Worst Cover Letter Ever

Below is the cover letter from an resume I received by email this week:

**************Plan your next getaway with AOL Travel. Check out Today's Hot
5 Travel Deals!
(  — Link to AOL Travel —  )

This email wasn't spam.   There was a resume attached and it was from a job seeker interested in an opportunity.  Other than deleting the link, the text of the cover letter is complete, exactly as I received it.

This isn't really a cover letter.  It's the signature that AOL automatically puts in every email sent out.  It would not have taken much time to put in a message.  At the least, the job seeker could have written something like this:

To whom it may concern,

Please accept my resume for consideration.

<Job Seeker's Name>

My version would be a bad cover letter, but significantly better than just an AOL Travel advertisement.  What the job seeker sent was just terrible.

My Reaction

When I opened the email and saw an ad, my first reaction was to delete it.  The one word subject, "Resume," caught my eye right before I hit delete. I realized this was actually a submission from a candidate and not spam.  I very surprised that this didn't end up in my spam folder – it is just an ad.  Somehow, it slipped through. 

As I write this, I haven't decided if I'm going to open the resume.  The "cover letter" has given me enough information to know whether I want to represent this candidate.  Even if the resume looks good, I have to question the professionalism of a candidate that sends each resume with just a travel ad.  If they aren't willing to spend a few seconds typing a short message, how committed are they to their job search and their career? 

Bottom line: Make your resume submission a persuasive sales pitch for you – not for AOL.