good afternoon everyone
this is the co-founder
of career care package today is our
114th
episode and we are talking about cover
letter
tips cover letter ideas and
a way for you to draft really engaging
cover letters
and that's the whole show is dedicated
to
we will be showing you cover letter
examples that have
worked in real life and what are some of
the
ways that you can really create an
engaging argument
to the employer so before uh
you know we bring you across the cover
letter samples
and dismantle it for you let's welcome
caroline brown the co-host of the show
thanks niche uh it's saying
that we're scheduled and not live so i
hope we're live
on this okay cool sorry for the
hesitation here
um that's the joy of doing live
broadcasts i guess so
yeah today we're going to cover lots of
the big questions that we've been
getting about cover letters so
things along the lines of gonna give you
some cover letter examples that have
worked well for our clients and won them
interviews
i'm going to talk about how long a cover
letter should actually be the perfect format for your cover
letter
um and we're going to answer your
questions on cover letters so
um yeah really looking forward to
digging deep into this topic today
absolutely dears welcome to the
show it's been a while that we have seen
you here
but stick around uh it's going to be an
absolute fascinating talk today so
i will be sharing my screen balling good
afternoon to you too
and let us see uh it in action so
hopefully you're able to
see the screen uh sarah welcome uh
to the cover letter uh you know
show hopefully you're able to see uh you
know the screen if you want i can
probably increase a little bit more but
otherwise
um you know we will see how it goes but
yes kb take it away
okay so i guess um one of the things
about cover letters is nobody loves
writing them so if you feel
that it's a bit of a chore you're not
alone
and i think the fact that nobody really
loves writing them
means that we don't see that many that
aren't that great and therefore
you know also when recruiters are
reading them they don't really expect
them to be that great so if you've got
something that's good it can
actually stand out but just to give you
a few ideas about
how to make your cover letter non-crappy
and in fact fantastic there's a few
principles that you need to
think about so your res the difference
between a cover letter and a resume so
your resume
is the evidence that you present of your
work history and your accomplishments
the cover letter if you think about it
is
the pitch the argument to hire you so
it's a logical
presentation of an argument to hire you
and therefore it needs to be written
separately for every job um
national get you to scroll down just um
to
the next couple of things i just really
need to stress
cover letters shouldn't be any longer
than a page
no real exceptions for that in some
cases
i have done cover letters and put
a table on a second page but that's
um mainly for government so golden rule
cover letters of one page only
now in terms of layout this is really
critical
you really need to keep make it logical
and easy for people to read
so one idea per paragraph so don't mix
up
the why with the accomplishments or the
what or the why
with your experience try and keep one
idea per paragraph
keep your sentences short and keep your
paragraphs of no more than four lines
and you can get creative with the layout
as nature will show you as well that
does help you stand out
try and use bullet points and bolding as
well
if you really want the job you really
need to do as much research as you can
as possible on yourself and
on the job you want to write as you as
you speak
so your voice comes through in this
but basically to really stand out in a
cover letter
you want to identify what their problem
is
and then your pitch with evidence and in
the examples i'm going to show you
that's how we do it now there's a
there's an art to doing this because
in the problems that you identify in the
cover letter
you actually have to understand which
which are the really
big priority problems for that
organization
to stand out because remember you've
only got a page for that
so they're my general sorts of tips on
on cover letters nice do you have
anything
um that you'd like to add to that i
think you've covered that
right now the only uh you know kind of
an artistic
logic that i can add is that cover letter
cover letter is sometimes like a movie
trailer what to expect in a resume
you know it's also seen now it's usually
seen the other way around people see the
movie first
and then go and check the cover later in
this instance
uh you know not all the time cover
letter is is read first usually if you
think about it logically
the cover letter is should be read first
and then the resume
but most of the time it's the other way
around if i can also add
that you know there are obviously two uh
kind of you know different you know
thought you know school of thought one
it says
i don't care about cover letter at all
and it's
you know i i don't really give that
importance to that
the other school of thought you know
people say no i do give
importance to cover later because i go
and read them
before i interview a candidate because
what a cover letter shows
effectively is your ability to really
argue
your ability to write comprehensively
your ability to
to sell something which which you know
yourself uh
by heart i think that's what cover
letter really does it
really test your communication skill if
you if
on your on your resume you said that you
have an excellent communication skill
you know you can write reports and
everything else but when somebody
sees the the cover letter say hang on it
really does not make sense because
you know the cover letter is not as good
as your resume
and also calculator and resume should
complement each other it should not be
hang on this is nisha's cover letter
which is very different to how he shows
up on a resume
so it also has to be complementary to
each other it's
you know obviously another thing that kb
i'm pretty sure that a lot of people
uh you know will have question that
there are still reputation of
information right in both of them
but some information would be repeated
but it's in a context that is repeated
you know you know we don't write three
