You just graduated from school, and you have all the enthusiasm, credentials, and clout to back you up. You're ready to take on the task of job seeking, and joining the thousands of other graduates in the rat race. You have your transcript of records with your perfect grades, your recommendation letters from your very encouraging former professors, and a resume detailing both school and extracurricular work. All you need to do is write a cover letter, which is easy.

Think again: your cover letter has to cover all your credentials and make you appear like a star. You might choose to look online for a generic cover letter, or search through writing and journalism books for the perfect letter template for your job application. This may make the job easier for you, but if you succumb to the temptations of a generic cover letter, your transcript, recommendation letters, and resume will be useless.

A cover letter is more than just a summary of things that you have enclosed for your prospective employer to read and browse through. A cover letter will show your personality, your ability to sell yourself, and even your ability to apply the things you learned in school. In other words, a cover letter will do what a transcript, recommendation letters, and resume cannot.

Many young graduates or naïve job applicants often resort to the generic cover letter for their needs. This generic letter, with its non-descript address, boring tone, and often flat body, will bore your prospective employers and earn your application a place in the trash pile. This can be all the more problematic if you consider how many people are vying for the same place as yours: your resume needs to stand out from the rest of the crowd, and to show that you are unique.

In short, a generic cover letter can make you appear like a generic employee: all format and person, but no personality. What company would like to have an employee like that? What you need is a personalized cover letter, with all the elements of a good cover letter that your prospective employer will read through and appreciate.

What are the main mistakes made by generic cover letters? Many of them begin with a non-specific address, such as “Dear Sir,” or “Dear Miss,” or the even more horrendous, “To whom it may concern.” Such a cover letter can make you appear careless, and can show that you know nothing about the company. If you do not take the time to learn more about a company, how can you be more resourceful in the future when your real job will demand it? If you do not take care to make a simple cover letter, how can you be more creative and careful in the future when your real job requires you to do even more demanding tasks?

Many generic cover letters are flat because they expect their reader to go through any attached material, and then make a decision based on the material. What a real cover letter should do is to anticipate a good outcome; if you are writing a cover letter, say that you can be interviewed, and give all your contact information. Anticipate the interview and a positive response from the prospective employer – and sign your name personally at the bottom.

The key to making a good cover letter is to not only look professional, but to be personal, show personality, and stand out. Don't be naïve, and don't be misled by the seeming ease that comes with using a generic cover letter. Write a cover letter on your own and be your enthusiastic but tactful self – and you can get the job that you want.