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Contents
Your Cover Letter .................................................................................................................... 2

The Research ......................................................................................................................... 3

Understand the selection criteria for the role ....................................................................... 3

Know who to address the letter to ........................................................................................ 3

Research the organisation .................................................................................................. 3

Plan Your Structure ................................................................................................................ 4

Fleshing It Out........................................................................................................................ 5

Highlight Your Unique Selling Points ....................................................................................... 6

The Killer Introduction ............................................................................................................ 7

Proofreading .......................................................................................................................... 8

Checklist ............................................................................................................................... 9

First impression .................................................................................................................. 9

Format ............................................................................................................................... 9

Language ........................................................................................................................... 9

Content .............................................................................................................................. 9

Final steps .......................................................................................................................... 9

Example Cover Letter............................................................................................................ 10

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Your Cover Letter

Your cover letter is the introduction to your application. It’s your opportunity to show that you’ve researched the
organisation and fully understand the responsibilities of the role. Your main task in writing your cover letter is to clearly
and concisely demonstrate why you are a strong candidate for the role advertised.

A weak cover letter is generic and seemingly random. It does not address the job ad, the organisation or the industry with
specific examples of relevant experience and skills. It’s also filled with typos, awkward sentences and is usually too long.

A compelling cover letter demonstrates knowledge of the organisation or industry, is easy to read and it makes a strong
case for your suitability for the role.

Your cover letter is not about peacocking. Think of it instead as helping the recruiter or employer to see why you’re the right
fit for this particular role.

This guide will walk you through every stage of writing your cover letter, from what to research to how to highlight your
unique selling points. There’s no quick fix to constructing a winning cover letter and it will take time and persistence. With
research, planning and strong delivery you’ll land your next interview in no time!

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The Research
Strong research is the foundation of a great application and the more you can draw out in this phase, the more targeted
and compelling your cover letter will be. This will immediately set your cover letter apart from the crowd.
Start by gathering the following information:
1. The selection criteria for the role
2. Who to address the application to
3. The organisation you are applying to (when applying direct)
Understand the
selection criteria for the
role
Start by carefully reading the job ad. What
are the skills, selection criteria,
competencies, and core responsibilities
for this job?
Take note of any key skills and qualities
that stand out as particularly important to
this employer. This is the criteria you’ll
want to target in your cover letter and
resume.
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Know who to address
the letter to
Who is the person you can contact for
further information? This is the person you
should address your cover letter to. If there
is no contact person listed, call the
company and ask them who to address
your cover letter to.
A personally addressed cover letter will
make an impact worth making the extra
effort for.
If despite your best efforts, you can’t find
out who to address your cover letter to, a
simple “To the Hiring Manager” or
“Recruitment Manager” is OK.
Research the
organisation
When applying directly to an employer,
take time to research the hiring
organisation. Having knowledge of the
services, priorities and values of the
employer will allow you to ‘speak’ their
language and demonstrate your suitability
for this specific role.
Read through the employer’s website to
learn what their core services and products
are, what values are important to the
organisation and who makes up the
leadership team. Check out their social
media profiles to get an idea of their
corporate tone and personality. You can
also run a Google search on the name of
the organisation using the news filter to
see if there have been any major
announcements or changes in the
organisation.
This may feel like a lot of effort just to write
a cover letter, but remember, this is your
opportunity to make a strong case for your
suitability for the role.
Plan Your Structure

By now you may be itching to start writing, but don’t jump in yet.

First take ten minutes to plan your structure. This will help you to breakdown and prioritise which selection criteria to target
with your specific skills and experience. This step will also help you to organise your thoughts and formulate a case for why
the employer should choose you as a strong candidate for the role.

Copy and paste the job ad or position description into a new Word document. Create a list of the responsibilities or
selection criteria from the job ad and position description. This list of responsibilities, key skills and qualities will form the
criteria that you will address in your cover letter.

Also consider any implied criteria that may not be included in the list, such as highly desirable qualities for this industry or
role. For example, if it’s a project management role, recruiters are likely to be looking for a highly organised and efficient
person. Add these implied criteria to your list.

