What’s worse than creating a resume? If you said, “writing a cover letter,” you are both correct and also probably in the midst of a job search. Cover letters are famously hard to pull off. Get too creative, and you look overly eccentric; hew too closely to a template, and you look like a robot.
The good news is, no matter what you do with your cover letter, it’s bound to be better than some of the ones cover letter expert Rachel Kaufman has compiled on Mediabistro.
Here’s a sampling:
1. Sometimes, spell-check is not our friend.
“I’m looking for work because even though my company was profitable last year, this year they are expecting a large defecate.”
2. I do not think it means what you think it means.
“I wish to … appeal to your irrational masculine avatar.” Other gems from the same letter: “My homogeneous person was slapped right in the face.” “Hubris, however, was the only Greek concept I truly evinced during a near-graduation retrospection of my college years.”
3. To a posting that specified applicants must be in the Washington, D.C. area.
“Hello from California!”
4. The typo hat trick.
“Other skills I’ve learned are, being a proficient multi-tasker, handling detailed oriented documents with care, handling stressful situations with a clam demeanor, and joggling different projects with time management.”
5. Maybe the job was at a gym?
“I continually challenge myself … that semester I achieved a 3.93, and in the same time I managed to bench double my bodyweight and do 35 pull-ups.”
Tell Us What You Think
What’s the worst cover letter you’ve ever seen? Share your stories in the comments or join the discussion on Twitter.
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