In this post we are going to be getting into the weeds on Cover Letters and CVs. This can be a slightly boring topic but it is very important.
Since the ratio of applicants to job postings is to high at the moment, almost all the companies you apply to will not read you CV until the late stages of the application process if at all. Quite often what will happen is they will use some something called ATS (Applicant Tracking Software).
When you apply to a job this software will scan you CV and Cover Letter for key words and themes and then automatically decide if you will go to the next round. (Yes this does mean you can just be instantly rejected without a human ever looking at your application)
This is why knowing how to write a good CV and Cover Letter is crucial. You could be the best applicant in the world and still get rejected if your CV is not up to scratch for the ATS.
You can find our CV template to download here
I will just note that this guide is intended for all types of students applying to all different types of industries. Having had applied to Finance and Tech and having spoken to many other students applying for Law, consulting etc what your CV and mainly cover letter should contain may vary slightly but the main themes of this post will almost always apply.
CV or Curriculum Vitae in latin translates roughly to "course of life" and should explain what you have done on one page.
The purpose of a CV serves two purposes: one, to get you through the initial CV screening done by the ATS and two, to provide a recruiter with a good background of your skills and experience later on in the application process.
For many first year students or students just starting the application process you may not have hear about a cover letter (thats okay, neither had I when I first started applying).
A cover letter serves as a means for the company you are applying to to know three main things:
These themes will come up again when I talk about how you actually write one.
Writing one also gives you the opportunity to really get to know the company, its values and how they work which will come in very handy in the interview stages.
Your CV should contain five main sections:
Cover letters allow for you to expand on your skills, experience and industry knowledge which you wouldn't be able to cover on your CV. This could be talking in depth about a project you have worked on which relates to the role, in doing so showing off a bit!
A cover letter, no matter the company or industry always follows this rough structure. It should only be one page, formerly written with the following paragraphs:
They "Why me?" section of your cover letter should set out why they should hire you. This could be any relevant experience you have, why that would be useful to the company, etc
This section you should talk about what draws you to apply for that company.
NB: You may be thinking for many of the companies you are applying to "I just want an internship and I don't really care where I work". This is okay, but sometimes it can make writing a cover letter quite hard. My advice would be to simply look at what the company does, usually you can find something super interesting you can talk about.
You should try and talk about something which isn't the first thing which pops up when you google the company (most students will do this) but if you can find something a bit niche this will show you really know your stuff.
This is where things like insight days and networking events come in handy. They can often give you an amazing insight into the company and what they do, all of which you can use as talking points in your cover letter. you can also say things like I met so and so and they talked about x and that made me very interested in applying etc etc
This section you are expected to explain why you have applied for that particular role at the company. For example, in finance, there are many roles in lots of departments. They want to know why you applied for IB for example and not Asset Management. Why were you more interested in that role?
Here you can tie this into a conversation with someone from the company you have spoken to or an insight day where you learned about that department or role. Or you can talk about how it relates to some previous experience you may have.
These can be in any order, usually you will find that some flow better in certain orders and some flow better in different orders; each paragraph should follow from the last and lean into the next.