Finally took that advice to cut the first 3 paragraphs of my cover letter

I had a friend who hires for a marketing firm read my cover letter last month. She said nobody reads past the first sentence and I should just get to the point. I cut it from 200 words down to 75 and got an interview on Tuesday for the first time in 6 months. Has anyone else tried trimming their application materials way down?

3 comments

3 Comments

johnson.eva6d ago

Yeah but 75 words might be too short, you still need to show them you can actually write.

sean486d agoMost Upvoted

Wait, you think 75 words is too short? That's like three tweets mashed together (and we all know how much people love reading tweets). Honestly, if someone can't make their point in 75 words, they're probably just rambling anyway. Recruiters spend like 30 seconds max on a resume, so keeping it tight makes sense to me.

ross.kim6d ago

Ha, I actually saw some career coach on LinkedIn ranting about this exact thing. They were saying short cover letters show you can edit yourself and cut the fluff, which recruiters apparently love. So maybe 75 words is the sweet spot if you can pack a punch.