Templates are useful as ways to know what should be in a cover letter. But don’t use the template outright. Frank Risalvato, a recruiting officer for Inter-Regional Executive Search Inc., is deluged with cover letters from different candidates that all obviously use the same template from the same career coaches.
“Some of these [cover letters] we see are very obviously not written by the individual,” says Risalvato. “We get fifteen to twenty of these a month, and it sounds disingenuous and insincere, seeing these cover letters from Seattle one week, Chicago another, and it’s all the same style.”
Some career experts also warn against the tired stand-by opening lines in a cover letter. “Opening a letter with a passive and clichéd statement such as ‘Enclosed please find my résumé highlighting my experience and skills that would help your company to grow and succeed,’ ” is a no-no, says Ann Baehr, certified professional résumé writer and president of New York–based Best Résumés. “It’s best to use something catchy and more specific such as, ‘If your company could benefit from the expertise of a hard-charging sales producer with a flawless record of success . . .”
If you’re uncomfortable with that approach, make your cover letter unique to you with insights about the company you’re applying to, advises Darrell Gurney, Los Angeles–based founder of career coaching site Careerguy.com and author of Backdoor Job Search: Never Apply for a Job Again! Prove you understand their business.
“Put in a note saying something like, ‘I’ve been following your company’s progress in the last year and in February I noticed your company was mentioned in the journal of such and such,’ ” Gurney says.