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Here's a tip that seems like it should be obvious, but apparently isn't: Don't tell your life story in your cover letter or resume. Here are 2 examples that I've had recently (position is for a medical writer):
1. The applicant started her cover letter by saying something like, "Although I do not have any professional experience with medicine, I do have personal experience with it because I have [insert bad gastrointestinal disease]." (I forget the specific disease she had.) She then went on for the entire 1 1/2-page letter describing the disease and her experience with it in excruciating detail. It was TMI to the extreme.
2. The applicant wrote a 2 1/2 page cover letter, rambling on and on about how her parents discouraged her from being an English major because writers don't make any money, and said something along the lines of "I don't want to go into the business world and be miserable like my brother is because he hates his job even though he makes a lot of money." It's ok to say how much you like the profession in your cover letter, but (1) keep it to 1 paragraph or less, and have concrete examples, and (2) no one cares about your brother and how miserable he is.
So, just remember, you are not writing a letter to a friend, you are writing it to a potential employer. Be professional (and succinct)!
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