Wrote wrong name AND date on cover letter, but still got the interview???

Ok, so I was reviewing my upcoming interviews, and looking over what I sent them to make sure I have everything they could ask me covered. So I look at the cover letter I sent to Citigroup. First thing I see, its dated January 2006! Next, I see that I actually sent the WRONG cover letter to them, namely I sent the cover letter that I was supposed to send to UBS. So the name of the company/internship postion that I refer to throughout the cover letter are for the wrong company.

Yet I got the interview for Citigroup. Is this a sick joke on their part to fuck with me for half an hour, or do they simply not read cover letters, even though they were the ones that requested a cover letter?

Also, do you think this is going to bite me in the ass later, and if so, how serious? For example, lets say that they just didn't read my cover letter. And I interview, do ok, and get second rounds. Now the guy who does second rounds reads my cover letter. Is he going to cancel the interview right then and there for such a retarded mistake? How serious is fucking up your cover letters?

 

don't bring it up. they might have discarded your cover letter.

plan how to respond if they bring it up, but don't stress about it now. if they have asked you for an interview that means that you have what it takes on paper, at least.

they aren't going to aske you to interview just to waste their time and take the piss.

 

Rarely do people read cover letters...except this year when someone pointed out that someing was interested "in joining a premier Investment Band," then we started checking all the other letters for entertainment.

I agree with the poster above, they'll only bring your resume to the interview room. I think you're in the clear, but be prepared just in case they ask.

 

is it a waste of time to even write cover letters then? it makes sense, that with the large volume of applications, cover letters aren't read. however, i always see in postings "please send cover letter and resume", so i tend to write a cover letter. am i just wasting my time? should i send resume only?

 

No - not having one is different than having a bad one. If you're doing a big on-campus resume drop, then it 95% doesn't matter b/c there were probably 300+ resumes dropped and people just can't read the cover letters.

Just do it and do it reasonably well in case someone reads it. Also, each cover letter should be unique for each firm - not just the heading, but the actual letter content.

 

In that case, if they ask, and I just say that I accidentally attached the wrong file when I was submitting online, would that be a sufficient excuse (its the truth too).

Maybe I should go the extra step and bring the cover letter that I would've sent to Citigroup too, just to prove to them that it is different and that I did actually write one?

 
Best Response

Cross your fingers and hope for the best. If the bankers actually read your cover letter, you may be in trouble. Senior bankers tend to view it as a sign of sloppiness and lack of attention to detail. Analysts and associates love to catch it to show how attentive they are (and how superior they are to the people interviewing for their jobs). Some will forgive you for it, but others will seize upon it as the only evidence they need to kill your candidacy.

If someone does hit you for it, the best you can do is to say in your most candid, mea culpa voice: "Yes, I realized I attached the wrong file as soon as I sent it. Believe me, I've been kicking myself ever since. The only thing I can say is that making that mistake taught me to never take anything for granted, and triple check everything before hitting the send button. Given how sick I felt after that, I can promise you I'm never going to do anything that stupid again."

Then hope you're dealing with one of the kind, understanding ones.

 

Chill out. The odds are greatly in your favor that you have nothing to worry about. I spelled the name of a bank wrong in one of my cover letters last year, and I was never asked about it (presumably because no one ever bothered to read my cover letter) and ended up receiving an internship offer there.

From talking last year with a friend who's an analyst at a bank, he told me that he had a "resume book" of all the analyst candidates that had submitted their resume from my school. The way he described it, there were just resumes in there, even though that particular bank had asked for both a transcript and cover letter. When the bank respresentatives come to your school to interview you, each interviewer has like 15 candidates to interview that day. You can bet that he/she just briefly looks at those 15 resumes before sitting down in the interview room; I can't imagine he/she reads all 15 cover letters and transcripts too (if he/she's even given these materials by HR in the first place). When I sat down to interview, one of the first questions I usually got was "walk me through your resume," as the interviewer began to read it himself.

The only time I ever even saw my cover letter during an interview was with a boutique, that had a book of the candidates that they were interviewing. Each person had their own tab, with their resume, cover letter, and transcript. I was asked both about my resume, cover letter, and why I got a B in one class lol. But this was a small boutique that was interviewing a very limited number of people, not a huge bulge bracket bank.

I think cover letters can be important in consideration for an interview if they're read, since it's very important to be able to logically express your interest in banking and your skills, and to just be generally literate. If I were reading resumes, I'd want to read the cover letter, particularly after reading some of my friends cover letters lol. But on a practical level, I think that often people who are screening resumes just don't have time to do this (at least at the bulge brackets).

This is just my opinion, but I think a cover letter might be most relevant for applicants from non-native English-speaking countries or non-targets to ensure a high degree of general literacy and clarity of writing. I know that's how the essay portion of the GMAT works at least - supposedly it's only read if your native language isn't English.

I think you can rest easy. You lucked out, so don't worry about it anymore. If by some chance someone actually does read your cover letter now and asks about it, just apologize and say it was a mistake, and offer to send them the cover letter that you actually wrote for Citigroup (trust me, they won't want it).

 

I've got good news for you player... we don't read those things.

Good for you we recently started talking about resume and interview processes but the big thing for you is that it really wont matter much if it was only 6 drops as well.

If the company reads the cover letters of each candidate... get ready for a train wreck of a work place. You'll be working with some seriously scum bag people.

Anyway, just correct it and move on. No use worrying about it, worrying leads to zero results.

If this was on your resume though... you'd be hurt. Resume is scrutinized with a trained eye... Multiple times.

 

haha alright thank you, I really appreciate it. Thankfully my resume is polished and has been looked over by at least 3 people. Note to self though - pay more attention to details

"You rarely have time for everything you want in this life, so you need to make choices. And hopefully your choices can come from a deep sense of who you are." - Mister Rogers
 

Absolutely DO NOT EMAIL HR.

You guys are inspiring a very long post on how to not mess up in your first year but the basic principal is to look at your options.

  1. Let it "slip" and chances are 99/100 they will not catch the mistake because we don't read those things anyway!
  2. Call out the mistake... Now we KNOW you messed up.

Basically why would you highlight a bad point that will likely slip. In all seriousness, this even happens sometimes on pitchbooks etc at the beginning of the year and practically no deal in the history of man kind was lost on a typo that does not change valuations around. Seriously.

It's a funny fine line in finance but the point is this... If you get caught

1) Don't lie and own up to the mistake say something along the lines of "Apologize for the typo" or if they are really liking you say something funny like "Oh wow typical rookie mistake bet the multiples on the refreshed comp sheet would look messed up!" 2) If you don't get caught... You're FREE.

So when you guys all get your offers remember that rule of thumb, the last thing you want to do is be the analyst "calling out his mistakes" after the books have been Printed/Shipped/Sent. There is nothing you can do! All you would be doing is making them think you're bad.

To think about it, this is similar to "checking" to see if you answered your final exams correctly or not after the test, this is Inefficient because you cannot change the Results of your performance. Make sense?

Good luck players.

 

I made a similar mistake at a firm and I ended up still getting the offer. If they saw it and you still got the interview then obviously they were willing to let it slide. When it came up during my superday I didn't make excuses for it, but owned up to my mistake and said that I realized that putting a mistake like that in front of a client would be inexcusable and that it wouldn't happen again.

 

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