Finding a job in New Zealand

A cover letter is written to introduce your skills and motivation to your (hopefully) future employers. For odd jobs, you generally don’t need one. However, if you respond to an advert on the Internet, you should send your CV along with a few sentences that should make the employer want to open your CV as an attachment. It therefore complements the CV. It must, of course, be in line with what the employer has said he is looking for in his advert.

The cover letter must therefore be tailored to each job advert to which you apply. From the job advert, you should draw out the elements to be highlighted in your cover letter.

We are going to focus on the cover letter you will write for a skilled job. Certain elements will also be useful if you are looking for a small job by responding to advertisements on the Internet.

Your cover letter should not be any longer than one page.

Who to address?

Avoid impersonal terms. If a contact is listed in the advert, use their name. If no name appears, you can always try to contact the company to find out who to address the letter to. As this phone call is your first contact with your potential employer, you should plan what you are going to say to avoid blanks or poorly constructed sentences, and don’t forget to use polite expressions.

Study the job offer

Find out what skills the employer is looking for in the ad. If the ad contains too little information or is very vague, you can try contacting the company to ask for more information about the job on offer and the profile of the person they are looking for.

Research the company you are contacting: how big is it? What sector does it operate in? Does it appear in the media? Is it very well known in New Zealand or is it more confidential? This information will be useful for your cover letter, to avoid any mistakes when writing it.

Matching your experience with what the employer is looking for

This letter is also a good way of highlighting skills that you weren’t able to emphasise in your CV. Think about the different aspects of your studies, your jobs and your life that could be of real interest to your employer and the elements that show that you have the qualities they are looking for.

What general qualities are employers looking for?

Business New Zealand, a government department, conducted a survey of employers to find out what 10 skills they were most looking for in an employee. Of course, it’s not a question of simply copying and pasting these qualities to add to a CV (lies aren’t very popular), but of seeing what they’re looking for, what you’re capable of and how you could highlight certain skills:

• Communication skills : savoir parler avec des clients, communiquer avec le reste de l’équipe.
• Customer service skills : savoir discuter avec les clients tout en étant commercial. Vous devez être en mesure de le faire par téléphone, en face à face et à l’écrit, par e-mail.
• Ability to work well in team.
• Literacy and numeracy skills.
• Confidence in learning about and using computers and technology.
• Planning and organisational skills
• Initiative and a can-do attitude : c’est-à-dire être volontaire dans son travail .
• Problem-solving skills.
• Good work habits and independence.
• Understanding of health and safety.

Don’t hesitate to look in your private life for things that might highlight these skills if you haven’t acquired them in your professional life (involvement in a football team, voluntary work, etc.), without going into details that the employer might consider too intimate (no, you might not mention your divorce to highlight your “can do attitude”, etc.).

What should a cover letter be about?

In your cover letter, you should highlight what you can offer your potential employer (by showing your interest in the company) and the achievements you have already made.

Traditionally, a cover letter is organised as follows:

• A section devoted to the job you are applying for and how you found it.
• Why do you want to work for this company?
• What can you offer?
• Tell your employer that the CV is at the bottom of the letter (or as an e-mail attachment).
• Closing.

Sell yourself!

The cover letter is very important, as it should make people want to get in touch with you. You must therefore sell yourself. Prefer short sentences and positive phrases. Avoid at all costs writing negative sentences or pointing out your shortcomings in this letter. So, for example, you won’t be pointing out your lack of experience in a particular field, but rather highlighting other qualities that are also in demand for this job. Be POSITIVE!