Create a second list of your most relevant skills and experience, which you can link back to the criteria list that you’ve
created. Include your experience, achievements, proven skills and soft skills.

PRO TIP: Review your list and highlight any skills or qualities that seem to be
repeated – these are the clear top priorities for this role.

You can now use these two lists to plan the paragraphs that will make up the body of your cover letter. Group similar
criteria together so that you can use one or two of your experiences and capabilities to address more than one requirement
for the role.

Depending on how extensive the job ad or position description is, you should end up with two to three paragraphs.
Remember that you’ll need to include an introduction and a concluding paragraph, so it’s wise to avoid planning any more
than four paragraphs to demonstrate your capabilities.

Keep in mind a cover letter should be no more than one page.

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Fleshing It Out
When you begin writing your cover letter, your main task
will be demonstrating why you are a strong candidate for
the role. This means linking your specific skills and
proven experience to the selection criteria or position
description.
When a recruiter reads your cover letter, the main
question they have is: “does this person have the skills,
experience and qualities we need to satisfy this role?”.
Answer this question quickly by highlighting your
experience, skills and qualities as they relate to the
position description or selection criteria. Make it very
clear why you are the right choice for the position
advertised.
Summarise the key skills and experience you’ve
identified for this application into a few short
paragraphs. Include distinct examples of your work or
training that relate to the role.
Each paragraph should start with a topic sentence,
which briefly summarises the contents of the paragraph.
For example, a paragraph about your leadership and
project management skills might begin with a topic
sentence like this:
My experience as a Systems Engineer at XYZ
Company has allowed me to sharpen my team
leadership and project management
capabilities.
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This topic sentence should then be followed by two or
three sentences about specific projects and contexts in
which these skills and related qualities can be
demonstrated. Use linking words and phrases to
connect sentences and paragraphs. Using the example
above, the paragraph might continue like this:
My experience as a Systems Engineer at XYZ
Company has allowed me to sharpen my team
leadership and project management capabilities. For
example, I led our team on the challenging ABC project;
coordinating team responsibilities and keeping each
team member motivated and accountable for the end
result. In addition to this I was able to further expand my
communications and interpersonal skills by taking the
lead in managing communication with the client and
other stakeholders about the project.
These writing techniques will add cohesion to your cover
letter and make it much easier to read.
Finally, remember the age old advice of ‘Show don’t
tell’. Don’t ‘tell’ the recruiter the skills you have. Show
them you are a smart choice for the role by ‘showing’
examples of the work you’ve done in the past that
highlight the skills and qualities the employer is looking
for.
Highlight Your Unique Selling Points

Your unique selling points (USPs) are the experiences, skills or achievements that you believe set you apart from all other
candidates who may have similar work experience to you. This is what will give your cover letter and your resume an edge
over the competition.

Choose the experiences, skills or achievements that are most applicable to the role and focus on achievements that have
supporting metrics or evidence.

Some examples of strong unique selling points might be:

 Implementing a new system that improved customer service efficiency by X percent.

 Negotiating a service contract that saved the organisation X amount of dollars per year.

 Recent training in an exciting and innovative area in the industry.

When you highlight your unique selling points, you are demonstrating the kind of benefits that the employer can expect if
they choose to hire you.

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The Killer Introduction

Now that you’ve written the body paragraphs, it’s finally time to write your
introduction.

Never underestimate the power of first impressions. If you want to stand out to a
recruiter straight away, you need to grab their attention from the get go. In this case your first impression is made in your
introductory paragraph.

Most people waste this opportunity to make an impression by writing something generic like…

I’m writing to apply for the position advertised in...

Your opening lines should be easy to read, it should highlight your most relevant experiences or skills and immediately
demonstrate why you are a strong candidate for the position. No need to stress about writing something creative and
unique here. Focus on demonstrating your suitability for the role. This is after all the main thing the recruiter is interested
in.

Alternatively, you can lead with your success; amazing work that you’ve already accomplished in your career that will excite
this employer. Highlight some qualities and skills that make you the best fit for the organisation. Show your enthusiasm for
the role, passion for the industry or genuine admiration for the organisation.

