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Oops.

T14 1L that sent out some applications with a typo on it. Specifically miswrote the date as last year instead of this year. Didn't affect too many before I caught it, but some of the opportunities I really want and have been pulling all the strings for were infected by this mistake.

Anyone out there who made a cover letter typo, perhaps even a mistake in a similar way, who can share if they nonetheless still received interviews/offers despite it?

I'm curious about this not because I'm neurotic about my summer (well, fine, I am, but aren't we all), but whether this is significant enough of a mistake where I ought to hedge my bets by suddenly sending out a massive surge of extra applications (I'll send out a few more anyway, but it's more a matter of magnitude).

Thanks!

P.S. I know this is objectively bad, as we are entering a profession where such things like this are essential. I also know that no one can predict the psychology of the readers of those letters. Rather I'm just looking for empirical data points to compare and utilize.

Anonymous User wrote:Oops.

T14 1L that sent out some applications with a typo on it. Specifically miswrote the date as last year instead of this year. Didn't affect too many before I caught it, but some of the opportunities I really want and have been pulling all the strings for were infected by this mistake.

Anyone out there who made a cover letter typo, perhaps even a mistake in a similar way, who can share if they nonetheless still received interviews/offers despite it?

I'm curious about this not because I'm neurotic about my summer (well, fine, I am, but aren't we all), but whether this is significant enough of a mistake where I ought to hedge my bets by suddenly sending out a massive surge of extra applications (I'll send out a few more anyway, but it's more a matter of magnitude).

Thanks!

I made a typo in my writing sample (wrote "Harm" in a heading where I clearly should have written "Arm"); got a judicial internship offer all the same. Obviously that's different from a cover letter, but it goes to show you that typos aren't necessarily game breakers.

It just depends. Competitive jobs will ding you for it if they catch it, because they will have plenty of typo-free cover letters to choose from. Honestly though a lot of people won't catch it. Typos are a big deal, but people are reading through cover letters and resumes so fast that some typos get through unnoticed.

Don't sweat it -- it's very likely that a legal recruiter / interviewer does not read your cover letter at all.

The cover letter is not even read.

A clerk pointed out a typo in my writing sample during an interview. Offer.

Another time a partner pointed out a typo in my resume, also in the middle of an interview. I smiled and said thank you. Offer.

We should all try to avoid typos, but they're not the end of the world. An incorrect date on your CL doesn't warrant a "massive surge" of additional applications. It'll all be fine.

well, i know for a fact that my cover letters have been read in detail, and i got (friendly, but still) questioned about some of the things i wrote. Also, I got dinged on one mass mail spree because i left one firm's name in the cover letter i sent to the next firm. the hiring associate actually emailed me to tell me that thats why i didn't get an interview. so, lesson: pay serious attention. if theyre not reading your cover letter either youre screwed or your GPA gets you in regardless of what you wrote.

The partner at my firm who reviews resumes actually does read cover letters, and will pitch applications in the trash if they have typos. Partly due to the fact that there is no shortage of qualified applicant, and partly due to the fact that we are a transactional firm and attention to detail is kind of important.

banjo wrote:A clerk pointed out a typo in my writing sample during an interview. Offer.

Another time a partner pointed out a typo in my resume, also in the middle of an interview. I smiled and said thank you. Offer.

We should all try to avoid typos, but they're not the end of the world. An incorrect date on your CL doesn't warrant a "massive surge" of additional applications. It'll all be fine.

I had one typo in a writing sample get pointed out in a callback once. No offer. Rest of the interview was great though.

Not a big deal at all. If you're mailing firms, generally no one will read your cover letter. The only thing that typically goes to attorneys is your resume and transcript.

Honestly, I wouldn't think about it too much, since there is nothing you can do, and there is no answer we can give you. There is a good chance they won't even notice. There is also a small chance that a firm will notice and toss the application, or may notice and still read through your materials. Impossible to know. I know I had a typo in a cover letter and it never came back to bite me.

Just make a habit in the future of printing out the doc, even after reading it 1000 times, and proof it character by character, no matter how long it takes.

kaiser wrote:Honestly, I wouldn't think about it too much

Otherwise you will drive yourself mad, and make yourself depressed

You'll either get it you won't. 50-50 chance.

In my prior life, when I was an employer myself, I had one candidate that I liked enough from the interview and his connections that I ignored a couple typos in his cover letter. That was a mistake that I've not repeated since. All of his work contained errors (could he not see that red line under words?). But that was multiple typos. I might ignore one.

OTOH, I found a couple typos in my writing sample after I sent it to a judge who had requested it. I got the offer.

I got my in-house gig for this summer (1L) with a typo in my cover letter. The attorney I'll be working under was even reading off my cover letter during the interview.

But as everyone is saying, don't worry about it; there's nothing you can do now, and they'll either hire you or they won't. Just remember this feeling next time around so you don't do it again.

Once I spelled the hiring attorney's name wrong in my cover letter for an associate position. Got an interview. It was something like spelling "Killi" as "Kili" so I think that's why it went unnoticed because they were reading so fast.

I had an absolutely hilarious typo in my resume for OCI and it did not really seem to affect anything FWIW.