Cover letters & resumes are very important for a job interview. These are your marketing brochures. One should carefully make each of them keeping in mind the particular job description which you are applying.
What is a cover letter?
It is an introductory document that tells about you in a nutshell and your relevance for the current job profile. The cover letters should have the following criteria
(1) While writing the cover letter, it should be directed to the hiring head such as HR hiring, HR hiring committee. For that matter, you need to check the name of the hiring person beforehand or you can write the letter directing HR of the company if you are not able to find it. One should never write ‘To whom it may concern’.
2) The cover letter should include points from the resume but the letter should not be vague & generic like thousand others. Suppose, in the resume you have written that you have undergone training in an Ansys software while applying for a job in a designing firm where they use various software tools, you should highlight this in your cover letter in a creative way such as ‘undergone training in the Ansys software which would be helpful in the thermal simulation of various design elements.
(3) The length of the cover letter should not be more than one page. You should try to accommodate all the relevant things on a single page. The content should be concise and crisp to the point.
Let us write a cover letter for a fresh engineering student who is about to complete the B.Tech degree in Mechanical Engineering and is awaiting the result. In the meantime, he is sitting in various interviews for placement in the Automobile parts design sector.
[You can download the editable template Here: Cover Letter]
But, this is an example. You have to be creative to fit your case. Make your resume first and check the sell-able points there to be included in your cover letter. Insert your own points to make it more authentic. You can have more such examples by going to Standford University site (see reference [1])
What is a resume?
A resume is a document that gives a summary of your education, qualification, and experience. It helps in your job search. Whenever you need to apply for a job, you have to submit a resume matching the job description. Research says that employers spend less than 30 seconds to read a resume and take the decision whether to consider for an interview or dump the resume. There are some steps to be followed while writing a resume
(1) Now a day, recruitment agencies work on behalf of the companies or firms. These agencies use artificial intelligence to check or scan your resume for the suitability of the post. If you make a generic resume, it is most likely to be dumped. The resume should be written clearly and objectively keeping in mind the job description in the advertisement. One should observe the keywords in the job description and try to put them in the resume.
(2) Resume should be concise and should not be more than one page or at best two pages if it falls short.
Let us consider a final year mechanical engineering student about to pass in the next few months. He is applying for a job in a company specializing in automobile part design. He has to draft a resume that appeals to the company management for hiring. For that matter, he has to go through the job description over and over again and find out keywords that are the most relevant.
Since he is applying for the design engineer, he must be able to work in a team, have leadership quality, effectively handle a project, know a particular software, and manage people. So, one should try to insert qualifications, skills, and experience in the design field. Similarly, if you are applying for a thermal engineering-related job, your resume / CV would not work as your CV is not satisfying the criteria. To seek a call, you have to redraft the resume according to the need highlighting points that are relevant to the job profile. You can see the template below as per Stanford University format.
[You can download the editable template Here:Resume Template]
Reference
[1] https://beam.stanford.edu/sites/g/files/sbiybj10361/f/resume_and_cover_letter_examples.pdf
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