How to prepare a CV and a covering letter
Surfing the net, you found an advertisment for a job you might like ! You may be asked to send a curriculum vitae or a resume, and a cover letter. What are they?
First of all, there are some differences between a CV and a resume. Let’s see together!
CV
The Latin term curriculum vitae (CV) means the “flow of life”. It means that a CV contains your entire background, from an academic, professional, and personal perspective. It is detailed, several pages long but pay attention, it should not have more than 2-3 pages according to your experiences. A CV also showcases credentials: certifications, research, affiliation, etc.
Resume
The French term resume means «to sum up». It means that it will contain any academic and professional careers anyway, but with a more straightforward structure. A resume is concise (one page long). It showcases competence: work, history, accomplishments, licenses etc. The resume is mostly used in the United States and the Anglo-Saxon world.
Cover letter
A cover letter is a business letter that you send to the recruiter to introduce yourself as a candidate. It is personalized, clean, and visually organized. The main aim of a cover letter is to provide additional background information about your application. The aim is to highlight your best qualifications, explain what is missing in your CV or resume and tell something more about yourself. It should have at least 250 words and 400 words maximum. A good cover letter can arouse interest in the recruiter. A bad cover letter, on the other hand, might mean that your application will be rejected. So, it’s very important to write a convincing cover letter.
To sum up: you need them to apply for a job and show your best skills.
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Please choose if the statement is true or false.
A CV is longer in length than a resume because it includes many career details.
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A resume is generally longer than a CV.
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Please choose if the statement is true or false.
Your cover letter contains the same information as your CV.
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Tips and tricks to create your CV
Creating a resume or a CV could be challenging when you start thinking about all the information you need to share with recruiters.
You can follow these 8 steps and 14 tips to make your job application perfect!
STEPS:
1) Pick the best CV/resume template or format. Recruiters spend only 6 seconds scanning each CV. So the very first impression is vital. The CV/resume must be very well organised and look attractive.
2) Add your contact information the correct way: full name, professional title, e-mail address, phone number, LinkedIn profile (if you have any), home address .
3) Include a summary and objectives. In the summary, try to focus on work experience related to the role you are applying for. You should provide a display of your skills and qualifications related to the specific position for which you are applying.
4) Add your work experience. Often it will be the most crucial section. Bear in mind that it is more important that recruiters know how well you did, what goals you achieved and how you achieved them
5) Include your education. List your highest level of education completed first and include licenses or other certifications, trainings.
6) List relevant skills for the position for which you are applying.
7) Include additional CV sections to impress the recruiters and to show them things that prove your value as a candidate.
8) Complement your CV with a cover or motivation letter. The process and tips for creating a good motivation letter are illustrated in the next chapter.
TIPS:
1) Remember to follow the proper order of the sections: a header with contact information, personal profile with CV objective or CV summary, work experience, education, skills, and additional sections.
2) In case you are starting your professional career, put your education above.
3) Choose a font (Arial, Verdana, Calibri, and Times New Roman, for example) and font size legible, leaving enough white space on the page.
4) Take advantage of professional websites to take inspiration and templates, e.g. Canva, Zety, Indeed, Resume, and many more.
5) Use Europass if expressly required only. This format is usually considered by private companies too long. However, it might be required for public administrations and European institutions. This is the link to the Europass website: https://europa.eu/europass/en
6) The recruiters use your contact information to research you online. Set up social media private profiles if they are unprofessional.
7) If your LinkedIn profile information does not match your CV, it is better to update it and make it coherent.
8) Focus on your measurable, relevant achievements, not just your duties.
9) Use action verbs: “created”, “analysed,” “implemented,” not “responsible for creating, analysis and implementation”. Personalise it with examples.
10) Tailor your CV to the job position and emphasize those experiences that are in line with the expected tasks.
11) If you have done some tasks before, put them on your CV, even if those were not your primary responsibilities.
12) When you list relevant skills for that specific position, add a short description or explain how you developed such skills.
13) You may also indicate your skills proficiency level, for example, “Excellent,” “Advanced,” or “Basic.”
14) Stress the most relevant experiences depending on the job position (certifications, publications, conferences attended/organized, training, volunteer experience, hobbies, interests, or projects).
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Your CV includes relevant skills.
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Your CV does not include certifications.
