How to Construct an Effective Cover Letter

How to Construct an Effective Cover Letter, By Ken Docherty, CPRW www.expertresumewriter.ca

For almost every job, a cover letter is an essential part of the application. Effectively constructing your cover letter can open the door to the interview. As a provider of resume services in Calgary, I can attest to numerous examples of cover letters that fast track an application to the "No, thank you!" file. Although I will customize the structure, tone, and content of each letter to suit my resume client’s needs and overall objectives, I’ve put together a general overview for you should you need a basic ‘how to’ when drafting your own cover letter.

Appearance and Format

Help your cover letter to stand out by keeping it clean, simple, and professional. Above all, carefully proofread, so it is free of grammatical and spelling errors. Self-editing is not trustworthy, so enlist help from a friend or family member, or from me, your resume consultant in Calgary. Double-check the spelling of the company's name and person to whom you are addressing the letter.

Follow standard business formatting guidelines, as seen in this image. For a digital version, format your cover letter and resume as a PDF. For a hard copy, consider using unique paper stock and custom letterhead.

Tone and Structure

The tone should be positive, direct, and professional; it should also be free of quips and idioms. Moreover, write to a person, not an entire organization. Focus the letter on how you will add value to the company, not your skills and experience. Three to four paragraphs is an appropriate length. 

First paragraph: Introduce yourself and discuss why you want the job. Briefly mention your most relevant experience and emphasize why the company or the job interests you. Be specific!

·         Avoid generalizations such as, "… because your company is a leader in XX industry…" or "…I want to work with a quality organization…" 

·        Instead, mention something specific about the company that intrigues you. For example, "…because xyz Company has recently been awarded “preferred vendor status” with xyz…" or "…having read the 5-year strategic plan outlined on your website, I passionately believe that I have a winning combination of technical skills and business nous needed to help you attain those targets in your target market…"

Second paragraph: Next, discuss how your unique experience, skills, and attributes will add value to the company. Look for clues about what to highlight in the job posting. For example, if an employer asks for an outgoing personality, mention you enjoy working closely with clients, because of xyz reason. If the job requires specific technical skills, mention your certifications and summarize your experience with those skills.

Third paragraph:  Depending on your style and the job, you might want to include a third paragraph or a short list of bullet points to highlight specific examples that substantiate key points in the second paragraph. Share specific examples that are not included on your resume or CV. Be prepared to discuss these examples in detail during an interview.

Conclusion: Graciously close by thanking the reader for his or her time. Always include when and how to contact you, and insert a statement such as "I look forward to speaking with you in person about this position."

Make it Count

While not every employer requests a cover letter, it is always wise to compose and send one with your resume as it can help differentiate you from other applicants. Aside from standard formatting, you might also personalize the letter and make it unique by adding a head shot, links to your social profiles, or link to your online portfolio or website.  

Above all, be positive, specific, and direct to make your cover letter a worthwhile read and an effective tool to pique the employer's interest. For help constructing your cover letter, consider me as your personal professional resume and cover letter writer in Calgary!

Life Begins At.......

With the anticipated retirement of a significant tranche of the workforce and a lack of suitably skilled or experienced professionals to fill the void, there is a growing realization among many HR professionals that sending older employees out to pasture despite the expertise cited in their resumes isn’t such a good idea after all!

Not so long ago Statistics Canada stated that the number of persons aged 65 years and over doubled between 1981 and 2009 and is expected to double again by 2036.  They also stated that there will be more seniors than children (under 15 years) in Canada for the first time ever, at some point between 2015 and 2021.  Given the anticipated shortfall of skilled labour, it would seem that there is a clear need to develop strategies aimed at retaining employees approaching retirement age.

So what do you do if you are an older employee who has been released by your employer?  In my experience, the older generation have tended to stick with the same company for many years, sometimes decades.  In situations like this, there often has never been a need to have a resume.  Taking a step back from a 20-30 year long career to contemplate what you have to offer a new employer can be a daunting task.  Of course, the fact that you have worked for one employer for so long, in itself, solicits questions at interview as to how you will adapt to working with new processes, policies, procedures, products and people. 

How do you structure such as resume?  Clearly, you do not want spend 3 pages explaining your day-to-day work activity as it was 20 years ago. You will have to edit your career down to two, high-impact pages of successes.  Not an easy task for most people.  Nonetheless, if you intend for your resume to be read, that is what you must accomplish.

Working with a professional to develop a coherent personal brand, high-impact resume strategy, and perfecting your interview skills can go a long way to helping you understand what you can offer, what you want, and the best way to go about getting it.

Get Noticed! Get Hired!

