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Downer New Zealand

4.0
  • 50,000 - 100,000 employees

Here's what Downer is actually looking for in your CV and cover letter 📝

Downer New Zealand

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Justin [00:00:00] What are you looking for in graduate CVs and Cover Letters at Downer?

Ryan [00:00:04] So I think this is a matter of preference for every person, and I know my advice can contradict lots of other people, but for me, it really is about writing a good cover letter. I think a cover letter is you can show so much of ... people call them soft skills, power skills, whatever you want, but you can show so much in a cover letter. 

You can show your aptitude for doing research, for learning more about a business, for learning about the connections that you can make. So for me, that is the focus point. A C.V. at this early age in your career is going to be a fairly stock standard and it's great to have that, but I think too many graduates focus on that, you know, making sure it's the right font, it's the right format, it's all the rest of it. And the reality is that it doesn't really resonate in the same way. You want to have a clean résumé, you want to make sure that you have your grammar right. You want to make sure that everything is there, but the impact comes in a cover letter. And so that's my focus point. And don't just leave it there. Connecting with employers through the likes of social channels, through the likes of LinkedIn, all the rest of that as a follow-up to submitting an application.