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.