Your resume lands on a desk, it’s 3pm, and the hiring manager about to review your document is experiencing a mid-afternoon energy slump, is counting down the minutes to 5pm, and has another 299 resumes on her desk that look just like yours.  Fancy your chances? 

One of my recent resume writing clients told me that she was about to sift through 300 resumes to find 4 or 5 potential candidates for a customer service role in her department.  How do you stand out in a sea of resumes?  It’s tough!  One way to guarantee you won’t is by submitting a document that looks like everyone else, sounds like everyone else, and to all intents and purposes, may as well be anyone else.

Three major errors people make with their resume:

1)      Reliance on internet template designs / resume writing software

2)      Too much telling and very little selling

3)      Spelling errors / grammatical mistakes / font size

Most documents I have encountered would tick all three boxes. The design of the document is central to making that all important first impression.  To be clear, I’m referring to the actual layout and casing for your content, not the need to adorn your document with shooting stars, furry animals or pretty butterflies!

If a resume is too hard to read, it will meet acquaintance with the corporate shredder in short order.  A smothering of block text, tiny font sizes, and content that does nothing more than list duties, contributes to a hiring manager’s decision on whether or not to trash your document, shred it, or crush it up into a tiny ball and throw it over their head!

A winning resume is focused, concise, elegant, and has the power to articulate the extent of your previous professional contributions in such a way as to make your value added potential plainly obvious to the hiring manager.

What are you waiting for?  Get on it, and make sure your resume is as unique as you are, or at the very least make sure you ‘SELL’ your skills instead of merely ‘tell’ us about your duties.

End-to-End

I received a delightful email from a former client informing me that he had secured his dream job!  His new employer is located 10 minutes from his home, are a major player in his field of specialty, and the role offers a significant increase in scope, responsibility and of course money!

The client first approached me with a job specification and requirements portfolio issued to him by an international executive recruitment firm.  The data set outlining the position requirements and ideal candidate specification was thorough, complex and demanded a candidate of the very highest caliber.  The brief went on to detail part of the recruiting strategy which sought to attract local, national and international candidates for the position.

I accepted the request  to work with my client on the project and immediately began the consultation process which was structured around the requirements of the role.  My client's resume was in need of a complete re-design and re-structure due to the fact that it didn't reflect at least 40% of his actual professional skills and experience, which upon discovery, became crucial to the overall success of his application.

Phase one focused entirely on the resume and cover letter creation, which won him an interview with the executive recruiter leading the international search.  As soon as he was notified that his application had won him an interview with the President of the hiring firm, we proceeded to phase 2 - the interview coaching session.  This proved to be invaluable, as although my client was a highly capable, intelligent and forthright individual, he had not been in an interview situation for almost a decade, and it showed!  After the mock interview we conduct as part of our 2 hour coaching session, we discussed method, structure, interviewer strategy, and what they're looking for as well as the errors made during our mock interview.

I was delighted to hear that he had dazzled the President and associates, as well as receiving his gratitude for the part Vancouver Resume Writing & Interview Coaching had played in his preparation and execution of the process.

He was a great guy to work with and I wish him well in his new role!

Content is King!

During a recent association event I got talking to an old acquaintance who happens to be the CFO of a local junior resource company. We discussed career issues, hiring practices and resume writing, specifically, writing your own resume.

Having worked closely with this professional in my previous life as an executive recruiter, I had been responsible for re-writing his resume, providing interview coaching and actually placing him in a position he still holds.

During our discussion he gave me insight into the way some people in his network go about preparing themselves for career advancement and how some of them didn't see the value in working with a professional to help them with this process.

He wasn't complaining, as although his peers shared similar professional and experiential characteristics, he knew that he stood head and shoulders above his executive level competition on account of his superior personal branding strategy and portfolio of professionally crafted documents.

Apparently, some of his peers had scoured the internet for "templates" and inserted choice words and phrases into the slots in a bid to produce a document that at least looked like it had been formatted appropriately!

Further, how often have you been asked to tell someone what you do day to day and can only muster 3 or 4 sentences? Try it now. What do you do on a day to day basis? Do the sentences you have just articulated do you justice? Would you rely upon them to accurately convey the extent of your current level of responsibility? Are you confident they will set you apart from your peers and every other job competitor?

Such folly fails to appreciate that a significant part of the job of a resume writer is to extract minute detail and construct a narrative that incorporates the needs and wants of the hiring manager or executive designated to make a determination as to who gets selected for interview...and who does not. Templates are for the masses. Let everyone else use them!

By working with a consultant who has an extensive background in recruiting, placement, resume writing and interview techniques, we can uncover the detail you need to do you justice in front of the hardest task master of all - the hiring manager!

It's not just the way the resume looks - it's the content that counts. As the saying goes...Content is King!