Mastering the Art of Writing a Standout Cover Letter for Jobs in Australia
In the dingo-eat-dingo job market of Australia, a top tier cover letter can be the thing that lands you your dream job. The point of a cover letter is to give a bit of an introduction to your soon to be employer, a little bit of your personality, what your skills are and the qualifications you’ve ploughed through life and ended up with. In this article, we'll get into the ins and outs of crafting a cover letter that gets the attention of employers and jumps out from the rest, to really help your chances of success.
Understanding the Purpose of a Cover Letter:
It’s the backup for your resume when applying for a job, the Cheech to the Chong. The Dumb to your Dumber. On a serious note, you want a shot at introducing yourself, spit out a few of your relevant experiences and make it known you’re keen for the position. A decent cover letter gives the right motive for recruiters to look beyond the boring CV vibes and dig a bit further into your qualifications.
Unusual Tips for Crafting a Unique Cover Letter:
To stand out from the crowd, give a couple of these a red hot crack:
a) Custom Message: Take aim at the specific needs of the company you're applying to, like if you reckon they need a good closer to drag the sales number up and increase conversion. Or you think a more direct no-nonsense approach would help them, show em that’s you and sell the idea of you working for them.
b) Tell a Story: It’s boring as two day dishwater to read over lists of achievements. Instead, try and weave your experiences into a bit of a narrative to show your journey. Doesn’t have to be JK Rowling, but an example could be “I travelled all over India for a year and spent time amongst some of the strongest sales people you’ll meet - their sale was literally the difference between life and death for them and their family - and this gave me a solid lesson in not taking no for an answer, but with a smile and the best intentions at heart.”.
c) Cultural Fit: You can use their own corporate spiel against them, dig into the company's culture and values stuff on their website and just feed them what they wanna hear to align your cover letter with their mission.d) Data and Statistics: Support yourself with quantifiable data and stats. Use specific numbers like “average customer service team turnover in a company your size is around 60%, in my last 5 years, I’ve kept it below 20%, this will help you keep the best people.”.
Here’s a few of Australia’s big boys in terms of number of staff they employ:
a) Woolworths Australia: Good old Woolies is a solid supermarket giant with all kinds of retail positions and obviously loads of stuff going up the ladder all the way to the corporate roles.
b) BHP Group: You might not be big on the mining world but these boys are a huge mining company. If you’re already in, or trying to get in the mining and resources world, this is the way.
c) Commonwealth Bank of Australia: Obviously, banking covers the balleriffic world of finance, IT, and customer service - ever seen the movie The Big Short?
d) Qantas Airways: This is a worldwide name and Qantas Airways has a solid rep (especially amongst the mid-high cost flyers) you’ll find opportunities in flight ops, CS, and engineering.
Want a real world example? Sure, check this out:
How to Apply for a Job at Woolworths Australia:
a) Do a bit of Research on the Company: Check out Woolies' core values and like we said before, tailor your cover letter to feed them their own words.
b) The Right Skills: Think about the position you're applying for - what does the perfect person look like, what are they good at? Example: ability to work in a fast-paced, customer-oriented environment. This is always a good line.
c) Passion: As much as it might be a stretch, you might actually be interested in contributing to their success, especially if you get shares or performance bonus. Show them that you’ll improve their stats by just being an all round top bloke.
d) Go: Get yourself over to Woolies site and scroll to the bottom of the page, click ‘Careers’ and find what’s best for your skillset.
Conclusion:
It’s really a mix of a sprinkle of uniqueness, a good dollop of professionalism, and if you can manage it, a sprinkle of genuine interest in the company. Follow our stuff above and you can’t really go wrong mate. For more tips and tricks to get you back in gear on your career, Workclass is the spot to check out jobs and read our blog. Get on it.