One of the adventures of reg force military life is the ongoing need to find a new job in our partner’s new posting location. There’s a lot of competition out there, so how do you make your resume and cover letter stand out above the crowd so that you get that all-important interview?
Our first piece of advice: Contact our partners at Career Development Services
These professionals will help you translate your skills and experiences into professional language that employers are looking for and give you lots of great tips for standing out, in a good way. They have locations in Bloomfield, Charlottetown, Souris, Summerside, Wellington, and Montague. All services are free of charge. They offer a friendly and confidential environment where you are able to learn about career options, discover your skills and abilities, and search for employment. Contact them here.
Job application submission tips
While professional help is great, the onus is still on the job-seeker to put their best foot forward with the employer. Here are some other tips to help you do just that…
- Ensure your email address is professional. If you use Pokemon_Hunter@email.com or partygurl234@me.com, consider creating a new email account just for your professional interests.
- Please ensure you have no typos or grammatical errors in anything you send to an employer. It will reflect on your skills and work ethic.
- Customize your cover letter to the specific job for which you are applying. Employers can tell a generic fill-in-the-blank cover letter a mile away. Show them you really want the job by taking the time to personalize your letter.
- Take time to work on your application. Sending your generic resume in, seconds after the job is posted, from your work email, sends a bad message to the hiring committee. You won’t earn any brownie points for submitting early, so take the time you need. Most job ads will post a closing date, so you know how much time you have.
- Email the completed document to yourself to ensure the formatting transfers well. We recommend you PDF everything, as that does a better job at keeping formatting intact, but to be sure, it’s a great idea to see how your application appears through your maybe–future employer’s eyes.
- Read the job posting very carefully and follow all instructions on how to apply. Be mindful that there might be an “Apply Now” button on the third-party platform, but that doesn’t mean that the employer wants to, is able to, or will attempt to open it if they have specifically asked for you to deliver it in a particular manner.
- Put your name in the header or footer on all of your pages. This way, if the papers get mixed up, the employer will know which pages go together.
- Name your file appropriately. We suggest “Firstname.Lastname.job.date” instead of resume.doc to assist employers in finding you in their computer.
- Finally, have someone who loves you proofread your documents before you submit them. There’s only one chance to make a first impression and if you have errors in your application documents you are unlikely to score an interview.
Taking the extra steps to ensure your job application is polished and professional will give you the very best chance to reach that coveted next stage: the job interview.
Any other tips? Comment below!