How to make resume preparation more efficient? Create your own Cover Letter in three steps

What do you think a cover letter is? Is it a self-recommendation letter? Or a piece of paper full of his achievements?

Usually when preparing a cover letter, I think of myself as a "storyteller" first, and then think about what story I want to share with the other person? What other stories should be shared ? Which ones are unnecessary?

If the resume is " Quantity " - focusing and quantifying your own experience and achievements, then the cover letter (Cover Letter) is " Quantity " - emphasizing your own experience, so when submitting a resume, I If you don’t feel lazy, you should prepare the Cover Letter and Resume at the same time and submit the application together.

Step 1: Find raw materials

In the beginning, I usually focus on 2-3 jobs, or 2-3 industries. Before starting to prepare a resume, we should first think clearly about the direction we are going to attack, rather than just throwing at sea without a purpose. For example, looking for a job I would focus on….

Position: Business Analyst Business Analysis, Product Manager Project Management, Buyer Purchasing Industry: e-commerce E-commerce, OEM Technology Factory

Step 2 : Knock out your own bricks

I suggest picking a vacancy (which can be the most wanted) first, and developing your own Cover Letter from this vacancy, for example: I want to focus on the business analysis of Business Analyst in e-commerce, then start from Use this position as a starting point to start thinking about 2-3 stories from your past, and the stories must be connected to this position .

The next part is my commonly used Cover Letter structure:

#1. Opening

Keep this paragraph short, just 1/4 of the A4 page, I will mention it in this content:

• Job title, where do I find this job
• Introduce yourself quickly, about two sentences long
  
• Point out some keywords of the main content of the next paragraph as a foreshadowing

#2. Main trunk

Share these things in this paragraph…

• any of your stories
• any past work experience
• Any projects or assignments done during school time

(These deeds written must be related to the position you want)

How to think better? Can you try to think about what kind of things you have accomplished? What problems have you solved? Or do you have any special discovery or insight in an experience/work?

Also, take another look at the job description in the job opening. Sometimes, I feel that... the job content of the job vacancy is written in general terms. At this time, I will try to catch two or three more important bulletpoint descriptions, or catch the first three points, and then go according to these points. Think about your story.

If you find it difficult to think of relevant stories, then you need to reconsider, is this position really right for you? Ask yourself: "Why am I the best candidate for this position?", "Am I suitable for this position?" If you can't convince yourself, then you should adjust the direction of your job search.

If you are a fresh graduate, you can think about what you have done before in an internship or school activity? Such as: group reports, experiments, leading teams, holding activities, etc., these can be used as a starting point for ideas.

If you already have some work experience, focus on your current or past work practices. Many times, you may want to say, my job is a piece of shit, how do I get gold out of that shit?

Indeed, sometimes I also have this kind of thinking. At this time, I will calm down, put aside the chaotic part, and put the thinking on the nodes, that is, split the line into points, and think according to the single point:

Think "Yes! I made it" that memory Think "Old Swan! I'm finally done" that memory

From these memories, it will be easier to find interesting deeds. I feel this way, usually after completing a larger or longer task, a case, or after I've gotten out of a stressful state.

Generally speaking, we tend to remember "feelings", but it is easy to forget the ins and outs of what happened at that time. So I suggest that you can start with "feelings", and gradually derive and trace back to the bits and pieces of what you have experienced in the past.

In the last paragraph of the Main section, it is recommended that you describe your personality, style of doing things, and how you communicate with your team . Let the entire cover letter add some "human touch."

Assuming that the company to be delivered is a new startup, I will write about how I maintain my flexibility to respond to urgent needs for product changes; if it is a large mature enterprise, I will share when I encounter the rules of the game or internal When regulations change, how do I make sure people in different departments are informed and make adjustments as they should.

#3. Closing

This paragraph is also mainly concise. It is good to keep it about 1/4 of the A4 page, and then re-emphasize your own advantages, where your value is, and what value you can create for the company . For overseas job seekers, you can inform your visa status and needs (optional).

 “I can work in the USA for next XXX years because I have Optional Practical Training (OPT) with an F-1 visa, (and I will need the H-1B sponsorship in the future.)”

Finally, don't forget to say thank you.

Step 3: Arrange and combine bricks and tiles to build your own house (Cover Letter)

Once you have your first Cover Letter, the rest will be much easier.

Assuming that the cover letter "Business Analyst in e-commerce" has been created now, when you are looking for a job as a Business Analyst in the future, you can pick a few stories from this cover letter and use them as bricks to create another one. New House (Cover Letter).

“During the time as business analyst, I worked with marketing team to develop a promotion sales performance dashboard. I analyzed the requirements of marketing campaigns and defined key figures. ……… This dashboard improved my team work efficiency and make information more transparent and trackable , providing insight how the team can grow more sales from promotion events.”

Furthermore, when you want to apply for e-commerce-related jobs, you can also find some stories from the original cover letter and build a new house. In this way, not only will you save a lot of time on resume preparation, but you can write your resume while thinking about how to improve the content of the story and create more of your own stories.

“During the time as business analyst in JKL e-commerce , I worked with marketing team to develop a promotion sales performance dashboard. I analyzed the requirements of marketing campaigns and defined key factors. ……… This dashboard improved the merchandising team work efficiency and make GMV more transparent and trackable, providing insight how the team can trigger more website's traffic and growth more sales from promotion events.”

In fact, it is simply to delete or replace some words, and then add some proper nouns commonly used in the industry, so that the development of the story will have a stronger correlation with the vacancies related to e-commerce.

Summarize

Step 1: Find raw materials, focus on 2-3 jobs/industries Step 2: Knock out your own bricks Step 3: Arrange and combine bricks to build your own house (Cover Letter)

Finally, there are a few things to avoid when possible:
1. Keep Cover Letter simple and limited to one page
2. The 80/20 Rule. There is no need to share irrelevant stories, which wastes the time of both parties and causes HR doubts
3. Don’t be attached to a certain job vacancy, keep your flexibility, and adjust your job search strategy and direction at any time

“It is better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one than to have an opportunity and not be prepared.” —Whitney M. Young, Jr., An American civil rights leader

The above is my own experience in preparing Cover Letter, I hope you can get some help or ideas.
Even at work now, keep Cover Letter in mind, because we don't know when a better opportunity pops up or when we'll need it urgently.

Welcome to communicate with each other, I wish you a smooth and happy job search

By the way, my side project - Jobbly is (slowly) in progress, mainly to provide tools to make it easier for overseas students to find jobs, and it is still under development, Stay tuned :) https://www.facebook.com/jobbly .io