Your cover letter and resume are the first things assessed when you start a competition. You might think that the cover letter and resume are simply vehicles for you to relay information, but they are so much more than that.
Your cover letter, along with your resume, provides the reviewer with insight into what kind of employee you will be, leaves the reviewer with a first impression about you as a person and based on your cover letter, the reviewer will start to assess whether you will be successful in the competition and be the right fit for the team.
Who knew a cover letter was assessed in this way…..?
When I first pick up a cover letter, in the first 30…. No, the first 10 seconds I know whether this person can follow instructions, can write coherently, is detailed oriented, is structured in their thoughts, has experience in the federal government competition process and most importantly, for the applicant, whether they are someone worth my effort to screen into the competition.
I can tell this by the structure and language of the cover letter, whether the cover letter is concise, if it focusses on the right essential qualifications and whether the applicant has substance in terms of their qualifications. And if it takes me more than 10 seconds to determine these things, chances are the applicant will not be screened in the competition and if they are, I will already be frustrated by their application and feel that the applicant is wasting my time.
I have looked at cover letters that have been over 10 pages long, with glowing commentary on incredible accomplishments, wonderful stories on work history and interesting background material on the candidate (who wouldn’t want a triathlete / platelet donor on their team!), but nowhere in the cover letter was there enough information on the essential qualifications, so the candidate was screened out.
So, knowing this, how do you make those first 10 seconds count
1. Who’s Your Daddy?
Let’s be clear about one important thing….. your goal when applying for a federal government job is to give the reviewer the information they need to screen you into the competition. And the easier it is to find and assess this information in your application, the better.
When federal government jobs are posted, they often result in large volumes of applicants. Over 100 applications is extremely common and for entry level positions, in some locations, applications in the hundreds will be received. Recently, I posted a technical position with very specific qualifications and received over 80 applications.
With this kind of competition, you need to be at your best from the starting pistol. Pay attention to the tips below and you will set yourself apart from so many others. These tips may be the difference between your application ending up on the floor or you getting through to the next stage of the competition.
So, just to be clear, if you are just starting to apply for federal government jobs you will need to reconsider your cover letter and resume format according to the items set out below.
It is not about talking about your greatest accomplishments, or making sure you have a professional picture on your resume (OMG…..please get rid of the picture) or for gosh sakes, do not list every article you have published (unless writing scientific or policy articles are relevant to the position you are applying for).
Think lean and mean when writing your cover letter and give the reviewer what they want.
2. Structure, Structure, Structure
THE most important element to focus on when it comes to Canadian federal government applications is the structure of the cover letter. The structure must follow the essential and asset qualifications listed on the job poster.
At the application screening stage, education and experience are normally the only essential or asset qualifications assessed. So for each education and experience qualification, set it as a heading and write 1 or 2 short paragraphs providing specific examples of how you meet the qualification.
Note: simply saying you meet the qualification and relying on your resume to back up your statement is not enough. Many highly qualified people have made this mistake and ended up being screened out.
3. Be Bold, Be Brief, Be Gone
The reviewer does not want to hear about how excited you are to apply for this position or what an excellent candidate you are or whether your past bosses think you are swell. The reviewer also does not want to hear about your greatest accomplishments or your strengths…. Unless they directly speak to the essential or asset qualifications relating to education and experience.
If I receive a cover letter that is more than 2 or 3 pages, the applicant is in trouble. Either I need to sift through useless information to find what I am looking for or the applicant does not have the substantive experience and is grasping to find relevant experience to get them into the competition.
Make sure you hit the essentials, provide enough details to confirm you meet the qualification and that your experience is at a level equal to the position you are applying for. For instance, if the essential qualification is service excellence, the experience expected of an administration clerk compared to a director would be very different.
And then be gone…. Stop. You do not need to provide any more information.
4. Tailor-Made, Baby
Don’t waste your time and the time of the reviewer. If you are truly interested in a position, spend the time focussing your cover letter and resume on the essential and asset qualifications set out in the application. More often than not, generic resumes and cover letter end up on the floor. And if they don’t, they will leave the reviewer with a less than a stellar first impression.
Creating a custom cover letter and resume doesn’t need to take a lot of time but this can make the difference between being successful or not.
5. Minimalism is the New Black
The second part of the application is the resume. Most people might think that that the resume is the most important piece of the application, but the federal government flips that idea on its head. The cover letter is the main document for determining whether someone gets screened into a competition and the resume is simply for reference to confirm that the candidate has the qualifications stated in the cover letter.
People can spend a lot of time or money on getting their resumes just right and making sure it looks beautiful, because nothing is better than a beautiful resume…. Right?
The vast majority, if not all, applications (cover letter and resumes) come to the federal government electronically through a website portal. Both resumes and cover letters are either directly typed or more commonly cut and pasted into text boxes.
And translating even the simplest graphics in a text box is challenging. So consider this as you set up your resume…. Even something as simply as a bullet point on your resume, such as….
• Advised senior officials on legislative process
Will end up looking like this….
%#^(& Advised senior officials on legislative process
So those beautiful resumes with excellent graphics will not deliver good value when you are applying to the federal government…..
The structure and substance are the key. So keep it simple and clean.
It is as easy as that…
• Remember who you are writing for;
• Give the reviewer the structure they crave;
• Be concise;
• Tailor your cover letter and resume to each competition; and
• Keep it simple
Simple tips to Crush the Competition.
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