One time, I was working to fill a marketing executive position and received dozens of cover letters and resumes from potential applicants.

As I was reading the letters, I noticed that two of the applicants had sent in nearly identical letters. Obviously, both of these candidates had used a free cover letter from a book or the Internet.

Knowing that the content of the cover letter was taken from a random, free cover letter, source made me doubt the truth of the claims that the candidate’s made in their letters. Furthermore, since the position required a great deal of report-writing, someone who couldn’t even write a simple argument about their own qualifications probably wouldn’t be a strong fit.

Since it was a competitive position, I was looking for reasons to eliminate candidates from the pool instead of reasons to include candidates, so those two job-searchers who obviously used free cover letters did not get interviews.