The Muse: If there’s one thing that all job seekers have in common, it’s that they hate writing cover letters. With a passion.
But why? It’s not like they’re very long. And when you really think about it, they’re not that difficult. But something about that step between the resume and interview gets people really, really irritated.
In fact, people ask us all the time: Is there any way to make writing cover letters suck less?
6 comments:
I HATE writing cover letters, the part that I find the hardest is why I want the job I am applying for. I may know by hart why I want the job and what it could do for me, but it stinks when I am asked, what could I contribute to the job. I know that is my time to brag, but how to phrase what I want to say is always difficult. I like the note that says I should try and treat writing a cover letter as if I were writing an email, but at the same time that seems too formal. Oh and I ALWAYS do the paste into word.
I HATE writing cover letters, and for all of these reasons. I still find it hard when I pace myself and try to be objective, because I often refuse to believe I am more capable than someone else at anything, which is kind of the key to a cover letter. What happens when I try to be a bit more creative than I might otherwise be, is that I become a little too informal, mostly because I know if I were hiring, I would RATHER see informality rather than formality. I prefer to talk face to face, and joke and be a person, rather than a letter and a signature, but alas you can only get an interview with a good cover letter.
When starting to apply for internships and jobs making a resume seemed like the hardest thing I would ever have to do but then I realized I also had a cover letter to write. The cover letter seems so much more challenging then I ever thought it would. You want to make yourself sound great without bragging and also only want to do so in like five sentences. Doing this without boring yourself to sleep or boring the person who is reading it is a challenge. This article is pretty useful in giving tips to help relieve these problems.
This article is clearly meant for me because I too hate cover letters. The article doesn't really give solutions but more advice on how to make writing cover letters a little less obnoxious. But the advice given could really be applied to anything. It essentially says you hate doing this thing but pretend like you don't and it will be much easier. So essentially approach things with a positive attitude and they will go a lot smoother.
Ive just been in the middle of having to write numerous cover letters and I definitely agree that they suck. This article did a good job summarizing the many reasons that we all encounter and providing fairly good solutions for them. I think one of the biggest blocks for me personally is the feeling of weight and nerves that the cover letter holds with it. The letter could be one of the things that makes or breaks the job opportunity for you. I dont necessarily think the email approach is a solution that would work for me either. When I have to write an important email, the same thing happens and i freeze up and end up not responding for a while.
One of the things I hate most about cover letters is having to brag about yourself. Most of us has been taught not to brag about ourselves, and it makes me really uncomfortable having to tell someone how awesome I am. The tip about not trying to do all the letters at once also makes sense- when I was applying for internships I tried to do a bunch at once and quickly got really tired and couldn't work any more.
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