“To whom it may concern”

Nowadays there is no excuse to not know the name of the person responsible for the recruitment process or the person who is going to interview you. Therefore make sure you do that research and you use their name in the cover letter. You can also use the name of the Human resources Director in a larger company or the name of the CEO of a start-up. Show that you care and you adapt your cover letter to each job position. You can also make a quick call to ask the name of the person responsible for the hiring new staff.

“I just need a chance”

Maybe we don’t write it literally but this is the idea behind a lot of cover letters. Or at least is what the recruiter will think after reading a “cry for help”. You should not adopt the victim approach while writing your cover letter. Be positive and focus on your value.

“Looking for an interesting job”

This is a non-specific sentence that we usually find in cover letters and it means nothing! You are not being precise enough so the recruiter won’t have the idea of what you are looking for. You should be as clear and as transparent as you can. State the role you are applying for and write about what you feel that role and that company will be able to offer you, as well as what you have to offer.

“Salary Expectations”

It is very dangerous to talk about salary in the first approach to the recruiter. It can send the wrong message. We all know salary is very important and it should be something you should cover in the interview, but this is too soon to bring the subject. It can send the idea of you just being focused on the money.

“The reason I left…”

You will read a lot about how important it is to hide that you left a job or that you didn’t like your previous job, but there is nothing wrong about it. But you also don’t need to wave a flag stating that. Instead focus on what you did next. Instead of saying “Then I left my job because I was not…” write something like “Then I decided to take my career to a different level and I…”.

“Objective Statement”

These two words together make a negative impact so stay away from them. You can even have a great speech on your objective statement but call it anything other than that. In fact, this is something that you should include in your resume and not in your cover letter. Avoid generic objective and instead use your personal and human voice to talk about your goals and expectations towards that position/company.

“References Available upon request”

We wrote about this over and over again. There is no need to state that, companies will ask you for that if needed.

Other sentences:

“I feel that…”

Starting every sentence with “I”

Asking for a positive response

“Yours Lovingly”

“Call me at…”

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