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Add a short description how you develop such skills.
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How to write a cover letter
Remember that a cover letter is a supplement to your resume/CV, not a replacement. So, you do not just repeat whatever is mentioned in them. You do not need to be creative or a good writer. All you have to do is follow some steps:
Header – Input contact information
Greeting the hiring manager
Opening paragraph – Grab the recruiter’s attention with some of your best results
The second paragraph – Explain the reason why you’re the perfect candidate for the job position. You have to show that you are going to satisfy the company’s specific needs.
Third paragraph – Explain why you would be perfect for the company
Formal closing.
Some tips for a perfect cover letter:
1.) Pick the Right Cover Letter Template
2.) Use a professional cover letter header. The header includes your name, your phone number, your email address, the name and address of the company to which you’re applying, the name of the hiring manager, and their professional title. In certain cases, you might also consider adding:
- Social Media Profiles (LinkedIn in particular)
- Personal Website – If you have a personal website that could add value to your application, you can mention it.
3) Use an email address from a respected provider (i.e. Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo)
4) You may have doubts about using the family name or the surname: Dear Julie or Dear Mrs. Smith? It depends on the company culture. For corporate cover letters, it is safer to go with the addressee’s last name. If you do not manage to find who the hiring manager is, you can use general greetings: Dear Sales Team, Dear Hiring Manager, Dear [Company] Team, To Whom It May Concern.
5) There are different strategies for your cover letter opening. You can highlight your achievements, show how well you know your prospective employer’s needs, or show your enthusiasm.
6) Before you even write anything, you need to learn what the most important requirements for the role are. So, read the job description ad and identify which of the responsibilities are the most critical.
7) Explain why you’re a good fit for the company. How do you do this? Well, as a start, you want to do some research about the company. You want to know things like: what’s the company’s business model, what’s the company’s product or service, which are the mission and the vision of the company? You can find this information on Google.
8) Tell the hiring manager that you are looking forward to meeting in person and discussing how your experience and knowledge can help your future employer fulfil their goals.
9) Focus on what you have to offer, not on how much you want the job.
10) Wrap up with a call to action. In the final paragraph, you want to:
- Wrap up any points you couldn’t in the previous paragraphs.
- Thank the recruiter for his/her time.
- Finish the cover letter with a call to action. You should ask the recruiter to take some sort of action.
11) Use the right formal closing: best regards, kind regards, sincerely.
12) Before sending it, remember to save it as a PDF!
If you have no work experience, you can focus on your education or on the soft skills you have acquired through extracurricular activities, training courses or volunteering.
It is important to highlight all your soft skills because many recruiters will appreciate them as they are very important in a working environment. This is because soft skills are innate and gives an idea of your potential as a resource, whereas hard skills can often be taught through training. In addition to highlighting your soft skills in a cover letter, you should also include your passion to learn more skills during the position: this will make the recruiter realise that even if you have no experience, you have a willingness to learn.
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Please choose if the statement is true or false.
A cover letter does not include a formal closing.
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You have to explain how you are a good fit for the company.
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You have to focus on how you want that job.
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Few words about your CV and Social Recruiting
Do you know that there are new ways of recruiting through social networks?
Do you already know how to exploit the potential of the web to find work with social media?
Nowadays, recruiters, in addition to the screening of the CVs they receive, use other methods to search profiles for the companies.
It is called social recruiting. Indeed, digital tools have an increasingly significant impact also in the area of personnel research and selection. In recent years, there has been an exponential growth of companies present on social networks, in particular on LinkedIn, but also on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
This is why it is becoming increasingly important that you take care of your social networks also from a professional perspective. Your social media profiles have to show that the information included in your CV is true and the issues related to the job that you applied for are relevant for you.
For example, if you are interested in Marketing, your social profile could show it, you can post articles or participate in discussions about this field.
Recruiters often appreciate those who participate in discussions on topics they know or are related to their professional fields, or those who are open to a constructive debate with other professionals who have more years of experience.
Remember: social recruiting is the new starting point for an initial evaluation of your digital image as a potential candidate. Social networks represent a very powerful showcase for you and they are also a great tool for you to look up some information about the company you are interested in or, even, the recruiter himself. The information you write in your CV might be “double checked” by the recruiter on your social media profile.