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&lt;p&gt;In a blog called &quot;The Best Cover Letter I Ever Received,&quot; the &lt;em&gt;Harvard Business Review&lt;/em&gt;&#39;s David Silverman offers the following nugget of advice:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;There are really only a few times to use a cover letter:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;1.When you know the name of the person hiring&lt;br /&gt; 2.When you know something about the job requirement&lt;br /&gt; 3.When you&#39;ve been personally referred (which might include 1 and 2)&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;While he covers a key point about the job search process, and hints at the reason for it, Silverman&#39;s message is worth spelling out explicitly: most cover letters are ineffectual because job seekers don&#39;t take the time to do them properly.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here are the chief sins of the under-cooked letter, and what you can do to overcome them:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It&#39;s impersonal.&lt;/strong&gt; In a world dominated by social media, it shouldn&#39;t be too difficult to find out the name of the person you&#39;re likely to be reporting to if you get the job. Can&#39;t find the right contact on LinkedIn? Call the company and ask someone. Give a fake name if you&#39;re worried about appearing overeager. But go the extra mile: if you find someone in a hiring position who is put off by a candidate showing initiative and determination, you&#39;ve found someone you probably don&#39;t want to be working for anyway.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It&#39;s vague&lt;/strong&gt; Think you&#39;d be a perfect fit for a job or company? So does every other candidate—and they&#39;ll be blindly stating it in their letter too. If you can&#39;t craft a compelling reason why you’re the best person for the position in a cover letter, what chance do you think you would stand in an interview?&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It shows your ignorance.&lt;/strong&gt; Okay, so this is essentially an extension of the previous point, but it&#39;s an important one. Too many candidates apply blind for any position they see that has something even approaching the right job title. But if you&#39;re not taking the time to find out a little more about the job, you&#39;re just wasting whatever effort and resources you &lt;em&gt;are&lt;/em&gt; putting into the application—not to mention the time of the person responsible for reading the cover letter.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;p&gt;With all of those points in mind, it&#39;s probably a good time to consider what makes a good letter. In discussing the &quot;best cover letter&quot; the title of his piece promises, Silverman sums the requirements perfectly:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;It’s short. It sums up the resum&#233; as it relates to the job. It asks for the job.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;The writer of this letter took the time to think through what would be relevant to me.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;The writer isn&#39;t just showing me skills related to the job, he&#39;s showing me he&#39;ll be the kind of employee who offers up solutions—instead of just laying problems on my desk.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Take the time to go back and revisit the last few cover letters you sent out, keeping Silverman&#39;s critique in mind. If you can&#39;t honestly say that yours meet those criteria, it&#39;s time to start rethinking what you&#39;re doing—starting with your research.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Read More&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;br /&gt; &lt;em&gt;The Harvard Business Review&lt;/em&gt;: The Best Cover Letter I Ever Received&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;--Phil Stott, Vault.com&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&#160;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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3 Reasons Your Cover Letters Are Being Ignored

In a blog called "The Best Cover Letter I Ever Received," the Harvard Business Review's David Silverman offers the following nugget of advice: "There are really only a few times to use a cover letter: 1.When you know the name of the person hiring 2.When you know something about the job requirement 3.When you've been personally referred (which might include 1 and 2)" While he covers a key point about the job search process, and hints at the reason for it, Silverman's message is worth spelling out explicitly: most cover letters are ineffectual because job seekers don't take the time to do them properly. Here are the chief sins of the under-cooked letter, and what you can do to overcome them:  It's impersonal.

In a blog called "The Best Cover Letter I Ever Received," the Harvard Business Review's David Silverman offers the following nugget of advice: "There are really only a few times to use a cover letter: 1.When you know the name of the person hiring 2.When you know something about the job requirement 3.When you've been personally referred (which might include 1 and 2)" While he covers a key point about the job search process, and hints at the reason for it, Silverman's message is worth spelling out explicitly: most cover letters are ineffectual because job seekers don't take the time to do them properly. Here are the chief sins of the under-cooked letter, and what you can do to overcome them: It's impersonal.

3 Reasons Your Cover Letters Are Being Ignored | Career Advice - Vault

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3 Reasons Your Cover Letters Are Being Ignored

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