pages of cover letter
it says one page of cover letter and i
really liked what how kb really put that
through is that their problem
and your pitch with evidence and i think
that is that is the very simply
put a logic behind doing it and as we go
along
with those uh those samples you got
three four different kind of samples
that we have kind of curated for this
show and if you know please please you
know throw in your questions also as we
go along
so kevin let's kick off with the first
uh
you know sample yep and if you've got
questions guys
um please feel free to put them in the
comments i've got a question that
somebody wrote in earlier that i'm going
to address as well so this
cover letter basically the reason i'm
showing this cover letter
is that this guy was not
um a ceo but he was applying for a ceo
role
with a a small not-for-profit and when
he first spoke to me
he actually had to convince me that he
was right for the role because i could
not see that from the resume that he
presented
so he really had to um that the research
that was behind this cover letter was
actually ringing the
panel convener and having a long long
chat to them
but having a good look over the website
having a good look at
the strategic plan and
looking at both sort of the
technical fit so technical fit with hard
skills but also the cultural fit because
for this organization
having an alignment with their values
was incredibly important so
um you can see on this letter i've got
the yellow for their problem
and the blue for the pitch
and get a lot of questions about how to
open the cover letter
um an opening line i tend to
open it with if we've had a discussion
with somebody mention it to prompt their
prompt their memory of you but also to
reinforce that you've done
your your research as well so you know
this one was after
discussing the role with the ceo with
your chairman last week i'm excited to
present my application
and join you on your inspiring journey
now they were words that were used in in
the advertisement as well
now with this guy as i said not a match
on paper
really hard to pick out why he was
matched so we decided to address the
elephant in the room
straight up so you'd look at his resume
and you go yeah he looks alright but i'm
still
not 100 convinced on this guy so what we
said was
at first glance i know my background
will appear unusual
but however i'm confident this makes me
a stronger applicant and will allow
me to bring deep insight skills and
passion to help you
achieve your life-changing goals now
this organization actually changed the
life life of prisons
so um it really was you know you really
had to be aligned to the
mission um and their goals were
life-changing so we were
we were reflecting back the language
that um
you know they were using throughout
their communication and obviously
through the job description
so their problem um they're to advocate
for the
the oppressed so i'm inspired by your
mission sorry nation could you just
flick it up a bit i'm inspired by your
mission of
seventh hood to advocate for the
oppressed his pitch
throughout my life i've demonstrated a
deep affinity with these values
i'm a pilgrim and have held other roles
um and have an understanding of the
ministry
and then my commitment to sermonhood in
the next paragraph
okay so that's the second problem that
they identified
um with your ever increasing request
from incarcerated people and their
supporters
i understand much of the ceo's time will
be spent fundraising by advocating
the mission and vision or vision and
mission
i'm confident i can add real benefit in
this area as you can see from
my resume brand advocacy and fundraising
is a strength of
mine and a key focus so you can see that
we're pulling out things
and really digging back into this
person's
history of what they've done and
matching it up to the critical problem
and in this role you know as i said
cultural fit
in terms of values and christian values
were really important
but also um you know they've got a
problem around raising funds this guy's
been a fundraiser
and then the other thing that this
person would have needed to develop
demonstrate was real resilience and and
can do
a can do attitude and helping people
when the chips are down which is the
client base
so we said what you won't see from my
resume however is just how dedicated
i've been when the chips have been down
and when i've needed to achieve goals on
a shoestring
budget and then we gave an example
completely unrelated
sector but of how he turned around a
business by cold calling
so you can see that we've we've honed in
on the real
cultural fit the um the the kpis
and we've tried to turn what seemed like
a weakness into
you know having this really diverse
background into a strength for this
particular role
um so and this this um cover letter
actually
secured um my client interview so if
you're ever
wondering you know thinking that you're
a long shot
dig deep dig really deep and think about
what it is
that you could really bring um to this
role
and you know your kpis or your
achievements aren't necessarily
expressed
in um numbers it can be expressed in
what you've done
outside of work that demonstrates your
you know your fish and that kind of
thing so i hope that gives you an
example
um nation did you want to show a few
more or do you want do you want to
answer some questions do you think
no i think you know we'll we'll come to
question uh you know straight away as
well but i think
you know i think what kb's point is is
pretty pretty important
and you know and here is my take on this
i think most of the
most of the time uh when i write resumes
over kb rights resume i think
you know let's say it's you know a ceo's
resume
or if i just talk about a recent resume
that i wrote
of a software developer you know she had
got around a couple of years of
experience
i think i you know i wrote two pages of
resume but i ended up spending five
hours on it
now you know five hours doing resume and
also cover later what it shows
is that you know what you're seeing on
the screen is the last
draft of the of the cover letter it's
not the first one
and when you're writing it you know
initially i think
what you want to do is to pour your
heart out first of all
you know really write your your
arguments as
i think india's is you know to to answer
