Page 1 of 1

Forgot a period in 20 of my cover letters

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2014 2:14 am
by DUBcity
am I super effed?

Re: Forgot a period in 20 of my cover letters

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2014 2:25 am
by DoveBodyWash
where is the missing period? in the middle of paragraph or at the end?

ETA: I don't think u're FUCKED either way or anything. Missing period will be more noticeable if it's in middle of paragraph.

Re: Forgot a period in 20 of my cover letters

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2014 2:28 am
by Anonymous User
DUBcity wrote:am I super effed?
From what I hear, no one reads them. Most people review your resume/transcript and ignore your other materials. I think there was an interview where I referenced my cover letter and basically received a blank stare.

Hopefully it wasn't in the first sentence or somewhere else noticeable, but I think you'll be fine.

Re: Forgot a period in 20 of my cover letters

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2014 8:18 am
by AreJay711
I had a blatant typo on my resume for OCI. Maybe it had a marginal effect but wasn't a huge deal.

Re: Forgot a period in 20 of my cover letters

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2014 9:27 am
by Anonymous User
For 1L OCI, I applied to a single firm. I listed one past work experience as being in "Pennsylvania, PA" (meaning to put Philadelphia). Still got a callback.

I'd imagine, as with most things, you care more than anyone else. Like 2/20 will actually catch it. Maybe one of them will care. Don't have typos if you can help it, it's enough to get you dinged when you shouldn't be. But unless it's egregious, it's probably going to be skimmed over and missed in most cases. As far as typos go, a period in a cover letter is pretty survivable.

Re: Forgot a period in 20 of my cover letters

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2014 10:28 am
by LRGhost
I repeated a word in my cover letter. Jumped out at me months later. Didn't matter and interviewers actually skimmed my cover letter in front of me. You'll notice more than others A period isn't a bid deal.

Re: Forgot a period in 20 of my cover letters

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2014 10:34 am
by ResIpsa21
Super effed, no. Most firms definitely don't read cover letters, and many who do will skim and not notice. I would guess anyone who notices WILL care, though, because OCI is more about eliminating potential candidates than it is about selecting them. For example, between screeners and callbacks, my office (V40) will have an associate review a candidate's writing sample for typographical, grammatical, and bluebooking errors. You might be in trouble at a firm that cares about this sort of thing -- but most probably don't. I'd estimate your missing period will disqualify you from between 5% to 15% of the firms you applied to.

Re: Forgot a period in 20 of my cover letters

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2014 2:44 pm
by DUBcity
Thanks everyone that makes be feel much better. I was goin crazy debating in my head the pluses and minuses of sending individual emails with a cover that had a period.

And it was the second to last sentence of the second to last body paragraph (have 4 short body paragraphs).

Re: Forgot a period in 20 of my cover letters

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2014 10:58 am
by MURPH
In 1L I made a resume with my name, phone, address and email in the header. I used it, updated it and kept on using it. I put the wrong email address. Didn't notice 'til 3L.

Re: Forgot a period in 20 of my cover letters

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2014 11:29 am
by Johann
fix the typo, and at oci hand them physical copies of fixed cover letter with all your materials. you'll be fine.