Making sure you have ticked all of the boxes when applying for a role, and sprucing up a CV with a relevant cover letter before application.
What you shouldn’t do in it
Practical tips – cover letter, resume and beyond
As Morpheus told Neo in the Matrix, many rules were made to be bent, many rules were meant to be broken. There’s many ways to look at this when constructing your CV and cover letter.
How long should a good cover letter be?
It’s very flexible, but there are some golden rules. Don’t use too many graphics, don’t include too much blurb, just keep it nice and simple. Many hiring managers and recruiters will come up with “this is my pet peeve”. Every hiring manager has their little things they prefer and don’t like, and you can’t be a mind reader. You just have to put your best foot forward. Do something and do it well, you still might get their attention.
What about content in the cover letter?
Be specific – we recommend citing accomplishments and responsibilities. This goes for the cover letter and the CV. You can link the two nicely within your documentation when applying for a job. Talk about an accomplishment, how you grew an audience, an interesting campaign you’re proud of, for example.
Make sure you’re connecting the dots between your experience and the job that you are applying for. This is really important. We can’t always tell how your background is relevant, especially for career changers. If you’re going for a job you’re not doing now, you want to make sure you’re expressing what it is you bring to the table for the job you are applying for, especially if it is not immediately obvious.
Make sure you are tailoring your response for the organisation. We often think about those candidates who send off generic CV’s and you hear stories where they’re not getting any responses to their applications. It’s often because you’re sending off the same application to multiple people! Try to make the application catered to the role you apply for. It’s going to make the difference when it comes to getting the hiring manager’s attention. You want to prompt the hiring manager to think, “this is a person I want to talk to.”
Writing in the third person
A little tactic is to write a first draft in the third person. Imagine you are writing a reference letter for yourself. Or just use your last performance review as a first draft of your cover letter in the third person. This really does work!
Polish every touchpoint!
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