When job seekers are in the campaign of sending their applications to different companies there is a great temptation to develop a generic resume and cover letter for this endeavor. The paradox is that people don't want to work on tailoring their resumes and cover letters in order to get a foot through the doors of potential employers but they do want to be hired though. That doesn't work that way. Sending your generic resume and cover letter to hundreds of companies won't help much. And while you can send the same resume to the companies that operate within one industry the same kind of positions doing the same thing with your cover letter is not a good move. Generic cover letters have never done anything good in terms of a job search and here is why.
Generic Cover Letters Simply Don't Work
If you really want to start receiving some interview invitations you should realize that employers expect candidates to provide a relevant resume and cover letter. The thing is that very often people just want to please their own consсience by sending many job applications - it creates a feeling that you do something in order to get a job. But if your goal is actually to get one and not just please your conscience then you should tailor your cover letter to every job opening you apply. No matter how hard you persuade yourself that it all doesn't matter, it really does make a huge difference. At least in the eyes of employers.
First of all, when employers receive generic cover letters they immediately realize that an applicant didn't care much about the job. Experienced hiring managers understand what a generic cover letter means. Besides, it can mean only one thing: a candidate just sent this cover letter to a variety of different companies without even trying to understand the job requirements. Now, what does that say about a candidate? Nothing good. Employers will likely discard such cover letter trying to find a job seeker that tailored a cover letter to match the specific needs of the company. Secondly, if you develop a generic cover letter it is unlikely that employers are going to find relevant information about skills and experience. In fact, any cover letter boils down to answering this simple question "Why should you hire me?". In order to answer this question, one has to know what the company is looking for in candidates and then address these things through the lens of own experience and qualifications. Since different companies have different requirements and preferences it is simply impossible to address everything in one cover letter. One for all approach just doesn't work. Check some of our cover letter examples to see what you can do.