Use your concluding paragraph to summarise some of your USPs relevant to the role. Be sure to reiterate why you are
enthusiastic about this role and ask the recruiter or employer for the opportunity to interview.

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 Proofreading
Your brain may feel a little fried after all this planning and writing, but you’re not finished yet. Stretch your legs,
grab a cup of tea or a coffee and get ready for the final phase of preparing your cover letter; proofreading.

Recruiters may read a hundred resumes for any given role. Make their job easier by removing typos, clunky
language, unnecessary jargon, and most importantly, by keeping your writing concise.

Start by reading through your cover letter from start to finish once or twice. Highlight typos, grammatical issues,
long sentences or anything that feels awkward. Avoid adding more content at this point, unless of course you’ve
not addressed some key selection criteria in the body of your letter. You want to focus instead on culling,
rewording and restructuring sentences. Work on making your sentences succinct and your paragraphs concise.
Your cover letter should be one-page maximum!

Each paragraph should clearly highlight your key selling points and make an impression. Ensure that your
paragraphs flow logically and remove superfluous words or sentences. Use simple language like ‘use’ instead of
‘utilise’, ‘incorrect’ instead of ‘erroneous’, ‘after’ instead of ‘subsequently’. Focus on impressing the recruiter
with your knowledge of the industry and your experience, not your ability to use a thesaurus.

PRO TIP: Most people use fanciful language in cover letters that they never use
in conversation. If it doesn’t feel natural coming out of your mouth remove it
from your cover letter.

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 Checklist
Now that you’ve put it all together, here’s a checklist for before you hit send:

First impression
 Numbers one to ten are written as words not

 Strong and positive introduction numerals. Numbers higher than ten are written as
numerals
 Logical flow to the paragraphs
 Tone is professional but friendly. Removal of any
 Shows knowledge of the organisation, role and unnecessary jargon or complicated language
industry
 Proof read to correct syntax, spelling, grammar and
 Demonstrates how specific skills, experience and punctuation
achievements meet the key requirements for the role
advertised
Content

Format  Briefly summarises relevant qualifications, skills,

experience and/or achievements
 One page of single-spaced text
 Skills are backed up with specific examples and
 Font is approximately size 12, Arial, Times New credible evidence
Roman or similar
 Highlights why you want to work for the employer
 Margins of the page are between 2cm – 2.5cm wide
 Closing paragraph thanks the employer for their time,
 Business letter format is used (applicant’s details, refers to an attached resume and any other included
date, recipient’s details, appropriate greeting, documents, requests a response/ interview and
appropriate sign off at the end) provides contact details

Language Final steps

 No abbreviations are used unless they are standard  Document saved as a Word document or specific
industry terminology format requested in the job ad

 Cover letter content is copied and pasted into the

body of your email

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Example Cover Letter
1 August 2016

To Michael Di Camillo

Re: Application for Systems Engineer (ID:3567) as seen on SEEK, 1st August.

I am a tertiary qualified Systems Engineer with over 15 years’ experience in systems Introduction
engineering in the Defence Industry. I hold a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering, am a member
of Engineers Australia and hold a current NV2 security clearance.

For the past seven years I have been working on military communications systems, specifically 2-3 body
designing and testing the system. In this role I have developed a strong understanding of defence paragraphs with
policy and processes. specific
examples related
My experience as a Systems Engineer at XYZ Company has allowed me to sharpen my team to the job
leadership and project management capabilities. For example, I led our team on the requirements
challenging ABC project; coordinating team responsibilities and keeping each team member
motivated and accountable for the end result. In addition to this I was able to further expand my
communications and interpersonal skills by taking the lead in managing communication with the Conclusion
client and other stakeholders on the project. highlighting
USPs related to
I believe seven years’ experience working on a similar project, my team management the job
experience, and holding a current NV2 security clearance positions me strongly for this role. requirements
Please find my resume attached in Word document as requested. I welcome the opportunity
to discuss further about my experience and the role you have available.
Invitation to
Yours Sincerely discuss further

Sam Smith
0400 123 456
sam@smith.com.au

DOWNLOAD THE TEMPLATE

COVER LETTER [WORD DOC]

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