How to Create A Cover Letter, Resume & Portfolio that Stands Out from the Crowd?

You are sitting in front of your laptop editing the 3 things that could make it or break your dream career - your cover letter, resume, and portfolio. Draft after draft, you are still not satisfied and doubt the content would impress the recruiter. So, how to create a cover letter, resume, and portfolio that highlights the right content for the role you are applying for?

In this blog, our mentor Sajan Mathew- a Manager, CX & Service Design at Questrade, shares tips on how to create a cover letter, resume, and portfolio that stands out from the crowd?

How to Create a Cover Letter

A cover letter is a brief introduction about yourself before meeting you in person or virtually. You can insert information such as your experience, skills, and the reason you are the suitable candidate for the position. 

• Open strong
  Lead with a strong opening sentence. Start with a punchline. Show your familiarity with the organization or industry. Mention the interaction with someone who works there and express your desire and excitement to join.
• Set the stage to talk about your fit

Talk about a project that you undertook in your current role. Why was it challenging? What are the skills relevant to the role that you applied for and what was the outcome as a result?

• Make a case why you are a fit
  Demonstrate how your skills, experience, and interest apply to the job requirements by referring to the job description. Touch on the qualities you know the company admires and show how you would be a good cultural fit.
• End with a focus on the future

Use the cover letter to bridge the past and future in a way that you frame everything around the problem they would like to get solved and you have the potential to solve the problem.

Creating Your Resume
Developing a story-based resume

• Have a catchy headline
  A snapshot of who you are, what you do, what role you are looking to be, and how much value you can add to the organization in an impactful, catchy, and clear sentence.
• Strategically summarize your career story
  Build out the details of your headline by including context around your past experience. Talk about your motivations for the role you are looking for, and why you are the perfect candidate for the role by highlighting skills and competencies relevant to the role.
• Add work story and details
  Captivate the reader’s attention with the story about your role at each place you worked, followed by accomplishments and other work details in traditional resume bullet points.
  

How to Create a Portfolio

You will need both an online and a static portfolio as both serve different purposes.

Online Portfolios

• Provide a quick overview
• Use it to apply for a job opening

Static PDF Portfolios

• Provide a deep dive into your process
• Use it for job interviews

Present your work in the form of case studies

• Project title & vision
• Content & your role
• Experience goals
• Process/approach
• Tools & activities
• Key insights
• Outcome & Deliverables
• Project impact

Read Getting Ready for Your Portfolio Review: 20 Tips to Create a Successful UX Portfolio

Build a connected system that is trackable & measurable

Track and measure the clicks and visits

1. Use a link shortener tool such as bit.ly, rebrandly, etc to create a trackable link.
2. Hyperlink all direct links such as LinkedIn URL and online website URL on resume.
3. Host your resume and static portfolio in a cloud storage drive such as Google Drive or Dropbox and use Orangedox to track its views and downloads. 

For more cover letter, resume, and portfolio book a mentoring slot with any of our mentor! 

Contributor:
Sajan Mathew (ADPList Mentor) 
Manager, CX & Service Design at Questrade
ADPList account: https://adplist.org/mentors/sajan-mathew
LinkedIn account: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mathewsajan/ 

Editor & Writer:
Farah Radzi
Content Marketer and Writer at ADPList
LinkedIn account: https://www.linkedin.com/in/famr/