that question briefly india's
let's say if you are 40 percent match
and don't have certain skills or
requirement on the job
advertisement first and my my first
thought would be
that you've got away at least three
quarters of them you know job
requirement matching 40 percent
would be too too less matching
requirement for you to be considered for
the role and given
the current circumstances i think you
would not really stand a chance
unless there is a trusted referral who
would put a
you know weight of his or her
recommendation and say india's can do
this job
and you know and then india's you know
might have a crack at that
you know my point is that you know first
of all write argument in your own
language don't worry about
you know you know writing it eloquently
because
you know it's not natural for a lot of
us it's not natural
for us to write eloquently first write
down your own argument that
why you are a great fit for the role you
know this is what
the you know the job advertisement is
asking
you do i have that just write it down
and then once you have got the
material ready i think then you start to
really craft an
engaging argument then you really start
to structure so
first instance this is what i'm going to
write if i can also add
kb to you know to the to the point of if
i'd i'll probably
scroll a little bit you know it's around
the opening sentence i think i'm
i'm kind of a you know quite a big fan
of opening sentences and
you know sometimes i also quote some of
the reports that's been released by
industry bodies
you know that the cyber security expert
says that
you know australian businesses loses 12
billion dollars every year
uh through cyber security threat
and that's the area that i want to
impact on now if you
write those opening sentence with a very
power
backed line what it shows somebody reads
what shows is that you have got genuine
interest into this
and you are really crafting something
which aligns with
what the problems of the employer uh you
know might be so i think
opening centers there is absolutely you
know
a lot of creativity out there and i will
show you a few examples on
that as well uh so we'll probably go to
gizmi's question is cover letter
mandatory for every application
kv um
yes i think so i may not say yes i think
so
um it's i think it's good preparat like
i'm thinking about okay because you know
we know that not everybody reads cover
letters and not everybody puts weight
on the cover letter but doing the
preparation for the cover letter
actually prepares you for the interview
so it's a really good practice
to do to do anyway so i would say yes
i know that you know we know that
they're hard to write
but it is think of it as like your
interview practice
you know the things that you actually
really want to mention
um in interview unless they just say
just
resume you know they actually go no
cover letters just just stick it
stick your resume in so um
yeah okay uh absolutely just you know
it's okay
you know i i know sometimes it takes 10
15 minutes once you've got a
basic content right it will still
require but i think it is still
more advisable because there are still
recruiters and employees out there who
are
very peculiar about a cover letter
uh you know as well so i think we don't
we can't ignore them
now let's say in a situation such as
this means somebody said look
you know just send me your resume and
i'll flick this across to the hiring
manager then it is different story
but even then you want to write
something in the in the email
note because most likely your
your email will be forwarded to the
hiring manager or some
you know the the person over there and
you don't want to
you don't want them to see hi nish you
know please find my cv
you know buy jizz me i'll say hang on
you know she hasn't really taken time
to really do you know take five minutes
to really
you know draft a proper email so i think
there are certain things that you will
see cover letters are also kind of that
goes
in your in your networking as well that
you can use
uh you know depending on the situation i
think you can still use this as
part of your email text as well uh
now yes kb i was just going to say a
couple things
if you're watching this on youtube and
watching this for the very first time
please subscribe
and if you like what you see please give
us a thumbs up
um sorry bellen i just had to put that
in
letters to go through but um yeah just
from that point niche
yeah if someone referring like got your
resumes and send me your resume i'd
still put a cover email
i'd still say thank you very much for
sending this there are a few things that
i probably like to i'd like to draw to
your attention if you know that they're
relevant
or if you know the company and the role
say why you're excited to
you know be forwarded for for the role
you may not have the job description
there with you but certainly a polite um
email with those points in it makes a
big difference
um rather than just letting letting
people still
guess why um you know somebody might
be forwarding your your resume along
excellent we got question from kapil
welcome kapil
uh how important is to get your resume
coverage done by professional
and which are the good companies that
you can use that
it's not a repeated question at all well
you got two people that you can reach
out to your couple me and caroline
uh you know the two people now it's a
it's a it's a investment
that you can put in it just shortens
sometimes the time for you to find a job
but it also effectively presents you
uh you know to an employer it you know
there is there's a lot of
you know hours of work that you know kb
is you know
far more experienced uh you know you
know in this uh
work than me and you know it's like
five ten hours of dedicated work to
really
understand you know you know what makes
you different
and how can it be portrayed on a piece
of paper it's a really
really great art and that's what i
always
you know say that you know it's an
investment because then you can
confidently go and show it to people and
people will say
wow this is a great document kb anything
you want to add to
yeah i mean with the word detonation i
do
nobody and i would run a mile if they
said we're gonna 100 guaranteed that
you're going to get a job
with you know this resume and this cover
