A quote from a cover letter I read many years ago: "I believe my
background in communications would be very detrimental to this job."
Reading this, I thought to myself, "I couldn't agree more!"

On a more serious note, aside from egregious errors like the one above,
the following cover letter problems are very common:
- A cover letter that is too general, is not specific to the job being
advertised, or even worse, is clearly meant for a job in another field.
Example: I recently received a cover letter that stated, "Your company
is looking for someone who loves to do X. I love to do X." We weren't
looking for someone to do X, and so this person didn't get an interview.
- A cover letter all about why the applicant wants the job, not about
why the hiring organization might want the applicant. Some information
about why the applicant wants the job is important, especially (in my
view) for intern candidates and part-time positions, because at the
salaries we offer, they're certainly not here for the money.  But the
whole cover letter should not be about the applicant's desires; there
needs to be information about how the applicant's qualifications match
up with the qualifications in the job description.

My philosophy on resumes: If no two jobs postings are identical, then no
two resumes you send out should be identical.  Every resume you send
should be tailored to the job announcement.  I know this can be a lot of
work when you are job hunting and applying for many positions, but it is
worth it. This is especially true when the position available is an
entry level one, for which the hiring manager may get thirty or more
resumes but plans to interview only a handful of applicants.

Last, as someone who reviews many resumes for internships and part-time
positions, I want to echo the advice of previous posters: grammar (not
grammer!) and spelling are important.

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