A cover letter is a document that is attached along with your resume. It usually comprises three paragraphs, including an opening paragraph, a second paragraph, and an ending paragraph. When you send a cover letter to your employer, it gives them a first impression of who you are and how dedicated you are to your profession. Therefore, it should be kept in mind that your cover letter should be mistake-free, even minor mistakes like grammar or spelling errors can cause damage to your dream of landing a perfect job opportunity.

So, in order to avoid these mistakes while writing a compelling cover letter for the UAE job market, here are some tips to follow.

Right Format

A cover letter should be readable, concise, and short. Therefore, choosing the right format for your cover letter is very crucial, as it makes it easy to read and extract the relevant information the hiring manager requires. Avoid using difficult words or phrases. Avoid using graphs or colors which might distract the employer from getting the important information.

Expectations

A cover letter provides an overview of you as a candidate for a specific job and how you can be an asset to the company’s needs and requirements. Therefore, mentioning your expectations in your cover letter is one of the most important mistakes to avoid. These expectations may include the expected salary or a specific position or area you want to work on.

Avoid Repetition

Repetition is a mistake one must avoid while writing a cover letter. Information that is already included in a resume should not be added to your cover letter. Therefore, avoiding the repetition of the same information again is irrelevant.

Informal Tone

Another mistake candidates do is being too informal in the cover letter, your cover letter should be casual but there must be a balance, so using the right tone while staying formal is very important. Avoid being too casual as it might make an impression about you that you are not serious about the hiring process.

Typos

Rereading your cover letter before sending it is very important and will help you in avoiding the most common mistakes. Therefore, clearing out even small mistakes such as grammar or spelling or even forgetting to add some important information or detail can save you.

Research

Research about the Company and the position you are applying for is mandatory for a cover letter. Because once you do the research about the company, it will help you to understand the goals and target it wants to achieve and how you can be an asset to them and helps them achieve these goals through your set of skills and experiences.

Avoid Flattery

Don’t focus too much on the flattery, a little bit of praise is OK but too much flattery is not OK. Instead, you should focus on how you can be a good fit for them and be of value. Furthermore, you will also be adding irrelevant details while praising the company too much and not leaving space for relevant information.

Keep It Short

One of the biggest mistakes candidates do is write a long cover letter which makes the hiring manager or employer irritated while skimming for relevant information. In order to avoid this mistake, make sure your cover letter is concise, clear, and to the point. While keeping it short may lead the recruiter or hiring manager to give it a good look and focus on it.

Don’t Mention Your Past

When writing a cover letter that is free of mistakes you must avoid talking about your past experiences, as the recruiters are interested in now and not in the past. Talking about your previous job or positions or struggles is not beneficial for your cover letter. Therefore, try to focus on your current achievements and how you can be of value in the future.

Failing To Write a Closing

One of the most common mistakes candidates do is Failing to write an impressive closing. When you are writing your cover letter, one of the most important things is that you show the employer your value, strength, and abilities, so your closing should be an impressive one so that your hiring manager or employer is bound to take an action.

Avoid Generic Letter

In order to write an appealing cover letter, avoid the use of a generic template letter, as it will be a huge mistake because recruiters or hiring managers, at a single glance can point out a copied and pasted cover letter. Instead take the time you need to research the company, its goals and targets, and the position you are applying for, and then accordingly customize your cover letter.

Soft skills vs Hard skills

Your hard skills are what recruiters are looking for, for example how your abilities, previous roles, and skills will help a company grow and achieve its targets. One of the worst mistakes candidates do is when to focus more on their soft skills, of course, the position also requires motivation, dedication, and enthusiasm. But highlighting your hard skills and keeping them on top is essential.

Don’t Overload

Writing an extra wordy cover letter is an awful waste of time and recruiters and hiring managers find it as a big mistake. Since they are handling hundreds of job applications and are quite busy so they simply don’t want to waste time going through such overloaded cover letters which are failed in providing with necessary information. Therefore, try to make it short and brief, so that there is high chance that it will be read.

Using The Same Letter

Your cover letter should be tailored to the specific requirements and needs of the company. Using the same letter at every job opportunity is not healthy. Therefore, to avoid this mistake a candidate must customize the cover letter accordingly. Highlight the experiences and capabilities required for the specific position, so that the recruiters can skim those qualities and have a thought about calling you for an interview. Because a cover letter is your chance to further elaborate your skills and experiences which are required for a specific position.

Introduction

When writing a cover letter that is free of mistakes it is crucial that you avoid starting the cover letter with your name, as your name and other information are already mentioned in the resume, you need to be more focused on starting your cover letter with your relevant skill set, experiences or qualification. Because a cover letter provides an overview of who you are, and what you have achieved and connects it to the post you are applying for.

One Page Rule

How to avoid mistakes in a cover letter? Well, it shouldn’t exceed one page, unless you are applying for a managerial or executive position where the potential employers want to know more about your achievements. However, in other cases, there is a very slim chance that a recruiter will see beyond your first page, so make sure that your cover letter is a one-page letter with the most relevant information and highlights your major experiences and skills that will impress the recruiter.

Copying Your Resume

Your resume and your cover letter are entirely different documents. So, one of the most common mistakes candidates do is when they merge both documents. Your resume simply shows your educational background, your work experiences, skills, and achievements, while a cover letter is an opportunity to show employers how you achieved them and how can you further bring them to a specific job position and apply them.

Don’t Make It Personal

A cover letter is an essential document that highlights the experience and the values that you can bring to your organization. While making it personal is a mistake that you need to avoid. Talking too much about yourself or your life story can lead to an impression where a recruiter might think of you as too full of yourself.

Conclusion 

You can also order a professional cover letter from any of the top professional resume and cover letter writing services in UAE. A professional cover letter written by the utmost experienced writers can further increase your chances of landing a dream job.