letter
but the benefit is that you know we have
a sense of what's in the marketplace
um we've seen a lot of cover letters and
we can help you draw out those things
so that's that's the investment um
uh yeah so i'm just just moving on
um all right let's go to the next one
and uh okay all right so
all right so this is a very simple
cover letter you know kb and you know
this is also called
as what we call um um
you know rt style cover letter what what
effectively it is if you
if you look at any product let's say if
you go and buy a phone or
or a mobile service they will have on
the left-hand side you will have
all the features of the product and on
the right-hand side you'll have
companies
that offers the services and the company
that you are buying
the shop that you are in they will have
all the ticks
tick boxes on all the features and the
rest of them will have either
take off and then there are crosses in
between so what it it's it's kind of a
pictorial diagram to see
that you know your what are the features
that we offer are absolutely great and
the features that you are looking for
and we tick all the boxes i think this
is on the similar
formula now if you can really master
this you can
whip a great cover letter in no time
and at the same time this kind of cover
letter really goes to the
to the heart of what the employers are
really looking for
so if you see on the left side it says
i've said that you need someone to have
so on the left hand side i have put in
all the requirements which are outlined
in the job
you know they all usually say we want
somebody to have two years of experience
in this we want somebody have this
qualification
we want somebody to have understanding
of this technology so this
software or whatever on the left hand
side you
put in all the requirements that the
employer has
listed and on the right hand side you
put
i have and then you list all the
evidences that you
have which either meets or
exceeds the requirements that the
employer
has listed it's a very simple way
but highly effective the wherever i have
done this
you know the you know they've seen that
and it immediately makes sense to them
that why this person is a great fit
because of these
reasons so i think it is it is a great
way for you to do that
provided you meet or exceed all the
all the uh you know outlined skills
requirement
if you are not going to meet you know
most of them and if you are going to
like changing your career and all those
things where you do not have
all the skills but you've got the
willingness to learn
and you've got the other things that you
know that kb mentioned
you know that you can bring in you know
into the formula
then this may not be a you know a great
format
to to use but in a you know if you are
if you are meeting all the requirements
and you think that you've got the you
know the skills the experience
you know and i think in that context
this cover letter works so brilliantly
well
kb i like about this is it it's a it's
eye-catching so it's gonna
stand out to the um to the employer
and you really do make it um easy for
them to
quickly scan down and go okay i was
asking for a four-year degree
in mecca mechatronics and electronics
six months
experience and automation understanding
microsoft ah and i'm going to flick
across and read
so and i i may only just give it a scan
like the resume but i know no it's all
already there and yeah i like the fact
that yeah you do this when you know that
you
meet or exceed the requirements and want
to make it really
really pop out and also you you it's
pulling out the ones that are really
critical as well so you've got to make
sure that you've got
those you know that the top three
absolute must
have critical requirements um in there
just wanted to make a point
um about you know some people do things
like list their interests
and whatever on but you really want to
if you're going to do things like that
which you know that notice that i did
with the last cover letter
it's you've got to tell them why that's
why you're mentioning it why it's
actually important what it actually says
about you as well
so i just just wanted to add in that but
i love
i love that example um of um you know a
cover letter as well
so we've got a few more questions
i might just um uh
pull out an answer so um yeah
so ask a question earlier in private now
i'll write it for everyone thank you for
doing that
um how should we address several
personal attributes in government
sectors
where we each has been broken down to a
more detailed
description um and here's just a little
example
act with integrity represent the
organization in an honest ethical and
professional way
encourage others to do so demonstrate
professionalism of culture
integrity within the team unit set an
example for others i know what you're
referring to there
often um government applications i think
at
federal level they have like a matrix of
key skills and then underneath they
break breakdown how how you should
actually demonstrate them
obviously on a cover letter if you write
all of those things
you are going to take out the entire
real estate of your cover letter
so honestly um usually you're
supposed to address those things within
your application
so not necessarily within you know
within your response to a selection
criteria
but some of them now just saying one or
two pages response and when you've got
all of those things broken down
i would honestly just go for the major
major headline
that they've asked for because you can't
you know you've got one to two pages
a lot of those things are actually if
you look at them
especially with that they're a little
bit repetitive so you've got to make a
judgment call about
which are the key ones in there but at
failing that if you've got no no space i
would just
headline it with the main one and then
put a little example of
your best example of the critical one so
how you've
acted with integrity you've been honest
and open and encouraged others to do so
for example
um they don't expect that you're going
to you know give a little example for
all of those because you
you just don't have the space to
all right um and we have got
azer it's saying hello from youtube
thank you very much azar thank you
for uh dropping in um so we'll we'll go
back in the india hang on to that
