Transform Your IT Sample Resume – Tactics to Make an Example of Cover Letters Doubly Powerful
The trouble for most job applicants is, not only has the market for jobs changed significantly, but so have important job search tools like resume and cover letters. Today, everyone is working from the same example of cover letters, and there are just too many other candidates. If your letter just summarizes the responsibilities you recounted on an IT sample resume you’re not making yourself unique, and some of your competitors are, and when they interview, they will beat you.
Read on for a few effective strategies that will make you the candidate to beat:
Recount one message many times, many different ways in a single cover letter.
Yes, it’s achievable. And handled well, it’s exceedingly persuasive. You modify the listings from your IT sample resume and break one achievement down into five segments:
1. one bolded statement – e.g., If you’re concerned that the Chinese games are taking over the market, I can help you reverse engineer popular games to help you discover how to….
2. a brief explanation, e.g., Here’s how this works and why you can trust it;
3. a brief story, e.g. At Jet Games, we realized that the Chinese were actually knocking off our best selling games and altering them to…So a task force I led was able to…;
4. a one sentence testimonial, e.g. In fact, our primary trading partner had this to say…; and
5. a numbered or bulleted list, e.g. a. Just set up a time we can meet, b. I’ll bring in documents and schematics, c. If you like what you see…
You can get this all done in one page. And it will kick any example of cover letters that just recount what’s already on an it sample resume.
Avoid the stilted “formal talk” the other candidates will be using.
Any example of cover letters you pick up is going to be stilted – overly dry and formal, a recounting of projects, programming languages, and processes. Even if you start with an IT sample resume, you can create something much more dynamic by employing some action words and appeals to the senses.
If you’re looking for a job in IT, use your understanding to call to mind what it’s actually like to be on a tricky project. Include an account of being in a conference room and having to negotiate a delivery date with program managers, project managers, and product managers all pushing their own agendas. Help the recruiter see that you know how it is.
Open a word processor and compose a succinct but extremely vibrant narrative of the toughest difficulty your hiring manager has that you can solve. Dream up some evocative phrases that will pull the reader in: “there was an almost guttural growl of discontent running beneath the discussion”, “the celebration almost lifted us up off our feet!”
It’s unusual language that you will never see in any example of cover letters. But if the recruiter really knows the business, it will ring true. This is your profession, these are your accomplishments. Start with an IT sample resume, then don’t be afraid to use writing that sets you apart.
