Article 132 of brown.cs.stupid:
Path: cocoa.brown.edu!art054
From: art054@cs.brown.edu (Loring Holden)
Newsgroups: brown.cs.stupid
Subject: Cover letter no-no's
Date: 15 Aug 1995 19:11:58 GMT
Organization: Brown University Department of Computer Science
Lines: 34
Message-ID: <40qrhu$3da@cocoa.brown.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: amy.cs.brown.edu

For cathartic and (hopefully) humor purposes I share the following with you.
Names have been changed to protect the innocent (basically everyone involved
except me)...

A vice president of engineering at a computer company gave me a name of someone 
at a Big Graphics Company who was looking to hire someone from Brown.  My cover 
letter began:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Smith
Big Graphics Company
XXXXXXXX
XXXXXXX, XX, XXXXX

Dear Mr. Smith,
Tim XXXXX  from XXX XXXX gave me your name and urged me to contact you about
the possibility of employment with Big Graphics Company.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Turns out that I had gotten John Smith's name wrong, but I was given the wrong
name.  The real problem was that I was given the lead by TOM, not TIM.

I guess the conversation went something like this:

John Smithers (from Big Graphics Company):  I got a letter from someone who said
they knew you, but he got my name wrong.  He also got your name wrong, do
you really know him?

Tom:  Err, no.

I'll have to overcome a lot to ever get a job at Big Graphics Company, I
guess. :-)

Loring