Amount of targeting in cover letter Forum

[Republicrat]

Hello everyone. Long time lurker, first time poster. Nice to meet you all!

I had a question pertaining to CL's. As I am gearing up to start writing all of my cover letters, and sending off Mass mailing and OCI applications, I was wondering how much targeting I should put in each of my cover letters!

I have a full-time internship as well as volunteer responsibilities that I have on the weekends so my time is basically limited to everyday after six and before bedtime at around midnight. Even at peak efficiency, I can't turn out more than 10 cover letters every night, because of the amount of firm specific information iPad and each.

I was just wondering if it would be more intelligence, and more efficient, to send off more form cover letters that I just change one or two sentences max.

I understand that this is a very important step, because I want to make sure that I'm not the same as everyone else, but I also don't want to send out only 40 to 50 mass mass mailings because I didn't have enough time to make more…I want to send out well over 100.

Thoughts?

[jess]

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[Buck.Shot]

Hopefully you are better at proofreading your cover letters than your posts.

[Republicrat]

Holy crap. Scouts honor, I wrote that out on my iPad. I proofread it once, didn't catch anything.

Did my iPad just self-advertise?!

But, thanks for the help JessUF.

[Anonymous User]

I have form cover letters. I only change 1.) address + greeting, 2.) name of firm in the first paragraph (e.g. I am interested in a 2013 summer associate position with B & H), and 3.) first sentence of the second paragraph that explains why i like that specific firm. Everything else remains the same.

What do you talk about generally in the "why I like specific firm" paragraph? They're work in particular practice areas? Reputation regarding their culture? Location?

[target]

Holy crap. Scouts honor, I wrote that out on my iPad. I proofread it once, didn't catch anything.

Did my iPad just self-advertise?!

But, thanks for the help JessUF.

It's more your grammar/writing than typos.

[NotMyRealName09]

Holy crap. Scouts honor, I wrote that out on my iPad. I proofread it once, didn't catch anything.

Did my iPad just self-advertise?!

But, thanks for the help JessUF.

Ipads suck for internet forum posting. Or typing anything, really. Or anything other than web-browsing.

[Anonymous User]

Hello everyone. Long time lurker, first time poster. Nice to meet you all!

I had a question pertaining to CL's. As I am gearing up to start writing all of my cover letters, and sending off Mass mailing and OCI applications, I was wondering how much targeting I should put in each of my cover letters!

I have a full-time internship as well as volunteer responsibilities that I have on the weekends so my time is basically limited to everyday after six and before bedtime at around midnight. Even at peak efficiency, I can't turn out more than 10 cover letters every night, because of the amount of firm specific information iPad and each.

I was just wondering if it would be more intelligence, and more efficient, to send off more form cover letters that I just change one or two sentences max.

I understand that this is a very important step, because I want to make sure that I'm not the same as everyone else, but I also don't want to send out only 40 to 50 mass mass mailings because I didn't have enough time to make more…I want to send out well over 100.

Thoughts?

This is meant to be constructive, but you write long-winded. I can sympathize. I majored in philosophy in undergrad, so brevity did not come natural to me. It still doesn't. But it is a valuable legal skill, something I try and work on continuously. If you use a PC for typing, in Word turn on grammar check in addition to spell check - it's pretty good.

People on this forum can be mean, but there is something off in how you write. I'm no English major, but look at this sentence of yours - it will drive legal readers insane - too many words.


"I had a question pertaining to CL's."

No, you have a question about cover letters. Why use two words (twelve letters) when one word (five letters) will do?

"I have a full-time internship as well as volunteer responsibilities that I have on the weekends so my time is basically limited to everyday after six and before bedtime at around midnight."

That too can be shortened and clarified - "I have a full-time internship as well as weekend volunteer responsibilities. My free time is limited to everyday between six and midnight."

Same exact ideas, 10 less words (18 less letters/characters).

If someone went through things I've written here and did the same thing, I'd be torn apart, I know it. But if your cover letters are written in the same manner, something just seems off. Write your text, then look it over and find places to shorten. Lots of commas? Add a period instead. Extra words? Eliminate, they conceal your point. I know I sound like a dick, but there it is. Good luck.

[ben4847]

I think that 1 tailored one is worth about 10 form ones.

[jess]

.

[LOLyer]

I personally had several generic cover letters, each derived from the same initial cover letter (I've been accumulating them for a while). Each of the generic cover letters was tailored to a particular type of internship (e.g. litigation, M&A, judicial, etc.). I would send each firm a generic cover letter that corresponded with one of their major practice areas, and simply edit the names.

However my mass mailings didn't net me any results.... go figure.