TIL I'd been writing cover letters wrong for 6 years...

So I'm 32 and I've sent out probably 200 job apps since college. Last week a hiring manager friend read one of my cover letters and just stared at me. She said 'you know these aren't supposed to be a summary of your resume, right?' Apparently I'd been listing my duties instead of showing how I solved problems. She showed me her template that starts with one specific win from a past job... like 'saved $15k on inventory by catching a supplier error.' My brain just about cracked open. Has anyone else had a basic career thing click way too late?

2 comments

2 Comments

gracecarr10d ago

30 years old and I had the same exact moment last year. A mentor told me my cover letters sounded like I had a job, not that I was good at a job. I was basically just copying my resume bullets into paragraph form. She made me rewrite one starting with "I noticed your system was losing about 10 hours a week in manual data entry so I built an automation that cut that down to 15 minutes." That one sentence got me three callbacks when my old rambling paragraphs got zero. It's like we're trained to be humble about our work but hiring managers want to see you brag about specific results. Did you end up using that template from your friend to see if it changes your response rate?

the_robin9d ago

Yeah @gracecarr made me realize I was doing that exact same thing without noticing.