How to write a cover note/suitability statement

NickK · 21 Mar 2022 at 10:51

I came across this succinct and great summary that others may find useful:

A Suitability Statement is an opportunity to bring your CV to life. It helps demonstrate to the hiring manager relevant experience, achievements and more importantly how you arrived at them and what the outcome/impact was. It can also be an excellent opportunity to help remind you of your achievements and pre-prepping for possible upcoming interviews.

A suitability statement should always be tailored to the position you are applying for. Read through the job description thoroughly and pick out the criteria/essential criteria that is highlighted (if multiple, choose the ones that you deem most relevant for this role) and give examples of how you have previously done these tasks and explain the outcome.

Often when applying for roles at executive level employers seek where possible relevant examples or understanding of behaviours that are needed for a leadership position. We would therefore recommend taking some time reflecting on the impact of your leadership – this could be external (speaking at conferences, events, raising organisational brand and your brand) and/or internal (teams managed, coaching, mentoring, D&I, culture, creation of OKRs etc)

There are a few ways that you can visually present and structure your suitability statement:

Sub-headings reflecting the essential criteria with a small paragraph below

General bullet points

Paragraph/’freestyle’

Everybody’s style is different and you must pick that which suits you, however, from historical feedback and experience, We would recommend sub-headings and writing a short paragraph below each point. This allows you to tailor your experience directly to what the hiring manager is ideally looking for. Keep the experience recent and relevant – and don’t forget the outcome of your activity! We recommend utilising the STAR approach when framing examples.

It's not rocket science but perhaps will give people the confidence and ideas they can utilise to enhance their cover letter/suitability statement. In addition I would advise using grammarly - at least that solves basic issues, allowing a human second set of eyes for more important issues rather than spelling/grammar.

HangTime · 22 Mar 2022 at 14:40

Personally I love cover notes (from both sides of the fence) as:
a) I find it easier to specifically angle my experience at the role in question, citing where I match their requirements for skills and experience, but also being able to articulate why that business / sector / role appeals to me (which would look quite out of place in a CV).
b) It helps me understand more about an applicants motivation, and indirectly how seriously they are taking the application. Have they made the effort to tailor their letter for the business / sector / role, what is their standard of written English, what is their attention to detail (have they just copy and pasted from a previous letter and left inappropriate bits in) etc.

In general they are just an opportunity to drill into targeted areas a bit more, in a way that would fill up the CV too much if positioned there. Where they don't land so well is if people are literally just regurgitating their CV - I don't need to read a couple of paragraphs listing your positions held and qualifications, I want you to signpost why a subset of those are relevant to the position I'm hiring for.

NickK · 23 Mar 2022 at 14:53

To prevent the "regurgitating the CV", I've settled on a content that covers three main areas (these aren't headings but the general themes):
* Results based focus - showing the results of what I've done.
* Market and Strategy - a role aligned analysis and forward focus. For customer facing this could discuss the new offerings or technologies and how the company's current offerings or posture could benefit.
* Process/Execution - This the top four requirements of the role, with a small paragraph either demonstrating experience or showing skills that can be brought across.

I see it as the opportunity to put what you achieved, how you see the world and how you align in a freeform format.

cheesyboy · 23 Mar 2022 at 15:10

Bookmark for future finding.

This seems useful, thanks for posting

NickK · 24 Mar 2022 at 09:51

What are people's thoughts on combined Cover Letter + Resume in one document in the scenario where only a CV upload is available?

I'm on the fence - it's great for a hiring manager but means a page turn for the recruiters which often won't get beyond page 1 or rejected for being oversized.

dowie · 24 Mar 2022 at 12:38

Is there an application form in that case? I'd be inclined to just attach a CV.

In general though, if you're an experienced hire, I'd try to avoid that sort of thing in the first place - get recommendations from your network/people you've worked with (if you're not changing industries/careers) if you are changing industries then networking/going to events (obvs was disrupted by covid) and of course getting contacted via linked in/speaking to (good) recruiters should be the way forward.

Sending multiple applications and waiting is really more for fresh uni graduates, as an experienced hire it should be more picking up the phone and talking to people/getting msg's from linked in etc.. or at best reaching out to recruiters.

HangTime · 26 Mar 2022 at 00:42

I've done the combined CV & Cover letter in cases where there was no other opportunity to input freetext and it was a role I was particularly interested in.
Personally I see nothing wrong with submitting CVs, I've entered into interview processes and got jobs that way before. To me it makes sense to cast the net wide rather than rely solely on existing contacts and recruiters. Obviously there might be some jobs advertised where you already have an 'in' via your network and choose to use that instead, but I don't see that as the only avenue and certainly there will be people who don't want to do excessive networking / eventing for whatever reason (perhaps they are introverted).