Matching Resume and Cover Letter Templates: The How-To
Hiring managers will look for ways to distinguish one job seeker from another.
If several job seekers have outstanding qualifications, employers must get to the details to look for a tiebreaker.
One of the ways is by checking whether your cover letter complements your resume.
The cover letter and resume are documents that give the best first impressions that employers can see.
For them to help you secure a job interview, you should ensure they match in terms of format, layout, and style.
Matching your cover letter and resume makes it easy for employers to review them side-by-side.
Often, most job seekers make the mistake of writing resumes and cover letters that don’t match.
They cram too many details that don’t correspond with what’s in their resumes.
Also, other job seekers use inconsistent fonts, margins, headers, or colors, making their cover letters and resumes appear as if different people wrote them.
So, how do you write a matching cover letter and resume that tweaks for the job you’re applying for?
While your resume outlines your educational experience, work history, accomplishments, and relevant skills, your cover letter is its commentary.
It highlights your personality and goals that support the content in your resume.
Remember, hiring managers have piles of resumes and cover letters to review.
If your cover letter and resume fail to catch their attention due to an unsuitable format, they’ll be in the bin.
For this reason, you shouldn’t ignore writing a cover letter and resume that match each other.
Luckily, if you want to know how to format your cover letter and resume, CVJury has got you covered.
We have CV articles explaining the resume and cover letter format that will land you an interview.
However, if you want to learn how to format a cover letter for a resume, our five top tips will get your going. Keep reading for more insights.
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Your cover letter and resume must have a consistent format, style, and content.
If any information in your resume applies to your cover letter, ensure everything matches.
Matching your cover letter to your resume makes you look professional and suitable for the job.
It’s also a significant way of demonstrating the soft skills you’ve highlighted on your resume.
You don’t have to struggle to explain that you’re attentive to detail and can easily follow through.
With matched resume and cover letter, you prove you’re what you highlight on your documents.
How are Your Resume and Cover Letter Related?
While these documents have different purposes, they work towards one goal; to help you secure an interview and land a dream job.
A resume briefly summarises your educational history, professional experience, relevant skills, and outstanding accomplishments.
On the other hand, a cover letter will provide detailed information about you and demonstrate your personality.
In a cover letter, you can further discuss how your hard and soft skills and experiences make you the best candidate for the job.
However, both documents should prove to the hiring managers that you have all it takes to land the job.
Sending a resume with a cover letter makes you look more professional and eager for the job.
The information in both documents will market your expertise and make you stand out from other job seekers.
So, ensure they match the format, style, and content.
Here are the five tips to help you match your cover letter and resume format.
- Use the Same Font
Your cover letter and resume show professionalism and can dictate whether you’re a serious job seeker.
When writing a cover letter, you should review the design elements of your resume to ensure you use a consistent font.
Your resume’s font style and size should be similar to your cover letter’s.
And you don’t have to use fancy fonts to look smart.
The idea is to use a font style and size that your potential employer will find impressive, professional, and legible.
We’ve got you covered if you’re wondering which are the best fonts for your cover letter and resume.
You can opt for the Arial, Calibri, Cambria and Verdana.
These fonts are ideal and reader-friendly, whether in print or electronically.
In addition, using a similar font size for both the resume and cover letter can go a long way.
Most hiring managers prefer scheming through cover letters and resumes.
If you want them to catch your most outstanding abilities, experiences, and talents, you must use a font size that visually appears better.
For example, you can use 11pt-12pt for your resume and cover letter.
Using different font sizes for your cover letter and resume will make them inconsistent.
As a result, your hiring manager might assume you’re not attentive to detail and are unprofessional.
Further Reading
- How to use the best resume format
- Cover letter best tips
- ATS friendly resume best practices
- Strong action verbs for resumes
- 15 high-paying jobs that are great for career changers
- Use a Similar Layout
Like font style and size, your resume and cover letter should have a similar layout.
A good layout adds professional aesthetics to your resume and cover letter.
And when discussing aesthetics, we don’t mean adding fancy colors and images.
Employers expect to find resumes and cover letters with black or blue borders regarding colors.
However, if you use black for your text and borders for your resume, ensure to use the same for your cover letter.
Also, you should avoid using images and flashy graphics on resumes and cover letters.
