Should You Personalize Your Cover Letter & CV For Each Job Application?
Today, most jobs require applicants to submit both a cover letter and a CV to be considered for the situation. A CV or a resume is a brief summary of your skills, experience and education, while a cover letter is a more in-depth explanation of why you’re the best person for the job.
Among the most hotly debated questions when it comes to applying for jobs is whether or not applicants should tailor their application documents for each position. We strongly believe that the answer to this question is a resounding ‘yes.’ While you don’t need a complete overhaul, it can boost your chances of success tremendously with some strategic tweaks to both your resume and cover letter.
In this article, I’ll go over some key reasons why it’s vital to tailor your CV and cover letter for each role you apply to.
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Tailor Your CV and Cover Letter Format
Before worrying about content, it’s vital to read the description on each job listing you apply to in order to determine how best to format your application documents.
You might need to use a PDF editor to tweak the order in which you present the different sections of your resume based on what a specific recruiter values. For example, a company hiring recent graduates might be more interested in where you went to school, while a business looking to hire for a managerial position requiring more than 10 years of experience might place greater weight on work experience.
There are plenty of other formatting decisions that you should make based on the positions you’re applying to and the industries you’re looking to apply within. For example, if you’re looking to work in the arts, you may take more liberties when designing your application documents, which might better demonstrate your creativity. Contrastingly, you’re probably better served using a clean, organized aesthetic if you’re looking to land a role as a financial analyst. Whether or not you include a headshot and the file type you use will also depend on your desired role.
Formatting is an aspect of resume and cover letter design that many applicants neglect, but it’s absolutely essential. Following the job description’s requirements to a tee demonstrates attention to detail and a genuine interest in the position, which are traits that recruiters place tremendous value on.
Customize Your Personal Summary
A strong personal summary can be the difference between a great resume and one that’s merely okay. This section of your resume should include a brief overview of your professional experiences and the sort of role you’re looking for.
When writing a summary, you should frame yourself in a way that makes you an appealing candidate for a specific position. If you’re applying for a role as a PPC marketer, for example, you should mention your experience in PPC if you have any.
Remember that less is more when it comes to your personal summary, so keep it as concise as possible. More specifically, your personal summary should be no more than two or three sentences. And while it can be tempting to say more, expanding on what you’ve written in your resume is really what your cover letter is for. So feel free to communicate any more complex ideas and relevant experiential accounts there to ensure you make a strong first impression with the hiring manager.
Showcase your Most Relevant Experience
When a recruiter reads your resume and cover letter, among the first things they’ll look for is work experience. In order to boost your chances of landing your dream job, aim to highlight the most relevant roles you’ve worked in the past. Simply listing down each and every position you’ve held may inflate your resume and cover letter to the point that recruiters grow hesitant to read them fully.
Besides customizing the roles you choose to feature, you should also tailor the ‘roles and responsibilities’ you list for each position. For every job you’ve worked, you probably wore more hats than you could fit into a single CV. Pick and choose the most relevant ones to make yourself a more attractive candidate.
Changing your work experience section for each and every job you apply for can be time-consuming. This is where online resume builders come in: today, there are plenty of tools that allow you to make quick changes to your CV without necessarily knowing graphic design and save multiple versions of the document to use for different types of roles.
Highlight Your Most Important Skills
Every job requires a specific set of skills. When filling out your resume and cover letter, it’s essential to read the job description carefully to learn what competencies recruiters are looking for. If you possess any of these skills, make sure to work them into your resume and expand on how you gained them in your cover letter.
Don’t limit yourself to talking about hard skills. Most businesses place tremendous value on employees who possess both technical knowledge and soft skills like good organization, a willingness to work with teams and the ability to manage multiple tasks at once.
Of course, this doesn’t mean you should be dishonest and list down skills you don’t actually have. If there are certain skills you don’t possess, speak about your willingness to learn them when writing your cover letter. Employers don’t expect you to know everything, but they do want to see that you’re eager to improve yourself.
Should you Personalize your CV & Cover Letter for every Application?
If you’re wondering whether you should personalize your cover letter and CV for each job application, the short answer is ‘yes.’ While you should never lie in your application documents, you should frame your experience and skills in a way that gives you the highest possible chance of landing your desired job. You should also make sure that your personal summary and the format of your application documents are on point.
In this article, I’ve reviewed some key reasons to tailor your CV and cover letter for each application. Optimize your application documents for every job you apply for, and you’ll secure a job in no time.