question because i was just looking if i
can find a
a kind of a you know cover letter sample
that can also answer and demonstrate
the question uh you know the response
for you so
let's move to the next one which is
which is this was the 1kb you know i was
i can tell you this was you know when
when you're when you're writing it when
you're in the zone you kind of come up
with different
ways to portray clients uh you know
skill to the employer and this was kind
of came to me i was
reading a book or something and i saw
similar to that the value that i offer
and benefit to the client i think there
is
you know there is also a school of
thought that says that you must
demonstrate the benefit
to the employer think about as a
resource to the employer
and what's the benefit to the employer
so
on the left hand side we talked about
the value of her so that means what i
have to offer to you
so here it says hands-on accounting
experience what does that
how does that really benefit your client
now when i say your client this was
meant to go to
uh you know recruitment agencies so
that's why it's to
your client but you can always say
benefit to you
or benefit to name of the company as
well
that continuous internship helped me to
gain
experience and this is what i've learned
so that's the benefit that you're going
to receive
out of doing that so i think this is
another way
you know for you to look at what value
do you offer
and also what benefit does it have to
to the organization that you're applying
to or
to the you know to the uh to the
recruiter's client
and and consider this that you know it's
about how do you structure this
you know is what makes it makes a
difference you know sometimes
structuring it in table or format you
know as kb mentioned it just
allows people to quickly understand
you know how you know how you are
beneficial to them
can be anything you want to add to yeah
i think um you know if you've got an
understanding of what the
what you're required to deliver um that
becomes
the benefit so how does your
accounting experience actually benefit
what
you know allow their clients to achieve
what they need to achieve um will
definitely have impact but just the
format
um itself allows you to think quite
critically about those things
and you know it helps drive a discussion
um in interview as well so um
you know instead of sort of having you
you can actually just
if that's going to a recruitment
consultant you actually can
drive the discussion more so than you
know having holes picked in your resume
and that type of thing
so i quite like that that that structure
and format as well
so yeah um
okay questions any more
questions
should we address the gap or leave it
unless the employer or hr manager asks
for that
in cover letters what are your uh you
know opinions because there are
conflicting opinions on that so how
would you address that kb
yeah i can understand that there are
conflicting opinions on that
um i lean towards
really um
honing in on what you can bring to the
role
um and maybe so have that much more
focus than you know maybe you've had a
two-year gap um
out of the role um but you might want to
say if there's a two-year gap you know
you've spent the last two years doing a
b
c and d and that makes you even more
excited to apply for this particular
role
um yeah that that's
that's how i i would um structure it i
think people say address
it because um where there's a gap
people assume you know it leaves the
space for a recruiter to assume
assume the worst and maybe eliminate you
from that
but um yeah i i wouldn't be
i wouldn't be opening my cover letter
with as you'll see from my resume it's
been two years since i've done
this role um i would be opening it with
the same way that nation i have
and structuring it the same way um that
nation i have and saying
you know i have been you know having
been out of the workforce or having been
doing something
uh else in the last two years it's
reaffirmed the fact that i really love
to do blah blah blah and try and make
that
in some way um to be a positive type
thing but
don't be apologetic about it um you know
just thinking
think about the benefit of that actual
gap
absolutely absolutely do you want to
move forward and navid
hang on there we will come to you know
answer
that question for you as well and i
think i agree with the linkedin user who
said
uh focusing on what you can bring to the
role i think you
you know you can't you know if you don't
have you don't have that if there's a
gap there's a gap there's nothing that
you can do
to fill that gap um you know and and you
want to be able to
you know put up you know sort of you
know you know
coherent argument to the employer so
let's move forward and let's check out
the next one um you know
here is you know i think i i used a
different one
uh you know which i wanted to really
clearly identify
and give a kind of a personal voice to
the
to the you know to this job seeker that
i'm known for
translating raw concepts into
commercially viable products
competently and efficiently i really
wanted that
to be at at the front and center now one
of the reason was that
because this person was looking at
research and development
professional role which is which is not
you know which i knew that they
the this coverage will be absolutely red
somebody will absolutely
read the cover letter and resume you
know may not be together but might be
you know separately and i really wanted
to highlight
this particular thing and that is what
really worked uh you know in this
situation
and if you if you look at uh also i
wanted to there's a sort of you know the
the beginning the the first instance
is is also kind of saying that if you
are looking for someone like this
then i'm i'm a perfect candidate so it
opens up
with that point of strength that i am a
perfect candidate because
your job ad says that you are looking
for
uh you know certain kind of skill set
anything you want to add to kb then you
can also take
a question uh from a navid as well
yeah i like this because it you know
again it just jumps out
that quote just really jumps out at
you and it's if you don't remember
anything about the cover letter you
remember that there's a cover letter
with that great great quote popping out
and you read the cover letter
um with that in mind basically and i
