Why Your Cover Letter Gets Rejected (5 MISTAKES TO AVOID)
About this video
Jeff dissects a cover letter of his own that got him rejected from almost every company, extracting five mistakes. One: addressing it to no human (‘Dear Deloitte Recruiter’). Citing career coach Austin Belcsak, he advises addressing the direct manager of the role or the most senior person on the team, found via LinkedIn search with people, company, and location filters — and checking profiles for mutual connections or interests to mention in a cold message. Two: grammar mistakes and typos; he says studies show 80% of hiring managers and recruiters treat spelling errors as deal breakers, and cites Ali Abdaal’s experience reviewing 2,000+ resumes. He shares a ChatGPT prompt that lists every fix in before-and-after columns, plus a tip to have five people proofread and to plant an obvious mistake near the end to test whether they actually read it. Three: a weak hook. He recommends spending 50% of the time on the opening, applying the test that swapping in a competitor’s name should break it; his stronger example cites attending five career fairs and speaking with over 20 professionals before concluding EY stands out, built around a pain point identified by prompting ChatGPT with the job description. Four: vague claims instead of tangible results — quantify impact, e.g. rewriting a client-relationships line into a 96 client satisfaction score versus a company-wide benchmark of 85; never lie, since managers value the effort to find numbers. Five: hygiene — never include your full street address (privacy and discrimination risk), avoid industry acronyms and jargon, and keep the letter under two pages. A bonus tip: don’t start from scratch; he links the good cover letter PDF for free.
Key takeaways
- Address the letter to a real person — ideally the role’s direct manager or the team’s most senior member — found through LinkedIn people search
- Proofread ruthlessly: he cites 80% of hiring managers treating spelling errors as deal breakers; use a ChatGPT before/after prompt and have five people review it
- Spend 50% of your time on the hook, and test it by swapping in a competitor’s name — if it still makes sense, it is too generic and self-centered
- Replace vague duty descriptions with quantified results, such as a 96 client satisfaction score against an 85 company benchmark
- Observe cover letter hygiene: no full street address, no unexplained industry jargon or acronyms, and never more than two pages
Episode details: published July 18, 2023 · 6:57 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Jeff Su’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.
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