To possess a winning cover letter it is imperative that you remember the following four suggestions:
1) Your cover letter must match the essential and asset qualifications in the Statement of Merit (located on your job poster – usually the last pages).
2) Your cover letter must be concise, detailed and customized to the job that you are applying for.
3) Your cover letter must use the same language as the job description- do not paraphrase or be creative. I cannot highlight enough how important it is not to re-word the poster headings.
4) Use action verbs and descriptive sentences to highlight your experience and skills while occasionally using a small measure of government vocabulary.
If a poster calls for: “Experience in maintaining relations with international government officials on Canada’s multicultural strategy” and you have similar experience, you should write: ” I have experience in maintaining relations with international government officials on….”
The ideal method to ensure that your cover letter addresses all of the required qualifications is to construct a table. On the left side you place the requirements of the job and on the right side you match your job, academic, and volunteer experience to the each requirement on the left. The key is to provide enough examples to illustrate that you are proficient at the required
qualifications.
Although I provide precise details on why I believe that placing an email address in a Canadian Federal Public Service cover letter is not necessary, I would like to make a comment on email addresses.
Please ensure that your email is professional, valid and does not reflect a negative image. Even today, there are still job candidates that do not use appropriate email addresses (ex: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]). If you wish for your application to be taken seriously you must have a professional email account.