5 cover letter mistakes that kill your application (and how to fix them)

Cover letters have a bad reputation: many people consider them obsolete, yet most UK postings and around 30% of US postings still require one. A good cover letter alone doesn't get you hired — but a bad one is enough to eliminate a strong candidate. Here are the 5 mistakes that kill your cover letter, and how to fix them concretely.

Quick UK vs US note before we start

Cover letter conventions differ subtly between the two markets:

• UK: more formal. Optional return address top right, "Dear Mr Smith" (no period after Mr) or "Dear Sir/Madam". Closing matches: "Yours sincerely" (named) or "Yours faithfully" (Sir/Madam). 1 page max. Still widely expected.
• US: more direct. "Dear Hiring Manager" or "Dear Ms. Smith" (period after Ms.) is fine. Closing is "Sincerely," followed by name. 1 page max. Optional in ≈70% of tech/corporate roles, expected in academia / federal / non-profit / executive search.

The five mistakes below apply equally to both markets.

Mistake 1: rewriting your CV in prose

This is the most common mistake. The candidate paraphrases their roles chronologically: "I first worked at X as Y, then at Z as W..." The recruiter already has this information in front of them. Reading the same thing twice makes them close the PDF before page two.

What the cover letter should do instead: pick 2 or 3 experiences relevant to the target role and turn them into a narrative. Not a summary — a story that shows what you learned or solved, and why it matters for this specific role.

Before

Graduated with an MBA in 2019, I first worked at Tesco as a department supervisor, then at Sainsbury's as a regional manager, before joining Waitrose as a store manager.

After

Three years moving from department to regional management in supermarket retail taught me one thing: a store only works if the team is aligned before opening. That obsession with the morning briefing is what helped me grow team revenue 17% over 18 months at Waitrose — and it's what I'd bring to your Store Director role.

Same candidate, two different worlds.

Mistake 2: talking about yourself instead of the company

Count the "I" in your letter. If you have 25 of them and zero specific mention of the company beyond its name in the subject line, you have a problem. The recruiter wants to know why you + us works — not just who you are.

The right ratio: as many sentences about the company / role / sector as sentences about yourself. Reference a recent project they've shipped, a value they advertise on their site, a market shift relevant to them. Five minutes of research is enough.

Before

I'm passionate about digital marketing and have always wanted to work for a large, dynamic company. I believe this role would allow me to grow.

After

Your relaunch of the organic skincare line earlier this year stood out for the bold bet on TikTok as the primary channel. That kind of media-mix pivot is exactly what I've been working on for two years at [previous employer], and where I'd want to keep going.

Mistake 3: clichés that mean nothing

"Dynamic and motivated", "team player", "results-driven", "thought leader", "go-getter". These phrases are so overused they've lost all meaning. Worse: they signal to the recruiter that you didn't take time to think about your own specificity.

Simple rule: every adjective you apply to yourself must be followed by concrete proof. No proof = delete the adjective.

Before

Dynamic, rigorous and with excellent team spirit, I'm a self-starter and results-driven professional.

After

When my support team saw tickets explode during our CRM migration in March, I proposed we run the old and new systems in parallel for 3 weeks instead of cutting over all at once. We kept NPS stable through the transition.

One specific story is worth ten empty adjectives.

Mistake 4: the wall of text

Beyond one page maximum, the letter is skimmed or ignored. Many candidates write a page and a half to "say everything". Inverse effect: the recruiter remembers the weak passages instead of the strong ones.

Structure that fits on one page:

• Hook (2-3 lines): why this company, why this role, why now.
• Why you (1 paragraph, 4-6 lines): 1 or 2 concrete achievements aligned with the need.
• Why them (1 paragraph, 3-5 lines): what you've understood of their context and how you'd contribute.
• Close (2 lines): availability + openness to a conversation.

If you go over, cut sentences starting with "Moreover", "Additionally", "Furthermore" first. Usually pure filler.

Mistake 5: zero personalisation

Sending the same letter to 30 postings is obvious at a glance. The recruiter identifies a generic letter by the second sentence. By the 50th recycled application, your file becomes interchangeable with any other.

Minimum viable personalisation:

1. Company name mentioned at least twice (not just in the subject line).
2. Exact role title in the first paragraph.
3. One sentence proving you read the posting (reference a specific responsibility or challenge it mentions).
4. One sentence proving you visited their site or read a recent article about them.

Proper personalisation takes 10 minutes per application, not an hour. But it's the 10 minutes that separate the "to read" pile from the "next" pile.

A US-specific note: quantification in the letter too

US recruiters expect the same quantification discipline in the cover letter as in the resume. Don't just say "led a successful product launch" — say "led the launch of a product that hit $1.2M ARR in 6 months". UK readers accept slightly less aggressive numbers but still appreciate concrete outcomes over vague statements.

In practice with ShotCV

Personalising 5 letters a week becomes draining fast. ShotCV's cover letter generation starts from your existing CV + the target job posting to produce a letter that avoids the 5 mistakes above:

• No CV repetition: the letter extracts 2-3 relevant achievements and turns them into a narrative.
• Explicit company reference via job posting parsing.
• Zero clichés: the model is briefed to ban empty phrases.
• One page maximum, formatted ready to print or export to PDF.
• Auto-detects target market (US or UK) and applies the right tone, opening, closing, and spelling.
• Automatic personalisation per posting, no copy-paste.

You keep the final touch to adjust the tone, but the foundation is built in 30 seconds instead of 30 minutes. And because the letter is grounded in a CV already adapted to the posting (via the refit), full-application consistency is guaranteed.

Conclusion

A good cover letter respects three simple rules: tell a story, don't summarise; talk about them as much as about you; fit on one page without filler. Eliminate these 5 mistakes and your letter shifts from "formality" to "tipping argument" in the recruiter's decision. And if you're applying at volume, automating the foundation frees up time to polish the details that actually matter.