My Resume & Cover Letter Pt.

3
Cover Letters

your name & contact information
The main goal is to make it look professional.
Avoid trying to be too creative or original –
especially if you’re not good with graphics,
please stick to something more traditional!
HEADER
Brand your resume with a professional-looking header at
the top of your resume.
Create it in the “header” section of MS Word so it appears the
exact same way on both your cover letter and your resume
(both pages if applicable).
Include:
 Your preferred first and last name
 Your phone number and email address
 Your location and LinkedIn URL (optional)
Do NOT include:
× ×
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your value proposition
Figure out what the goal is of the job you’re applying
to –is it to create training plans? Run social media
campaigns? Provide administrative support? Collect
outstanding payments? Then explain how your skills,
education or experience will help you help them -
keep it short and sweet!
PERSONAL BRAND
Start your resume with a 1-sentence summary of your
relevant interests and qualifications for the role.
Talk about what you can do for the employer, NOT about
what the employer/job opportunity can do for you
• Bad: Marketing student eager to gain experience and start a
position that will help me develop my skills.
• Better: Marketing student eager to bring strong relationship
management, communication and social media expertise to help
enhance Customer Engagement Campaigns.
Highlight hard skills/professional interests that are specific to
your field over transferable skills/generic interests.
• Bad: Versatile, motivated student with great communication,
interpersonal and organization skills, eager to utilize skills and
experience to benefit organizations.
• Better: Aspiring Learning & Development professional eager to
apply knowledge of adult education principles to develop and
design training materials that are exciting, interactive, and easy to
understand.

Employers usually won’t take your word for it just because you
say you have strong communication skills. It’s also very vague. Be
more explicit about what you mean exactly so they can not only
appreciate what you’re talking about but believe you too.
QUALIFICATIONS
4-6 bullet points of your strongest qualifications
Prioritize your professional/hard skills and abilities, use keywords
from the job posting and industry phrases & include details –
context, facts, and examples!
Use the order suggested below to ensure you are prioritizing
relevant industry-specific skills:
1. Experience/Education - Start with 1-2 bullet points summarizing
your relevant education and experience
• Bad: 5 years of experience working as a waitress
• Better: 5 years of experience working in fast-paced environments that require
strong attention to detail, interpersonal and communication skills
2. Hard/Professional Skills - Follow with 1-2 bullet points about your
relevant industry-specific skills
• Bad: Proficient in MS Excel
• Better: Able to use various MS Excel tools/functions such as pivot tables,
vlookups, sumifs, solver, goal seek, etc.
3. Soft/People Skills – End with 1-2 bullet points summarizing your
strongest, most relevant transferable skills
• Bad: Strong organization skills
• Better: Skilled in multitasking and prioritizing to maintain organization in the
workplace
 EDUCATION
your relevant post-secondary education

List any relevant post-secondary education in reverse chronological

order (do not include high school or any English learner
language training)
Make it is easy for the employer to see what you're studying, where
and when you'll be graduating within a quick glance by formatting
in a consistent manner
Include:
 The official name of your program​(in bold - no abbreviations)
 Actual or anticipated date of graduation
Do not list your education in a chart or table.  Full name of the academic institution​
While doing this may be expected in some  Location of the institution (city & province – country if not Canada)​
countries, it is not customary in Canada.  Academic achievements (awards, scholarships or GPA if 3.5+)
 Any relevant courses

*Any additional professional development/training must be related

to the job you’re applying to and should be in an additional section
called “Training & Development”
 EXPERIENCE
your paid, unpaid, extra-curricular & even course work
Review each of your bullet points and turn them into
accomplishment statements. Think about WHY you Organize your experiences in separate sections (e.g., work history,
performed each task, HOW you performed that task, and marketing projects, & community involvement”) to help highlight your
what happened as a RESULT of you performing that task most relevant experiences and duties.
(from an organizational perspective). Try to add detail,
context and numbers so the employer gets a better sense
In each section, list your experience in reverse chronological order
of the scope and impact of your work.
(newest on top; oldest on the bottom).

Focus on highlighting experiences and duties that are most relevant to

the role you’re applying to (this looks different for everyone).

