<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"  We all learn from our mistakes \u2014 but do you really want your cover letter for your dream job to be the place you make them? Even the tiniest errors on the crucial first-impression-making document could get you overlooked for the job you really, really want. Unfair? Maybe. True? Definitely. As deputy editor for Cosmo, I&amp;#039;ve read through hundreds of cover letters in the course of hiring junior and senior editors and tons of interns. And when I talk to friends who hire for other types of industries, it becomes pretty clear that these are the most common \u2014 but avoidable! \u2014 cover letter goofs. The more you know, right? 1. Messing up the basics. I&amp;#039;ve gotten more than a few cover letters from applicants who make basic spelling and grammar errors \u2014 including spelling my name wrong. I&amp;#039;ve also gotten an alarming number of letters addressed to the wrong person, or even the wrong magazine. To a hiring manager, those mistakes (as well as not following instructions for, say, what to write in the subject line of your email) are usually markers of larger issues, like not being thorough or paying attention to detail. If you can&amp;#039;t be bothered to proofread your own cover letter, what does that tell me about the kind of employee you&amp;#039;ll be? 2. Not telling me why you&amp;#039;d want to work here. Your letter is actually not so much about you, the applicant, as it is about the job/company you are applying to. So please, don&amp;#039;t just repeat your resume (that&amp;#039;s what your resume is for!). Instead, tell me how you get the magazine/company/division and why it is you want to work there. If you&amp;#039;re applying for a job at, say, Scrunchie magazine, it&amp;#039;s pretty key to say why you want to work at Scrunchie magazine (and not &amp;quot;a magazine like Scrunchie&amp;quot; \u2014 common fail). Is it because you were the first to hail the return of the scrunchie on your scrunchie blog? Have you read Scrunchie religiously all your life and made it your mission to work there one day? Do you admire Scrunchie&amp;#039;s recent redesign? (You need to research the company you&amp;#039;re applying to \u2014 as well as the hiring manager \u2014 and mention any recent awards/revamps/other positive news in your cover letter to show you&amp;#039;re in the know.) You won&amp;#039;t believe how many cover letters I get that don&amp;#039;t even mention why the applicant wants to work at the magazine.  3. Sounding too formal (or formulaic). Being genuinely excited about a company is always an asset, so don&amp;#039;t be afraid of geeking out. Experience matters, but it&amp;#039;s not going to help you if you can&amp;#039;t get your foot in the door. What will is genuine enthusiasm \u2014 it works better at getting a hiring manager&amp;#039;s attention than throwing around big thesaurus words or business-speak straight out of a cover-letter-writing book. Truth: it&amp;#039;s inspiring to read a passionate letter from someone who sincerely loves the magazine and tells a story behind her connection to the brand. It&amp;#039;s not inspiring to read a stiff, very formal letter that could just as easily be an application for a finance job, or seems as though it was sent to 18 different hiring managers without so much as a tweak. That is a sign of a form letter. Form letters go in the trash. 4. Focusing on &amp;quot;what&amp;#039;s in it for me.&amp;quot; Of course you believe the gig you&amp;#039;re going for will be a great learning experience that can help you grow or jump-start your career. That&amp;#039;s a given, and the manager reading your cover letter already knows that. Your potential boss is more interested in how you&amp;#039;ll be able to help her. How did your prior experience prepare you for this particular job? What are some areas you excel at that will make you a perfect fit for this specific gig? Here&amp;#039;s a great passage from a real cover letter sent to me by an intern I ended up hiring: &amp;quot;As an intern, I pride myself on my ability to make my editors&amp;#039; lives easier. I take my work seriously, I am thorough, and I work and learn quickly. I also relish challenging assignments: from liaising with Celebrity X&amp;#039;s personal assistant to ensure she reached X location safely to fighting with a crowd of people to pick up an editor&amp;#039;s visa from a foreign consulate, the best part of my last internship was making miracles happen for editors and knowing the magazine&amp;#039;s production ran more smoothly as a result.&amp;quot; So, in three sentences, she gave me a sense of her strong work ethic, can-do attitude, and the fact that she gets how an internship \u2014 or any job, really \u2014 works. No matter what level you&amp;#039;re at in the corporate hierarchy, your mission is always to make the life of whomever you&amp;#039;re working for easier. And every little task you do (even seemingly trivial stuff like booking reservations or coordinating travel) contributes to the success or failure of the place you&amp;#039;re working for. Showing in your letter that you understand those things and are willing to do whatever it takes to help the brand succeed will raise your chances of getting that coveted interview.  5. Using these five words: To Whom It May Concern. I beg you \u2014 never do this. And never use Dear Sir or Madam either! It makes you seem lazy. Do whatever you can to find out the hiring manager&amp;#039;s name, and address your letter to that person \u2014 if it&amp;#039;s not listed and you have no luck Googling, pick up the phone and prepare to be transferred around until someone has the answer. (Bonus points if you find out what he or she works on and mention a specific project that you especially liked.) Because there is a real live person \u2014 maybe even me! \u2014 who&amp;#039;s reading your letter, not some letter-processing robot. And a little personalization goes a long way.  Follow Marina on Twitter. Photo Credit: Getty Images "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.com/career/advice/a5659/cover-letter-mistakes/?src=rss>