When I see “please attach or copy and paste a cover letter” I read “tell me why you’re better than the 100 other people who applied for this position in 500 words or less, no pressure.” It’s terrifying, and I hate it.

You would think I would love cover letters because I’m a writer and should enjoy writing about myself. Well you would be wrong. I guess that’s it’s nice to send more than a resume and explain why you only worked somewhere for three months, and I guess it’s nice to explain what you really did at a job. So it can be a good way to set yourself apart from everyone else who has the exact same qualifications as you.

But I still hate it. I get it but I hate it.

It’s incredibly nerve-wracking, but you have to do it. I have one stock cover letter that has my basic job experience outlined but I end up going back through and changing everything for each open position anyway, so each application ends up taking 15 or 20 minutes. I always get excited when I see an application that only asks for a resume but that makes me nervous at the same time because a resume is easier to overlook.

It’s a vicious cycle that is seemingly never ending, but there isn’t really a better way to do things. Basically I just have to suck it up and do it but I would rather write a post complaining about how much I hate cover letters than actually write a cover letter. I guess I can’t avoid it for long seeing as I’m getting to the end of this post. Ugh, okay I’ll get back to applying.