also love the formatting with the ticks
you know just to really um bring that
because because
we tend to read bullet points we tend to
read the first part of the bullet point
so that's why i always lead with the
achievement like the value in that first
part of the bullet point
um and again you know you've got if gla
glaxo
pharmaceuticals are searching for an r d
expert with a via
verifiable track record of spearheading
r d projects in cosmetics and personal
care
um you're repeating repeating
i assume they should took that out of
what they were looking for in the
advertisement
and you're showing that you've read it
and you're repeating the pitch and
you're saying it with confidence i'm the
person that you
need to be actually looking for so it
just stands out
much more so than um you know
i i would like to apply for the job of
abc
type thing it's it's showing that you've
read the investment you've done some
research around
around the role so i really like that
all right we got a question from navid
uh in situation where providing a cover
letter it
is optional should you still provide one
yes absolutely you should i think we
covered that question
before now with you should you must
provide a cover letter it takes 10 15
minutes for you to draft one
uh but but but do that as well
and put on the size of the cover letter
should not go
beyond one page unless you are also
attaching
selection criterias are along with it
and kb that brings me that we should
probably do a similar session on
selection criteria to to bring
you know given in sort of a deeper
insights on how can you really craft
selection criteria it's a
it's probably more painful than writing
a cover letter
but we will we will still try to make
sense of that
as well so let's move to the next one
yeah
i've got um just wanted to answer a
question that we've entered half of it
that was sent in
um the format for a government
sector cover letter when you've got a
cover letter
you've got a selection criteria and
you've got a resume
generally governments take
their main information from the
selection criteria because it's set up
in a certain way and everybody has to
respond to that and it's it's based on
that principle of merit selection that
everyone
you know there's no guess work you've
taken it from the prescribed format
and against a criteria um i don't tend
to
like if i write a government if if color
that is separate from that
i do tend to explain why they have the
interest in the role and maybe pull out
three or four key highlights that
really sell you for the role they will
still be in the selection criteria
but they're things that you want people
to really take notice of
and that would be what i actually put in
the cover letter
but sometimes now what um government's
asking
it really depends on what they're asking
for so they might say
address the criteria in a two-page cover
letter and in that scenario
you address the criteria um as much as
you can
in that letter so you break up you know
what they're asking what you can offer
or an example of you know that
demonstrates how you do that
and then there was a second part of this
question i'll just find
it um in a cover letter we provide
examples on essential criteria or cover
that we've worked
um i think yeah in a cover letter should
we provide examples on the essential
criteria or just
cover that we've worked there and leave
the example for interview time
um if they're not
if if they're not asking you for a
selection criteria and they've asked you
for a cover letter
addressing the selection criteria then
address that
in in the cover letter um as much as
possible
so um you know pick out you know i i do
maybe set it up or structure it like i
set up the first one with
the headline of what they're looking for
and then a little example um
underneath that so just try and try and
follow the instructions that they give
you and
um you know because obviously that's
what they want you to
to produce in that scenario sorry nesh i
jumped in there no no that's right
that's absolutely fine let's go to the
next one and ah there's one thing i
think you'll probably
the ps1 that's right now cs is you know
i think there's a research done that
ps is usually uh you know you know
people make notice of the ps or now it's
also pps because psn is
underneath that there is another you
know content called pts
um you know it's usually uh you know
spotted
uh you know by by everyone so
in this i decided to use ps such as my
my company increased sales by 50 after i
developed a great product
can i do it for my next employer and the
answer is resounding yes
i think if you want to really convey
something ex
like very critical and something that
hits the right tone
you can always use a ps uh which will be
if the cover letter is red uh you know
ps will be
absolutely hundred percent will be red
yeah fantastic ps is always get ready
whenever i write an
email and i want people to read
something i'd put it at the bottom of
the ps
or do something so and again that's a
nice headline a nice sort of tail for
the um
you know the quote at the top basically
all right let's go to the next one um
now next one i've i've still
experimented and used
a very still personalized you know
idea around that uh you know when this
this client is looking for um
you know customer service role and uh
specifically that she also came from
from overseas are looking to get into
here so we decided to
give a little bit more personalized
touch so it says
customer service mantra so what do i
believe in
right you know i believe that there are
three important aspects so i know
and this is her voice this came out of
our discussion
around how does she treat customers and
specifically from you know finance
industry you know what does she really
think about customer service and that's
what i put in here customer service
mantra
this is my mantra it is not anyone
else's this is how i treat
the customers with so i think that
really
kind of you know you know really gave
that personal touch and really
the cover letter actually stood out
because you know obviously the client
started to work with or the
superannuation
company not long after that but there's
one thing in particular that i wanted to
show
everyone was around the
local experience question now i wrote
this cover letter back in 2013-14 when
