How to Write Resume and Cover Letter Templates That Don’t Suck
Spending hundreds of hours looking for a job is easy and, frankly, common. The longer your job search goes on, the more hopeless it may seem, and the more hours you may feel that you should devote yourself to this cause. This is where templates come in: we don’t want people to be able to tell you’re using a template, but using templates behind the scenes will save you valuable time and energy and allow you to apply for more jobs faster.
Think of your resume and cover letter not as a manifestation of who you are as a person, but as marketing materials for yourself as an employee. Like a visually boring movie poster, your resume can never capture every little detail about the plot (you), but instead should just highlight the most compelling things (about your work experience) and keep them interested in learning more.
Here’s how to “template” your resume, cover letters, thank you notes, and networking messages so they don’t sound like a template.
Create a template “master resume”
For some reason, it’s very hard to find a resume template online that isn’t full of graphics, photos, and detailed color schemes. Your resume doesn’t have to be flashy or sexy (visually boring movie poster, remember?), it just has to highlight the most important things about you. Canva has a lot of redesigned templates, but with a little tweaking , this “corporate” template or this “minimalist” template can help. In my opinion, your resume should only contain these things in this order:
- Your name and important details (email, phone number, LinkedIn, general location)
- Your professional experience
- Special skills and abilities (for example, Zendesk, Greenhouse, Python or Calendly).
- Awards and recognitions, if applicable
- Education and degrees
For every job you’ve done, you’ve probably done 100 different activities in a single job—whether it’s managing different types of projects, collaborating with stakeholders, working with clients, organizing information, or putting out random fires, I’m 99% sure. you have achieved a lot . While you shouldn’t spend time listing every little thing you’ve done (“answered emails”, “attended meetings”), spend some time listing the top 5-10 things you accomplished in each job. These should be achievements , not just your responsibilities . A few examples to get your wheels spinning:
> In-house creation of Product X, which accounted for 20% of the company’s total revenue, through market research and experience development efforts.
> Directed and produced a photo shoot that introduced the new identity of Company Y, collaborating with internal and external stakeholders to ensure smooth operations.
> Achieved 100% program Z attendance, up 50% from the previous year.
> Managed events for up to 25 people, quickly resolving unforeseen issues and preserving the guest experience.
Once you’re done, add all of these items to your resume, and then do the same for the previous job, the previous job, and so on. The idea is to keep one long master resume highlighting all the great things you’ve done at each job. When you find a job that you’re ready to apply for, compare the job description with your main resume and start removing markers that are not directly relevant to the case.
When you’re done, you’ll now have a resume that feels customized and only highlights your most important experiences, without having to type extra or think too much. Save it as a new file (something like YOURNAME_Resume_COMPANYNAME) and run it.
Prepare your own cover letter template
There’s no chance a recruiter or hiring manager will spend as much time reading your cover letter as you spent writing it, so keep it short, sweet, and easy to copy ( or skip it altogether ). Your cover letter template will be something like your resume template in the sense that we want to write it in advance.
Identify your four to six core interpersonal skills that you feel confident in and have a lot of experience with. I list soft skills because I almost never read a cover letter to find out more about your professional skills – they are already on your resume and / or I will test you against them during the interview. Your cover letter should highlight the less easily measurable skills you offer and go into more detail about how you’ve used them in the past.
Continuing the labeling from the previous section, if the job description explicitly mentions mutual collaboration, I could prepare to embellish the second label ( “Directed and produced a photo shoot that introduced the new identity of Company Y, collaborating with internal and external stakeholders to ensure a smooth operation”) and say something like:
While at Company Y, I was responsible for the overall planning and execution of a branded photo shoot designed to highlight the new modern look of Company Y, and collaborated with the company and our suppliers to implement it. I studied local photographers, prepared a presentation to illustrate the desired result, and worked with the Y Company executive team to get agreement. Thanks to regular approval meetings and a variety of documents and plans to continue the photo shoot, we were able to achieve our goals within the planned budget and schedule.
I admit it will take a long time up front, but once you write something like this for your strongest social skills, you can copy and paste all of your future cover letters. You can also do this preparation gradually: each time you write a new cover letter, take and save some of those suggestions about your social skills that you naturally already write about. Eventually, you’ll have (yet another) repository of long master cover letters that you can use to craft custom cover letters without spending hours reinventing them every time.
Use this (personalized) thank you note template
A thank you note should always be short and sweet, and as personalized as possible.
Hello [INTERVIEWER NAME]!
I just wanted to send you a note to share how much I appreciate your time [DAY OF INTERVIEW]. [THE ONE CASE PROPOSAL YOU BOTH TALKED ABOUT AND WHY YOU FIND IT VALUABLE]. [SUGGESTION ON WHY THIS COMPANY SEEMS GREAT PLACE TO WORK/GREAT OPPORTUNITY].
Thanks again, and [SOMETHING PERSONAL YOU TALKED ABOUT]/have a great week/have a great weekend!
All the best/Warmly/Greetings/Gratefully/Carefully,
[YOUR NAME]
If you really can’t remember something specific or unique you were talking about, you can remove the second sentence, but I would recommend taking notes or writing a thank you note right after the interview so you can make sure it’s well personalized. But don’t send the note right away – they haven’t forgotten you yet. Send it or schedule it to be sent the next morning.
Write an authentic network message
Networking can be a powerful tool in your job search, but actually finding the people you want to connect with can be a challenge. Like the thank you notes, my advice on network requests is to keep things very personal and relatively concise. The worst network requests I’ve ever received were clearly copy-pasted jobs that didn’t even take time to verify my name, my company, or my experience – I’m not thrilled to chat with someone if they can’t bother to take one second to look at my profile.
My core principles of networking are: show genuine interest in the person you’re approaching (as opposed to just being interested in getting a job recommendation), ask for specific results (not just vague requests like “I’d like to talk to you”), and write like a human.
Hello [NAME]! I hope you have a great day/morning/week. I am [YOUR NAME]! I wanted to contact you because I saw you [EXPERIENCE OR THING FROM THEIR LINKEDIN], and I [SOMETHING TO DO WITH THEM OR PERSONAL RELATION TO/INTEREST IN THEIR EXPERIENCE/EXPERIENCE]. If you have time, I would like to do a 30 minute informational interview with you to learn more about your career and give you any advice for people like me. Thank you!