Should you send the same cover letter to several banks?

I'm based in Europe and plan on applying for a SA spot at a couple of banks in London and was wondering whether or not I should send the same cover letter to all banks? Provided of course that I change the names of the bank in each one and write 2-3 sentences why I'd like to work for this bank in particular

Apologies if there is already a thread on this, I searched the forums and couldn't find anything so if I missed something feel free to post a link

 
Best Response

Op, yes you can use the same cover letter for multiple banks. Other than the obvious things to change as you mentioned (bank name, address, program you're applying to, recruiter name / position), you can individualize each bank by adding a few more things (like the 2-3 or more sentences). When exploring the opportunities at each bank, I'm sure you've spoken to individuals from each of the respective banks- you can add their names in and add a common theme that you've heard from them (e.g, and from talking to these bankers I've learned about the collegial atmosphere of the bank). Also you can describe the structure of the bank / program to explain you're interests. For example, for independent advisory shops (think evr/cv/ghl/roth) you can say something to the fact that you are interested in the ability of the bank to provide independent unbiased advisory services and partake in their generalist model. For BBs, say you are interested in their global platform, top notch training programs, and / or ability to learn about all of the different banking products. There's also some of the banks that are smaller that have capital markets and advisory and you can say something to the fact that you're interested in a smaller bank that can work on big deals or MM deals that still has the ability to provide the full array of products. Hope that helps and feel free to pm me with further comments.

 

FWIW when I get a pack of resumes and cover letters, I'll read the resumes but my extent of review for the cover letters is a "Control-F" for other banks on the street.....make sure your you run a spell check, cite the right bank, and have no glaring grammar errors. A good cover letter won't get you an interview but a bad one can cost you one.

 
Dat Guy:
FWIW when I get a pack of resumes and cover letters, I'll read the resumes but my extent of review for the cover letters is a "Control-F" for other banks on the street.....make sure your you run a spell check, cite the right bank, and have no glaring grammar errors. A good cover letter won't get you an interview but a bad one can cost you one.

Understood, thanks for the help!

 

If I were to see a cover letter (which I don't - my firm has a strict no cover-letter policy), which was boilerplate, you know where it would go? The trash.

GoldenCinderblock: "I keep spending all my money on exotic fish so my armor sucks. Is it possible to romance multiple females? I got with the blue chick so far but I am also interested in the electronic chick and the face mask chick."
 

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