the local experience question used to
bug me a lot because i just could not i
answered them
but once i decided you know what let's
just put that on the cover later let's
see whether people
how do people really appreciate it and
what's their feedback like now
so i i believe that if you cannot defend
just go on offensive and see whether
that makes any
change or not so i said you would ask
i'm i'm saying without even you looking
at that do i have local local experience
and my answer is no
no i don't but then while
uh then i'm giving an argument around
that you are by
by overlooking my global experience
you're not looking at other skills which
are transferable
you know you're you're too much focused
on the local experience bit
where you where i've got the other
skills which are which
transcends the boundaries of countries
and that is what i want you to focus on
and that really this 545 lines what it
does to somebody who reads it has a
clear message
around where i can focus on but secondly
it also gives you the peace of mind that
then when somebody calls you and say hey
you don't have local experience you
should say
look go and read the cover letter i've
already addressed that question
for you right and i think it is it is
important for
especially those who are you know you
know migrants who
uh you know lack local experience this
is
one of the way that you can address that
there is no
you know if you do not have local
experience you don't have local experts
there's nothing that you can do about
that right
so that was my you know you know you can
say my event
to the to the challenges that the
migrants were facing but that's how i
i wanted to address that and i was quite
you know successful
in in addressing that effectively it's a
funny thing isn't it and i was reading
ages ago a book around persuasion
and um warren buffet's
letter to shareholders that have become
quite famous
and one of the reasons he's so
persuasive is that he was so honest
so and and you bring those concerns up
to the forefront
and you then go yep i would have that
concern as well but here's why
and you know like even in the example
that um i presented as well it's like
um you know my experience is different
but actually that's going to make me
stronger
and to what you were saying before
intiaz is you know okay
um yes i have you might be asking why i
had this gap in my
my resume um
you know let me reassure you that one of
the reasons i took was
because i really wanted to highlight you
know my professional development by
experiencing another sector
um so you can i mean it makes it it
helps you
it actually makes you seem more
trustworthy but it also
that that would stand out to me if i was
looking at this going all up i'd go all
right
i'll give you an interview okay enough
stop it i might not win you
when you immediately the job but it
might get you it might actually just get
you into the pile to the interview which
is all you wanted with the cover letter
you know it's not your entire history
so yeah so we've got another question
uh from jasmine she's there um
how do you address the lack of domain or
industry experience in your cover letter
in my case i have experience in
compliance management at it services
but the job asks for compliance
management
in healthcare or finance
yeah i think i think uh you know i think
it goes back to the same argument
is that why do you first of all why do
you believe that you are still a strong
fighter regardless whether you don't
have experience or not
write down your argument write down your
your reasons by yourself right first
first of all you're going to have some
substantial reason because you're you
know it's like
it's like you know look i've always
driven a car
i'm going to go and ask my friend that
look i've never driven this mini bus
but i think i know i know how it works
and everything else
can you end me over the keys the you
know there was something on i
really need some more convincing rather
than just you're saying that i've driven
the car
you know what research have you done on
that right
you know what evidences do you have that
can
really give me some confidence
that despite of you not having this
particular
you know industry experience or exposure
you still
have the ability to understand what goes
on in a health care sector
what gives you that you know that amount
of you know confidence
and i think a lot of the time we we
think that the employer should
go and find it out no employees will not
find it out it is our duty
it is our responsibility to explain that
in a very
clear-cut method that these are the
reasons
why i should be given a chance i'm also
a big fan of you know i think
it shows up on on this resume also if
you look at
here i'm i'm quite a big fan of writing
like this
that you know that let me give you four
reasons to interview
okay if then you outline you could write
10 reasons to intervene
in outline 10 reasons give them evidence
give them some concrete
information that that will make you
they'll feel you know
i think that's worthwhile a chance let's
give it a chance to jesus me and let's
call because i think
she is she's there she's really trying
to convince me
and you know in the inter personality we
may be able to figure that out
more so that's my response this week
first of all
get clear in your head write it down and
then
go to really in a crafting stronger
statement
i would try and dig in a little bit too
you know um
so you could say something along the
lines of
you know i understand you know
that um complete the compliance regimes
or the regulatory environment
in healthcare and finance are complex
they they change really quickly
i too have experience in
you know understanding regulation and
managing
risk for example in complex dynamic and
highly regulated environments
um and this is how i can prove that
so you know i have
introduced new systems and like find
some evidence that demonstrates the fact
that you can
um that you can do that so well this is
how i'm prepared to quickly acquire
those
those those skills or this is how i've
changed from one sector to the next
sector
really rapidly and some evidence that
you've been able to do that
um ultimately if they're going if it's
going to come down to sector experience
it'll come down
to sector experience but that's the way
