Want a stand out cover letter and resume? Here are some expert tips.

A cover letter is your chance to introduce yourself to a potential employer and spark their interest in reading your resume. Your resume is your formal document highlighting your education, skills, work history and accomplishments.

1. Cover Letters

When considering job applications, a cover letter might seem like an afterthought compared to your resume. A cover letter is worth just as much and, in some cases, more attention.

Writing cover letters for senior executive applications is tedious and may seem pointless, but you need one now more than ever, even when you are approached about a new opportunity. Here is why: your cover letter is “your one opportunity” to stand out – to show off what you bring to the role in a way you can’t fully describe in your resume or LinkedIn profile.

Trust us, they matter.

Here are a few reasons why submitting a high-impact cover letter as part of your job application remains vital.

• A cover letter shows that you have taken the time to research and understand the context, role purpose and organisational setting.

• A cover letter allows you to explain your career trajectory and the decisions you have made, including any employment gaps in your resume.

• Your cover letter may be used further in the evaluation process and could be seen by multiple decision-makers.

• By writing a detailed cover letter, you are signalling your intention, showing the hiring manager that you are serious about landing the role.

“This is where the magic happens. Quite simply, this is your opportunity to reconcile your skillset with the attributes required for the role that you have applied for. Address the cover letter to the person on the advert and reference which role you are applying for, be specific as to WHY you are interested and WHY you feel you are a strong fit for the position and avoid statements that you cannot substantiate.” Jon Hottot, Senior Partner, Executive & Boards

And when it comes to your cover letter, here are some useful tips to consider:

1. Avoid simply copying your resume into letter format. Copying your resume is one of the worst things you can do in your cover letter.

2. Provide specific information relevant to the role. Often, a job advert will ask that you provide specific information within the cover letter. Failing to provide this information can be a red flag, as it shows that you either didn’t read the posting carefully, can’t follow instructions or are not able to provide what the employer requires.

3. New each time. You should be creating separate cover letters for each job you apply to, weaving in keywords from the job posting throughout. Recycling an old cover letter is one way to signal to the hiring manager that you are applying for multiple roles.

4. Proof points. Your cover letter is your platform to share why you’re a great prospective candidate — but you need some specific examples to back these claims up.

5. Ensuring there are no errors. Spelling mistakes or typos, make sure you proofread your cover letter carefully — then read it again and again.

“Dedicate time and make a conscious effort to understand the requirements or credentials the cover letter must address. If necessary, make a quick phone call to the recruiter to ensure that you are on the right track with the level of detail in the content you provide. (Please ensure you address the correct contact and position in your cover letter!)” Lyndsay Webley, Senior Associate, Executive & Boards

Remember, a well-constructed cover letter is your opportunity to convince a prospective employer that you’re the right person for the role. It’s too good an opportunity to let it go to waste.

“Personalising your cover letter shows your dedication and attention to detail, qualities highly valued by employers. It is difficult to strongly consider candidacy if someone is not taking the time to read the PD and any accompanying material to support their application.” Kerry Larkin, Senior Associate, Executive & Boards

2. Resumes

It can be hard to know where to start when you haven’t updated your resume in a while. What experiences and accomplishments are relevant for the jobs you’ve got your eye on? What new resume rules and trends should you be following? And seriously, one page or two?

Resume writing is a skill that often needs more mastering than you think. Whether you've got years of experience or are newly joining the workforce, your chance of landing an interview is much more likely if you have a stand-out resume to showcase your education, skills and experience.

With so much conflicting advice about what to include and what not to include on your resume, we asked some of our team for their best tips and advice on writing a stand-out resume.

Here’s how to get started:

1. Make the first section your professional summary. For highly experienced candidates, adding a professional summary at the top is a quick way to convey your core competencies concisely.

2. Highlight relevant skills. Use strong keywords aligned to your experience and the role you are applying for, e.g. “strategic planning” and “cost management” — as noted in the job description. Whether it’s being scanned by a human or a machine, this gets a resume noticed.

3. Make your recent position the most comprehensive. The professional experience section is the largest part of every resume, and details from your most recent (or current) position should account for about two-thirds of this section. Also, you do not need to include your first job or early career as you advance through leadership positions.

4. Include company descriptions. We consider this a universal rule: If you worked at a company that isn’t widely recognised, adding notable details about the organisation (i.e., what it does, number of employees, annual revenue) will save the hiring manager time from having to look it up. Avoid filling your resume up with corporate logos, even if you’ve worked for Amazon or Qantas!

5. Facts. If your leadership led to a growth in employee engagement or you developed and executed a sales plan that grew the organisation by 30 per cent, make it loud and clear! Be bold. That doesn’t mean you need to explain how you did it; save this for the interview, when the hiring manager or recruiter should ask for more details from you.

6. Highlight achievements. Limit your position responsibility descriptions to just two or four of the most important dot points. By keeping things brief, you can dedicate more space to your proudest and most relevant achievements. We like to see responsibilities and achievements highlighted. Be bold. This is a more powerful way to showcase that you can make an outstanding contribution in your next role.

“Your resume should narrate the story of your career, highlighting the trajectory and accomplishments you've achieved along the way. This narrative should give the reader a clear sense of the roles you have taken on and the reasons behind those choices. It should detail your achievements and the impact you made within each organisation, including the size and scope of the companies you contributed to. By presenting a coherent and compelling story, you help the reader understand your professional growth and value.” Jane Ellis, Managing Parter, Executive & Boards

There is no one-size-fits-all template for a resume that will guarantee a job interview or offer. However, there is one major message that every resume should illustrate: “This is how I made things better for my employers. And this is why you MUST hire me!”

Achievements and metrics: it's not exactly a "sell me, don't tell me", but if you've led significant projects and were involved in transformational projects, you will do yourself a disservice if you don't include the metrics that show the outcomes of the work you've developed. Don't leave it to the cover letter (or worse, to guesswork) to highlight the impact you've had in an organisation. "Led broad teams"? Be specific, how many is "broad"? Bruno Costa, Associate, Executive & Boards

Lastly, can we tell if your cover letter or resume was written by an AI? The short answer is yes. Often, the lack of personalisation is visible from the beginning. We also keep an eye out for overly technical words, broad and motherhood statements or highly generalised claims, which is how we can tell that they were not written by you.