How to make an inspiring cover letter
You’ve scoured the job sites, found a great role to apply for and dusted off your resume or created one from scratch. Now what? Before you hit ‘send’, it’s important to make sure your cover letter is polished, professional-looking and personalized to that specific company and role.
As with any piece of writing, a compelling headline helps to immediately capture the reader’s attention. You can use bold typography to highlight your name, accompanied by a succinct tagline.
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QUICK TIP: It might sound obvious, but it’s important to clearly include your contact details on your cover letter—especially if you’re submitting via email. The goal is to make it as easy as possible for the recruiter to invite you in for an interview.
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One of the best ways to show a recruiter you mean business is by including a logo in your letterhead. Which will help show them that you take your personal brand seriously (and that they should too!) It also adds to help some visual interest to an otherwise pared-back document.
Using color in your cover letter design is a delicate balancing act. While they can help make it more dynamic and engaging, going overboard can appear unprofessional. One great way to strike the right balance is by layering similar colors.
QUICK TIP: Remember, many hiring managers read hundreds of cover letters every single day. So, to catch their attention, it pays to be different. One way you can do this is by flipping the traditional cover letter format on its head.
Free Resume Templates
With Canva’s free resume builder, applying for your dream job is easy and fast. Choose from hundreds of free, designer-made templates and customize them within a few clicks.
Forget spending hours formatting your resume, or choosing complimentary fonts for your cover letter. Creating a resume online with Canva’s free resume builder will give you a sleek and attractive resume, without the fuss.
Choose from hundreds of free, designer-made templates, and customize them within minutes. With a few simple clicks, you can change the colors, fonts, layout, and add graphics to suit the job you’re applying for.
This is an insider secret that I’m excited to share with you! Let Canva focus on the design, so you can focus on promoting your skills and landing your dream job.
While Canva offers resume options with a section for your photo, here at Rethink, we do not recommend you upload an image. Some recruiters will simply trash your resume - without even reading it!
How to make a resume
Open up Canva
Go to Canva or launch the app then log in or sign up for a new account using your email, Google or Facebook profile. Search for “Resumes” to start designing.
Find the right template
Choose from hundreds of professionally-designed resume templates. Take your pick from styles like modern or simple layouts or industries like acting, graphic design or more corporate layouts.
Personalize your resume
After picking a template, use Canva’s drag and drop design tools to tweak your resume. Change fonts, text and colors in a few clicks. Upload your own photo and rearrange any and all elements as much as you want.
Get creative with more features
Crop, straighten, use photo filters, and texturize your images. Use your own color scheme, font style, background and text layout. Add borders, frames and other ingredients to make your resume stand out.
Order your prints
Order high-quality prints of your resumes through Canva Print and enjoy free shipping. Or, save your design as a PDF, JPG or PNG file. Remember you can always edit your design any time.
Should resumes be one page?
ANSWER: It’s a myth that employers prefer one page over two pages. As long as your resume is clear and easy to read, you can include two pages. If your work experience is limited to fewer than ten years, you may want to stick to one page. Otherwise, don’t sell yourself short.
COVID-19 and its impact on working women
Working women and the impact COVID-19 has had on their careers.
COVID-19 had a major impact on businesses around the world. Small and large businesses closed their doors temporarily, some permanently and employees who were still employed held their breath. As we come out of the pandemic, and more and more vaccines are being put into arms, let’s take a look at those who were most affected by the pandemic: working women. Since WWII, the US has not seen such a deep, sustained decline in the female labor force. Female participation in the workforce is currently at it lowest: 57% - according to the National Women’s Law Center. While men and women left the workforce in droves, women (and specifically, those of color) were affected at a much larger rate than their male counterparts. For example, Hispanic women currently face double the unemployment rate than Hispanic males do. Women also often bear the burden of caregiving and the unpaid ‘second shift’ of cooking, cleaning and other household duties after they come home from work. And this has an impact. 1 in 4 women are now considering leaving the workforce or downshifting in their careers - according to LeanIn.org. 
Report from McKinsey & Company showing the impact the pandemic has had on how employees feel at work.
So, what can we do about these (depressing) statistics? Employers can start by recognizing the unique challenges COVID-19 has placed on families. By offering flexible workplaces, employers can hold on to more of their female workforce by giving them more options than a 9-5 office job. Options like working from home or different hours of operation can give women more of an opportunity to balance both home and work. Bringing women back who were furloughed, laid-off or resigned is another great idea. Returning women to work, who already have the skills and training tailored to their previous employer, will save businesses time and money. Even if your female employees don’t return to the exact same role, employers can utilize the skills their previous employees have and retrain so that they fit their new role.Recognize the current disparities women of color face in the workforce and make meaningful changes to your business. Look around at meetings and notice if you have employees who are minorities in major roles at your business. Go a step further and look at your hiring statistics. Are you hiring people of color for upper management roles? Are your recruiting efforts directed at people of color?“1 in 4 women are now considering leaving the workforce or downshifting in their careers.”
How can you help as an employee? Recognize women and the challenges they face. Tell your boss about the amazing thing your female coworker did, and even better, tell her! If you notice your coworker is struggling with their workload, and you have the ability to help, do. While we are all struggling during this pandemic, some are definitely struggling more than others. These ideas don’t have to just apply to employees who are high-earners in an office setting. These ideas can be applied in all areas of businesses, and should be maintained even when the pandemic is over. Women are an essential part of the workforce and our families, with a few changes throughout businesses, we can support their careers and growth. It just takes a bit of creativity and some thinking outside of the box. Need help with implementing some changes? Please reach out to us at Rethink Resources!