um i would actually try and
identify the real the the identifier
like the
the components that characterize that
environment that compliance or risk
environment
and you know talk about where you've
operated successfully in a very similar
or even more complex more dynamic and
more
heavily regulated environment
absolutely all right so we got one more
question
uh from india if i'm looking to bridge
the experience gap and want to volunteer
at some company to get experience he's
writing a cover letter
the best option or cold calling works
better any thoughts on that okay
experience if i'm looking to bridge the
experience gap i want to volunteer at
some company and get
to get experience he's writing a couple
letters the best option
um
i would i guess if you're i guess you're
applying for a job and
using that volunteer experience as
evidence of your suitability
is that what inters is asking do you
think no i think what he's asking is
that uh you know it's in the context of
volunteering
if i want to let's say i want to you
know work in a company
sector and there's a gap that i have and
i want to go and volunteer to bridge
that gap
or to get experience what's the best way
for me to approach
that volunteering organization and my
response would be
if you know if you know somebody in that
you know
go ahead and you know send an email out
uh
but i think call would still you know
trump the
email because it's that personal touch
is the explanation that you can do
on um you know on on the phone which
goes far better
than writing a cover letter because you
know if writing is not your
not your natural skill you're going to
hate that doing that
and then you're going to hate it you are
not going to be really productive
or really put your heart into this but
if calling
you know it's something that you can do
it pick up a phone call talk to them
then they say look into us what i want
you to do is if you can just
draft us an email and send it to what we
discussed
you know then i can take this forward
but then it's easier for you because
you've
already spoken to them and then you are
kind of you know explain the same thing
that you've spoken to them on the phone
and answering some of the
question and cover that as a cover note
and
send it as a cover note with your resume
i think that's what i would do
yeah i i'm not a big fan of doing the
volunteer
services for for no no
money type thing i try and work out
in the area that you're interested in
being employed
because the organizations always have
like i try and work out
what it is that they have a pressing
need to do but don't have the resources
to do and try and negotiate around that
and say if you could
if you could um develop a proposal that
would
help them with that solution that might
save them time and money
um would they consider that you know
would they consider employing you
in that sector or you know what would
you need to
are other roles coming up in your area
of interest what would you need to
demonstrate
to prove your capability for that role
and if you did it could you return back
to them in a month or two months
and you know gain that experience um
somewhere else so
yeah i'm not a huge fan of offering to
work for free
so yeah
excellent i think that's pretty much
where we covered
in a lot of ground today on cover
letters and hopefully this has been
useful
and um you know we are more than happy
to share those cover letter
examples as well so if you want a cover
letter example you must write it back to
me or caroline so that we can
send it to you um you know and if you
get a job just
under 10 percent of your salary
100 to start off with
but we don't charge up front
absolutely and yeah so thank you very
much everyone hopefully
you know hope you are liking our new
approach to bringing
uh you know some this you know really
and that's what we wanted to do we said
rather than conceptually
we can show you something and dismantle
it for you and show different ways to
approach that you know
you know thank you very much for all of
you and yes i think we will probably do
one
on selection criteria as well because
i also hate right right
so excuse me everyone
all right so tell us about tomorrow um
you know kevin
okay so if you are offended by swearing
cover your ears right now because we've
got the man that brought fuck-up knights
to melbourne
coming in to talk with us and we're
going to talk not so much about fuck-ups
uh or we might do that a little bit but
we're going to talk about the idea
that you can network by creating
something
so um fuck up nights is a movement that
celebrates
failures and removes the stigma out of
failures um
and gary um who's coming on brought it
to melbourne it's a worldwide movement
so we're going to talk about
why he did that how he created a
movement around that
essentially built a tribe and put
himself at the center of a network
among other things it's going to be i've
been to quite a few of these nights
they're absolutely hilarious they get
business owners to talk about their
biggest screw-ups that they've ever made
and gosh you know after listening to
those you go
yeah all right i'm all right or i've
done exactly the same thing
and you know so it takes the shame out
of it so please join in
even if you can't see how to directly
relate to what you're doing now i assure
you that you'll get some fantastic ideas
or at the very least a great laugh from
it all
so um and yet just a reminder if you're
watching this on youtube for the very
first time and you like this please
subscribe give us
a comment or the thumbs up please follow
the hashtag careercarepackage
on linkedin i think the last time we're
up to 61 naish we're climbing
anything else you wanted to add
uh nothing else just you know comment of
bali and balin said that
caroline uh you know you and i should
have done so much for us for last
four months this is at least we can do
by subscribing to your channel and this
is what i wanted to say yesterday also
thank you very much balin for your love
and support yes
so we will see you tomorrow we will do
this again
23 hours after and uh
and really look forward to your
participation and support
until that time if you are in victoria
please mask up if you are anywhere else
please look after
yourself and your loved ones see you
later tomorrow
bye everyone bye
