Hiring managers don't read every cover letter carefully. They skim, they wince, and they move on. The ones that get attention are the ones that don't do something stupid in the first thirty seconds.
After years on both sides of the hiring process, I can tell you: most cover letters don't fail because they're badly written. They fail because of entirely avoidable errors that signal the candidate wasn't really paying attention. Here's what those errors look like, and how to stop making them.
Addressing it to the wrong company
This is the one that makes hiring managers physically recoil. You've sent a letter that says "I'm excited to join the team at Barclays" to someone at Lloyds. It happens constantly, because people use templates and forget to update them.
The fix is embarrassingly simple: before you hit send, search the document for the previous company's name. Every single time. If you're applying to multiple roles in a day, slow down. One wrong name costs you the application entirely; it signals that this is a batch job and you don't particularly care whether you get this specific role.
If you're managing a high volume of applications, how to track your job applications without losing your mind is worth reading before you dig yourself into this particular hole.
Misspelling the recruiter's name
Close behind the wrong company name comes the wrong — or mangled — person's name. "Dear Sara" when it's Sarah. "Dear Jonathon" when it's Jonathan. It's a small thing, and it's also a very big thing, because it tells the person reading your letter that you didn't bother to check.
If the name is in the job advert, copy and paste it. Don't retype it. If you can't find a name at all, "Dear Hiring Manager" is perfectly acceptable. What isn't acceptable is guessing.
Opening with a sentence nobody wants to read
The single most common opening line in cover letters across the UK is some variation of: "I am writing to apply for the position of X as advertised on Y." The hiring manager already knows this. They posted the job. They're reading your letter.
That opener is pure throat-clearing, and it burns your best real estate. The first line of your cover letter is the most important one; if it says nothing, you've already lost ground.
How to start a cover letter: first lines that get you read covers this in proper detail, but the short version is: start with something specific, something that shows you know the company or the role, or something that earns the next sentence.
Copying the job advert back at them
This one is subtle but deadly. The job advert says "we're looking for someone with strong stakeholder management and experience in fast-paced environments." Your cover letter says "I have strong stakeholder management skills and thrive in fast-paced environments."
You've just proven you can read. That's it.
What the hiring manager wants to see is evidence. Not the vocabulary from their own advert reflected back, but a specific example that shows you've actually done the thing. "I coordinated a product launch across four internal teams under a six-week deadline" is worth ten times more than "I work well under pressure."
This is the difference between a cover letter that confirms your application and one that actually advances it.
Being weirdly formal
There's a version of formality that reads as professional. Then there's the version that reads as if it was written in 1987 by someone who's never spoken to another human being.
"I humbly request your consideration of my application for the aforementioned position" is not impressive. It's off-putting. Nobody talks like this, and nobody wants to hire someone who writes like this, because it suggests they'll communicate the same way with clients and colleagues.
Professional doesn't mean stiff. It means clear, confident and appropriate to context. A conversational register, used with care, is almost always more effective than baroque formality.
Being far too casual
The flip side is the cover letter that reads like a text message. "Hey! I'd love to work for you guys, it looks like an awesome opportunity and I'm super passionate about this space."
Enthusiasm is good. Vagueness dressed up as enthusiasm is not. "Super passionate about this space" says nothing. What specifically draws you to this company, this role, this industry? That's the question your opening needs to answer.
Tone is calibrated to context. A cover letter for a creative agency can be warmer and more direct than one for a regulatory compliance role. Read the job advert and the company's own communications; they'll tell you what register fits.
Telling them what the job will do for you
"This role would give me the opportunity to develop my skills in project management" is a sentence that should never appear in a cover letter. Possibly in an interview, when asked about your goals. Not here.
Your cover letter is not the place to explain how this job fits your five-year plan. It's the place to explain what you bring to the role and why you're a strong fit for the specific problem the company is trying to solve by hiring someone.
The candidate who understands that distinction tends to get called.
Ignoring structure entirely
A cover letter that rambles for four paragraphs with no clear logic is exhausting to read. Hiring managers are busy, and most are reading your letter at speed. Give them a structure they can follow: who you are and why this role, what you bring and where that's been demonstrated, why this company specifically.
That's essentially it. The perfect cover letter structure with a template you can actually use lays this out properly if you want something you can work from directly.
Making it too long
A cover letter is not an essay. It is not a second CV. It should not run to two pages.
One page is the standard. Three focused paragraphs to four shorter ones, ideally no more than 400 words. If you find yourself summarising your entire work history, you've misunderstood the format. The CV does that job; the cover letter makes someone want to read the CV.
If you're also worried the CV itself isn't doing enough work, the 10 CV mistakes that get you overlooked before the first interview is a useful companion read.
Sending a generic letter and hoping for the best
The fastest way to write a bad cover letter is to write one that could apply to any job at any company and assume it'll do. It won't.
Hiring managers can spot a template. The tell is usually the absence of anything specific: no mention of the company's actual work, no connection between your experience and this particular role, nothing that couldn't have been written in ten minutes with no research.
Tailoring doesn't mean rewriting from scratch every time. It means adding two or three sentences that are specific to this company and this role. That alone puts you ahead of a significant portion of the field.
The cover letter is not the place to coast. It's often the first thing that gets read, and it sets the frame for everything that follows. Get the basics right, cut what doesn't earn its place, and treat it like the professional communication it actually is.
Sources
- CIPD, Resourcing and talent planning survey, 2024: https://www.cipd.org/uk/knowledge/reports/resourcing-talent-planning-survey/
- GOV.UK, Writing a cover letter, National Careers Service: https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/careers-advice/cover-letter
- ONS, Labour market overview, UK, April 2026: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/uklabourmarket/latest
- The Guardian, How to write a cover letter that gets you an interview, Guardian Jobs: https://jobs.theguardian.com/article/how-to-write-a-cover-letter/
- TotalJobs, The cover letter report, 2023: https://www.totaljobs.com/advice/cover-letter-report