Most of us have reached this exact moment when we’re just about ready to submit our resume and then it hits us – I don’t have a cover letter!

And if you’re like the rest of us, you dread the thought of sitting down and hammering out a cover letter that pertains to each job role you’re applying for – probably because you’ve waited so long to do it!

So what happens then is you start adding “say nothing” lines in your cover letter according to an article in USAToday. So what do you do about it? First of all, get rid of these cover letter lines:

“I BELIEVE I AM UNIQUELY QUALIFIED FOR THIS POSITION”

Unless you’re a purple-haired juggler who speaks Mandarin and plays the lute—and happen to be applying for a position as juggling lute player (who, ideally, speaks Mandarin and has brightly colored hair), then chances are you are not, in fact, uniquely qualified for that job.

“HERE IS WHAT I’M LOOKING FOR”

So many job seekers blabber on and on about what their career or life goals are in the cover letter. And I’m not here to suggest your dreams and aspirations don’t matter. They most definitely do. But potential employers don’t yet care what you want out of this deal.

“WHILE I DON’T HAVE ___”

The amount of apologizing that goes on in cover letters just mystifies me. Why even apply if you’re going to spend half the time pointing out what you lack instead of showcasing what (specifically) you can contribute as their next hire.

“I HAVE ENCLOSED MY RESUME…”

The reviewers of your resume and cover letter probably have a pretty good handle on the whole “If there’s a cover letter, I’ll just bet there’s also a resume attached” thing here. They know the drill. So, while it won’t likely sink you to include this say-nothing line, it’s just wasting space.

“IT WOULD BE AN HONOR TO WORK FOR [WRONG COMPANY NAME]”

This one isn’t just a matter of wasting space, it’ll land you an immediate spot in the “no” pile. You may gasp to think that someone could be this careless, but it happens all the time, especially among job seekers who use a generic cover letter format and just cut, paste, cut, paste company names in and out.

Read the entire article on USAToday.

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