I have been involved with hiring at HubSpot for years and I love it. But one thing that constantly amazes me is the cover letter. At least for me, the cover letter can never help you, and often hurts you. Accomplishments are quickly overshadowed by a cover letter that clearly shows the person has no command of the English language. Here’s an actual cover letter I recently received, identifying information has been removed.
Dear Hiring Manager,I am very interesting in speaking to you and your team about your needs as soon as we establish contact. When we meet I will demonstrate my work experience and show you and the team why my contribute will be a great percentage in your company.
My resume will show that I have more than ten five years experience as a Managing healthy Information in web application as well as 10 years of experiences in General area of Business and Technology support and maintain data. This dual combination has allowed me to obtain a high level of leadership in a professional setting.
I believe my strong attributes such as experience, self discipline, loyalty, the ability to multi-task diligently, and multi mind would be beneficial to the growth, development and success of your company. I look forward to examining any of the ways you feel my background and skills would be beneficiary. The chance to meet with you would be a privilege to give you more information about my qualifications and experience.
Please feel free to reach me at your convenience via my cell phone which is listed above or contact me through my email. Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
PersonI am not even going to bother pointing out all of the issues in this cover letter, I am sure you already found enough to leave your mouth agape. It is safe to say that no matter how amazing the resume looks, this candidate is off the table.
Here are my tips if you are applying for an Engineering position:
- Have a one-page resume and get it proof-read by another person.
- Include only relevant job history.
- Provide a link to a code sample or GitHub.
- Have some sort of online presence, preferably one that you control.
- Do not include a cover letter.
Have any great tips for applying as an Engineer? Please share them in the comments.