Some things are like street drugs –best taken in moderation. Other things are like prescription drugs –not many differences between generics and the “real deal.” Cover letters are like drugs in both of these respects. The generics will get you pretty far and if someone asks you for one, good things will happen if you have it. Today we are going to discuss the benefits of writing a generic cover letter that you use over and over after making small edits. Employment is a numbers game in many ways and this brings a few of those numbers in your favor. These copy-n-paste cover letters are not for use in 100% of situations, but they will save you time and get you more results if you can identify when it’s a good time to use them. The idea here is to make it mind-numbingly simple to submit your resume

and cover letter so that you are inclined to do this more often.

 

Let’s first explore when it is a good idea to use a generic cover letter vs. creating a new one from scratch. Have you ever seen a job posting that seems to describe you? Every duty, every responsibility listed is something you have a wealth of experience doing. The company cares about its employees and there is a lot of room for growth and promotion. You. Want. This. Bad. This is your dream job. You need to take the time and carefully craft a cover letter that tells the employer EXACTLY how well you fit into that position. In this scenario, you would most certainly create a cover letter from scratch. Generic letters are for generic opportunities. Once-in-a-lifetime opportunities deserve a once-in-a-lifetime cover letter. Deciding on the generic cover letter is to simply go through the motions of cover letter writing. Deciding on creating a personalized letter is to give ’em the ol’ razzle dazzle. If you want to be remembered, if you want to leave an impression, you will write a cover letter from the ground up. If you simply do not want the opportunity to pass without you having submitted an application, get that generic cover letter in there ASAP. This advice also rings true for your resume. Those positions you want with all your life’s essence deserve a resume that has been edited with those positions in mind. If you do not have the resources to tailor that resume, make sure you have a generic that is good-to-go so that you can at least throw your name in the hat. Everyone deserves your best resume and cover letter, but some require that little extra. Just like your apartment, it should be clean; but when it’s time for some Netflix & Chill™, your place better be extra clean.

Just the Highlights

Once you have decided that you are going generic, you need to make the one cover letter to rule them all. Last week, we talked about the purpose and function of any cover letter, generics included. Primarily, you need tell the employer what position you are applying for, how you heard about the position, and why you would be the best person for the job. You’ll notice that all of this information changes depending on the job you are applying for. How are we going to make a one-size-fits-all cover letter for so many different sizes? The answer is MADLIBS. You need to create a cover letter with strategic blanks that you fill in with the details of the position and the organization as your are applying. The story is the same, you just change a noun here and there to apply the minimum amount of customization you can afford, and then you send it off. This way, you always have a cover letter to send. Gone are the days where you decide not to apply because they asked you to write a paragraph. Instead, you will have a highlight reel that has their name on it.

Let’s talk about these highlights. In between the blanks that make up your cover letter template, you need to be talking about your most marketable skills and explaining your success and accomplishments, without repeating much of what is on your resume. There are many ways to do this, but you want to be asking yourself questions about what changes you made and effects you had on the organizations you have been with in the past. It’s not necessary to have reinvented the wheel or anything like that, simply making a suggestion that was taken seriously and implemented is great too! Whatever changes that came from this would not have happened without you. When building cover letters, I like to ask indivuduals about their first few weeks at the job. It is at this time that you enter with a fresh perspective and many of your ideas would be considered new. Or perhaps you notice several things that your predecessor was doing that were not that efficient. What changes did you make in those first few weeks that made things easier for you? This is the value you added to the organization. This is what other employers read your cover letter for, “Who am I really getting?” Is what they want to know but are afraid to ask. Show them who they are really getting by letting them know how companies are better off because of you. Now, a lot of these changes you made may belong on your resume. What doesn’t belong on your resume is how you came up with these changes, adversity you faced in implementation, how you learned of the problem, etc. Cover letters are great places to let people know some background on your most impressive accomplishments and what led you to them. This crucial context also tells people about more about you as an employee and as a human. This way, employers know what problems you are likely to notice, how you go about solving problems, and how you know it worked. None of this has a bona fide section on your resume, but it can certainly do you well to get you hired by appearing in your cover letter.

The Lowlights

There are certainly some things you want to avoid by going with a generic cover letter. Mainly, you need to make sure your tone is not generic and expresses excitement in the opportunity. You also need to double and triple-check your letter for errors. Generic template cover letters are susceptible to a specific type of embarrassment you want to protect yourself from. Before you send any cover letter, you want to check for these things in particular.

Tone is important because most resumes have the same boring matter-of-fact tone. This makes it difficult to assess personality through reading resumes. Cover letters are different because they expect to get a sense of your personalty through the tone and content of the letter. Tone is hard to define, but lets describe it as the first impression your cover letter gives. You want your cover letter to give impressions such as interested, accomplished, and qualified. It also helps to talk about what makes you unique or uncommon as an applicant. You want to avoid impressions like overly excited, unqualified, over-qualified, or uninterested. Having multiple people read over your cover letter is the quickest way to identify the tone or first impression it gives.

Checking your generic cover letter for errors is more important than making a three to put your team up by 1 with 43 seconds left in Game 3 of the NBA Finals (yeah, I said it). Generic cover letters deserve the scrutiny you would give any application materials, but they need more. Generic cover letters can embarrass you into poverty if you do not check them before you send them. Microsoft Word will not show you a little squiggly red line when you address the letter to Samsung, but you actually send it to Apple. Google Docs will not point out the fact that employers at large companies spend less than two minutes reading a cover letter, regardless of the length. Yahoo Mail will not tell you that Trader Joe’s does not hire butchers, even though that’s the position you stated you are applying for. Do yourself a favor and doulble and triple check that your letter is addressed to the right company and it mentions the right position. Spell check will not suffice all by itself.

These are offenses that will get your application immediately ignored if they get more than a handful of applicants.  If you are the type of person that does not typically have the attention to detail to make sure you are not calling people by the wrong name, generic cover letters might not be for you. On the other hand, if you are the type of person who sometimes doesn’t apply for jobs because they require a cover letter, this will do you good.  At the very least, it will reduce the wave of anxiety that comes whenever you see a job description mention a cover letter. Getting rid of cover letter anxiety will make you more likely to submit applications and get your name out there. Next week, we are going to be talking about creating a cover letter from scratch! We are going to get into the ins and outs of wooing a potential employer by talking about why we do what we do, and how it is in their best interest to hire someone like you.