Ask a Manager

I often get asked for examples of good cover letters, and a reader recently sent me a great one that I want to share. This is a fantastic example of how someone without a ton of work experience (she’s still a student!) can make a compelling case for why they’d be a good hire. When […]

For employers, picking the best candidate for the job isn’t just about skills and experience. If it were, they wouldn’t ask for cover letters at all — hell, we might not even need interviews. We could just hire based on resumes alone. But of course, other things matter, too — things like personal traits, work […]

I’ve read a lot of cover letters in my career — thousands of them, maybe even tens of thousands. (If you’re thinking that sounds like really boring reading, you’re right.) What I can tell you from doing that is that most people make the same mistakes over and over, and they waste the opportunity cover […]

People often really struggle over how to start a cover letter, and as a result they often end up with lines that are overly salesy, gimmicky, or just very tired. Here are popular opening lines that you should purge from your cover letters. * “If you are seeking…” — as in, “If you are seeking a […]

I regularly get asked for examples of good cover letters, and I’m always nervous about sharing them because PEOPLE STEAL THEM. But a reader sent me a great one and gave me permission to share it, and I thought it was a good example of how to write a letter that talks about what differentiates you, […]

When you’re applying for jobs, your cover letter can be the determining factor in whether you hear nothing from an employer or whether you get called for an interview. And yet job seekers regularly give their cover letters short shrift – writing deadly dull missives that make hiring managers’ eyes glaze over or using them […]

A reader writes: My question is a little woolly, but one I was hoping you could shed some light on: In cover letters, where is the line between necessary self-promotion and overconfidence? I’m looking for jobs right now as a soon-to-be-graduate, and I’m finding it really hard to hit the right note to convince a […]

A reader sent me this real-life cover letter that she received from a job applicant: Hi. This very professionally-beginning cover letter should immediately alert you to my easy-going and comprehensive approach to task completion while making it strikingly obvious that I am both interested in and capable of performing HR duties with sophisticated exactitude. The […]

A reader writes: When applying to a job via email, do you attach your cover letter or do you paste it in the body of the email, or both? Either one is fine. No one really cares, seriously. I mean, people who hire may have individual preferences, but no one is going to penalize you over doing […]