Breaking Into Repro: Quick Tips for Polishing Your Résumé and Cover Letter
The process of finding a job is a long and challenging one—especially in a pandemic, and if you don’t know where to begin. For a lot of people—particularly marginalized folks, first generation folks, and people of color—this process is a mystery shared by mentors and in secret. We hope to demystify this process for everyone and help you feel more prepared as you search for a new position. In this series, we’ll share tips to help you throughout the process.
Over the past few years, some of you in the ReproJobs community have asked for advice about writing your résumé and cover letter to help it stand out. We’ve hired staff, interns, and consultants for a number of different positions over the years and reviewed hundreds of résumés. We’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly—and yes, cis men truly do ask for more, even when the budget limit is stated, and present themselves as even more qualified than their skillset suggests. The entire hiring process is intimidating, vulnerable, stressful, and calls your confidence into question. A lot of the process is also based on racist, ableist, classist, and xenophobic standards. It sucks. Take a deep breath. You will find the right position for you. In the meantime, polish up your application materials to shine like the star you are. While every reviewer is different, here are a few tips that might help make your résumé and cover letter stand out from the bunch.
General Tips
Follow the Instructions: On many job descriptions, there are instructions for applying. Follow them carefully. Sometimes they’re the first test in the process to see if you can follow all of the instructions, particularly for a position that is focused on careful details. Of course, not following them may not be disqualifying, but it is a way that the reviewers assess attention to detail and the ability to follow directions.
Clean Up Your File Names: Interviewers are receiving a lot of applications, and that means they’ll also be receiving a lot of files named “Resume2020.doc” and “Cover_Letter_Updated.pdf” and in a rush, it can be hard to distinguish between them all. Make it a tiny bit easier and name each of your files with your first and last name and the type of file it is, whether your cover letter or résumé.
Save it as a PDF: If you can, save your application materials as a PDF so that it’s easier for the reviewer to open no matter what program or format they’re opening your application materials in. In most programs, all you need to do is choose “Save As” or “Download As” and choose “PDF document (.pdf)” or “Export as a PDF”.
Read Your Materials Aloud: A great way to catch typos, grammar edits, and other flow issues is to read your materials aloud to yourself or to a friend. Yes, it might feel awkward, but it will truly help you make sure that what you wrote is what you intend for your reviewer to read. Be sure to read slowly and only read the words on the page—your brain may cause you to see words that aren’t actually there when reading or writing. Don’t forget to run spell-check too! If you can, ask a trusted friend to look over your application and give you honest feedback. It’s always good to have a fresh view.
Ask for Accommodations: Some employers list outright that they’re open to making accommodations for applicants, particularly those with disabilities. It can be scary to ask for accommodations, particularly because you’re putting yourself out there and the employer may use it against you. Only you know what’s best for you and what feels safest. If you do feel comfortable, ask for accommodations so that you can turn in the best application you can. If they deny it, remember, that’s evidence for you about what kind of an employer they would be long term.
Tips For Your Résumé
Page Length: It's preferred that résumés are one page, two max. Usually two pages for people who are deep in their careers. You should keep a long résumé just for yourself that you can use for reference to remember all the work you've done. But, like your cover letter, your résumé should be tailored for the position you're applying for. Focus on your relevant experience so that they can see what skills you have and how they can be applied to the position you're applying for. (We’ve previously written about taking skills from other jobs, like retail, and connecting them to jobs in the repro movement). If you have a long résumé it can be hard for people to sort through and figure out what experience is relevant. Reviewers often scan applications since they can get hundreds for a single position so you want to make sure it's as easy to read/accessible as possible for them.
Size & Scope: It’s very common for people to list tasks that they’ve done in a job, but not give the size and scope of those tasks, ex. “I coordinated program volunteers.” Unfortunately, this doesn’t tell the application reviewer your full capabilities; coordinating five volunteers is very different from coordinating 50, which is different from coordinating 500 volunteers. Help the reviewers understand the size and scope of your abilities and show them that you can handle the position’s tasks. Name the number of events you coordinated per year, the volume of patients you saw at the clinic, or the number of donors you cultivated and the growth of the budget. Highlight your accomplishments, not just your rote tasks. Writing something like: “grew social media following from 100 followers to 5000 followers over one year” is very different than: “managed social media accounts.”
Delete the Standard Paragraph: It used to be commonplace to write a paragraph at the top of your résumé to explain your accomplishments and your goal of seeking a position, but that feels unnecessary these days. Of course you’re seeking a role—you’re applying for the position. Use that prime real estate to start your résumé with your most relevant position and save the explainer for your cover letter.
Tips For Your Cover Letter
You’re the Solution: The best advice we ever received about cover letters is, the organization you're applying for has a problem: their position is open and they need it filled. Your cover letter should be an explainer of why you're the perfect person to solve that problem (aka fill the position) and the job description is a road map for you to use to explain how. When we review cover letters, the ones that stand out to us the most are ones that really speak to what we wrote in the job description about our organization, what we said we need in the role, and how that person has the experience we're looking for. Your cover letter shouldn't just be a letter re-explaining your résumé—they have your résumé. It should be a letter explaining clearly why you have the skills listed in the job description and why you want this position. Give clear examples—passion is nice, but an entirely overused phrase, and it should be shown through your work, rather than stated. Your cover letter should demonstrate that you read the job description, you know what they're looking for, and it should tie your experience to what they're looking for.
Explain Why You Want This Position: Many cover letters focus on why a candidate has the skills, but don’t really explain why the candidate wants to work at this organization and in this position. Don’t be afraid to show a bit of your personality and explain why you think you’re the best candidate for this role specifically. This will also help you stand out from candidates who cut and paste organizations and positions into a cover letter.
Don’t Cut & Paste: We know how hard it is not to cut and paste cover letters, especially because the stress of applying for a job is a lot and you’re probably applying to a lot of different positions. We get it. And, reviewers can tell. While you don’t have to write an entirely new cover letter for each application, we would suggest that you customize it to the role, organization, and make it clear that you actually read the job description, looked at the organization’s website, and know what they’re looking for.
Show, Rather Than Tell. A lot of cover letters could show a person’s experience, dedication, and skill set, rather than telling about it. What do we mean by that? A common sentence is "My experience working with our administrative team shows that I can successfully manage budgets and create timely reports." But, does it show that? How? Explain to the reader. Give an example of how you built a system to work with the administrative team or increased communication or what processes you used to manage the budgets, and how you would grow that skill at their organization, for example. Assume they're just reading your cover letter without looking at your résumé. Make it easy for the reviewer to know that you're the perfect candidate; don't make them go looking for information to back up your claims. Write a sentence to explain how you have the experience that they're looking for.
One Page is Fine: Truly. They don’t need a dissertation. You can say a lot in a few paragraphs, particularly if they are well-tailored to the job description. It should be a short introduction to yourself, why you’re a great fit for this position, and show a bit of your personality. The rest will happen during the interview process.
The application process is long and stressful. It’s vulnerable and can challenge you mentally, physically, and emotionally. Hopefully, these tips will help you turn in the best application materials you can. You got this!