While using them may be creative, your resume and cover letter may come off as unprofessional.
Using a similar layout means aligning your margins and line spacing.
You have heard that cover letters and resumes should be short, not more than two pages.
In some cases, job seekers try to squeeze all the information they want to make it fit within a page or two pages.
As a result, they use tiny margins, leaving no white spaces around their cover letters and resumes.
To avoid this, ensure the margin stays around one or 1.5 inches.
Also, use single spacing and space out your paragraphs to leave enough white spaces at the top, bottom, left, and right of your resume and cover letter.
If you find it challenging to keep your resume and cover letter in an ideal font and layout, you use the help of our free resume builder and cover letter builder.
And to establish cohesiveness, use one builder or template maker.
Luckily, here at CVJury, we have a qualified resume and a cover letter builder to make your work easier.
With a perfect builder, you’ll ensure the font and layout of your documents match.
- Make Sure Headings Are Parallel
The information contained in your headings should remain consistent in your resume and cover letter.
This will help avoid confusion. Using uniform headers where applicable will make it easier for hiring managers to find the information they seek.
For example, if you used the header “Objective” in your resume, it should remain the same if you mention it in your cover letter.
Avoid using other variations such as “Career Objective.”
Similarly, if you write your name as Kevin J. Duncan in your resume, don’t change it to Kevin Duncan or Kevin John Duncan.
Uniformity on your resume and cover letter will make you appear professional and help the hiring manager conduct a successful online search about you.
Likewise, you should use the same email address and phone number on your resume and cover letter.
Hiring managers should not guess which contact information to reach out to you.
The best way to ensure you’ve used the same headings is by double-checking both documents’ names, email addresses, phone numbers, and addresses.
- Be Careful with Bold and Italics
It’s OK to use bold and italics when emphasizing words within sentences.
Perhaps you want to emphasize accomplishments you acquired in your education or professional life.
For example, you can use italics when highlighting Latin honors and awards.
For example, you can italicize honors like cum laude, magna cum laude, and summa cum laude.
Similarly, you may want to emphasize industry-specific keywords you wish your hiring manager could easily see.
Bolding and italicizing ensure that your prospective recruiter sees the most crucial information in your resume within the first five seconds of staring at your documents.
To ensure cohesiveness between your resume and cover letter, use bolds and italics sparingly to emphasize words within sentences.
On the other hand, you can bold your job titles and subheadings on your resume.
Bolding will help separate your titles and subheadings from the regular text.
This will make reading easy between various sections of your resume.
So, incorporate bolds and italics where appropriate on your resume and cover letter to make them look uniform and professional.
- Match Your Content
Besides matching the appearance of your resume and cover letter, the content must also align.
Before submitting the documents, read them to determine whether they discuss the same things.
If any information in your cover letter doesn’t appear in your resume, your hiring manager will treat your documents with suspicion.
Your cover letter should highlight your resume’s outstanding experiences, skills, and accomplishments.
However, ensure not to copy everything in your resume and paste it into your cover letter.
The idea is to include what sells your expertise in the cover letter.
Also, the same should apply to your cover letter if you use short sentences and paragraphs in your resume.
In addition, if you highlight your skills and accomplishments using bullets, you can pick the most important ones and create a bullet list on your cover letter.
In other words, a cover letter should bring life and personality to your resume.
If you want to highlight any outstanding skills or abilities, the cover letter will make it easier for your hiring manager to see them.
Closing Thoughts
A cover letter and resume should be as similar in format/layout as possible to ensure the employer can quickly review both documents.
Also, the content in both documents should match to avoid confusion and appearing unprofessional.
If hiring managers use matching resumes and cover letters as a tiebreaker, you can be rest assured to secure an interview.
Review your resume and cover letter before submitting them to ensure everything is in place and the best order.
However, if you’ve been struggling with creating cover letters, we can help.
Our professional writers know what it takes to write a compelling cover letter for any industry or job type.
Get more tips on cover letter writing and try our cover letter builder! Click on our must-read article on writing a resume like a pro to get more interviews and a job.
Further Reading
- Putting work experience section in CV rightly
- Dealing better with hiring managers
- Putting key achievements examples in your resume
- Tips for resume education section
- How to get an error-free resume
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