Desiretosucceed's picture Submitted by Desiretosucceed on
in

Forums

Hiring

I have been submitting letter of intents or cover letters for some time, also through my employment I am able to see those submitted by others. These letters include the same information for the most part:
Computer literate, ability to work independently or in a team setting, ... The information on my form seems outdated and those on the ones I read are similiar to mine, outdated... boring...

 

I have been reviewing several job openings such as ..

http://www.google.com/intl/en/jobs/uslocations/new-york/admin/administrative-assistant-engineering-new-york/index.html

So if I were to incorporate some of their words on my cover letter, similar to

I am a self starter who recognizes where processes can be improved and I take the initiative to improve them.

This is true of me but obviously these are not my words. Is this cheating/plagiarism  or is this acceptable?

 

jhbchina's picture
Submitted by jhbchina on Sunday January 30th, 2011 9:00 am

I came across this a few weeks ago. The advise in the blogs and comments are GREAT check them out.

http://blogs.hbr.org/silverman/2009/06/the-best-cover-letter.html

JHB  "00"

stephenbooth_uk's picture
Submitted by stephenbooth_uk on Monday January 31st, 2011 9:52 am

There's advice on writing a cover letter given in the Interviewing series, maybe consider getting that?

 Reading the article JHBCHINA links the only thing I'd really disagree with is the 'don't bother' advice.  Even if I don't read the cover letter in detail, I expect it to be there.  If it's not then that's a negative against you (either you couldn't be bothered to write one (so you're lazy) or you did write it but forgot to include it (so you're incompetant)).

I'd recommend keep it brief and relevant.  Note which job you're applying for (I might have two or three recruitments going on at once, HR may have 2-300 going on at once), pick up the key matches from your Resume/CV to the job and finish up professionally.  The example in the article looks pretty decent to me.  I'm not keen on the use of first name and the 'may report to you' wording, they're unlikely to make me put an otherwise good candidate on the no pile but might weigh against you, if you're that candidate, and I'm looking to trim my long list down to a short list.  I did know one manager who would absolutely reject a candidate who used his first name the cover letter. 

Stephen

--

Skype: stephenbooth_uk  | DiSC: 6137

"Start with the customer and work backwards, not with the tools and work forwards" - James Womack

 

edwinkelleys's picture
Submitted by edwinkelleys on Friday April 6th, 2012 4:08 am

The given information is too good thanks for sharing a link keep it up.