meant to entice the reader.
Your opening line should also leverage the research you’ve done on the company, per the next point.

2 – You didn’t address the company’s problems.
Rattling off a list of competencies isn’t strong enough to distinguish you from other candidates, but speaking directly to the company’s needs will do the trick.

You have to dig into the company’s history, press releases, annual reports, and other news to figure out their pain points. It’s fairly simple to run a Google search on “ABC Company News” to see what’s come up over the past few months.

Is the company opening new offices? Were earnings down in previous quarters? What do industry analysts say about the company’s future and their business strategy?

Armed with this information, you’re able to connect your leadership skills to the employer’s needs much more succinctly:
“My ability to produce business development results (30% rise in cloud-based solution sales during Q4 2010) can address any struggles you’ve had in breaking into this market. Can we talk?”

3 – Your key points don’t match (or exceed) the job requirements.
Like resumes, cover letters must be precise and direct the reader… keeping them attentive to the reasons they should hire you and the edge your work can give them.

While you’re writing, put the job description in front of you to remind yourself what the employer is seeking. Then, look for ways to point out how you can surpass these expectations, rather than pointing out the obvious (“My qualifications include a Master’s degree from Iowa State University”).

The following example is taken from an IT Director cover letter:
“Your ad noted that you require a leader in service delivery and customer satisfaction. My career includes 3 years of 97% satisfaction ratings, achieved by improving infrastructure and network capacity, and I hold responsive service as my #1 priority.”


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