Include the following information:

 Position title (even if ”Volunteer” or ”Student”)
 Name of organization/company
 Location ((city & province – country if not Canada)​
 Start date and end date
 3-6 accomplishment statements/experience

Format your different experience sections as consistently as possible -

include position titles (even if it's "Volunteer"), organization names,
dates and accomplishment statements.
FORMAT
the visual appeal/strategic layout of your resume

Create a resume that:

 Comes AFTER your cover letter
 Has a professional appearance, tone and style
 Is visually appealing and easy to scan
 Has design elements that are appropriate for your industry
 Is an appropriate length (1-2 pages MAX)
 Utilizes the full page without overcrowding
 Has balanced margins are (.75-inch margins preferred)
 Uses appropriate fonts and point size (main text 11 or 12 pt)
 Is organized in a strategical way (most important information is
on top 1/2 of the first page)
 Uses consistent formatting, special characters and styles
throughout (e.g., dates, subheadings, periods, spacing between
sections, bold or italicized lettering, etc.)

Always save as a PDF and avoid using templates! They’re

hard to edit and usually end up looking sloppy. This
makes it look like you don't have strong attention to
detail/word processing skills or don't care about the
job/application - either way, it’s a bad look!
Cover Letter Guide
FORMAT
the format & formalities used in your cover letter

Write a cover letter for your resume that is 1 page long and
includes the following information:
• Date (e.g., July 20, 2021)
• Full address of company
• Subject line (title of position you’re applying to)
• Salutation (e.g., “Dear Kayla Vatcher,”)
• Use “Dear Hiring Committee” or the name of the department
(e.g., “Dear Finance Department”) if you don’t have the name of
a specific person
• Content (3-4 paragraphs, single spaced within paragraphs
and double spaced between)
• Sign-off (e.g., “Sincerely,” or Regards,”)
• Your digital signature (optional)
• Your full name, typed

Ensure the design and formatting elements are consistent

throughout your cover letter & resume (don’t use different
fonts, colours, margins, etc.)

your interest in the position & company
Do not talk about how obtaining the position will
benefit you! Instead, focus on telling them how hiring
you will benefit them.
INTRODUCTION
Get straight to the point; tell them that you’re excited to be
applying for the job they're hiring for… Examples:
◦ “I'm thrilled to be applying for the Recruitment Coordinator
position at SCI Logistics”
◦ “I'm writing to apply for the new and exciting role of Project
Analyst at KPMG”
Then prove you’re excited; Why are you so excited? The job
duties? The company? The industry? Be genuine!
Talk about them! Show that you’ve done company research
by connecting yourself to them – either their values or goals
(this is very important for larger companies, non-profits, and
purpose-driven organizations)
Tie your interest in the position, company and industry back
to your ability to do the job! This is a MARKETING tool you
must SELL yourself here!!
 MIDDLE
your qualifications – explained

If you use 2 middle paragraphs, each paragraph should have a clear

theme or point. For example, one paragraph can be about your hard Write 1-2 paragraphs that prove you have the experience,
skills and the other can be about your soft skills; or one can be about
your education and the other can be about your experience. education, and skills and listed in the “qualifications” section
of the job posting

Talk about you! Describe how you’ve used your

qualifications in the past or how you will use them to perform
the job duties, if you’re given the job

Utilize industry phrases and keywords from the job posting to

show the employer you’re familiar with the duties associated
with the role and that you’re capable of performing those
duties

As usual, you will want to make sure you lead with your
relevant hard/professional skills so they you’re both
interested in, and capable of, performing the job duties
 CLOSER
your call to action

Make a final case for your candidacy by re-expressing your

enthusiasm and/or qualifications for the opportunity

Re-state both the position title and company by name

Tell the employer what you want to happen next (i.e., you
want to meet for an interview)
Just like the hamburger-style essay from high school, your
conclusion should start with one strong sentence that summarizes Thank them for their time!!
the point of your letter. Try to think of what sets you apart from
other candidates or proves that you’ll do a good job.
Close with a professional send-off, examples include:
• Sincerely,
• Best,
• Regards,
• Thank you,

Include a digital signature (optional)

Type your full name

Questions?