The Difference Between a Cover Letter and a Resume

Chances are that you are thinking something along the lines of:

Well, that is obvious. A cover letter is a cover letter, and a resume is a resume.

And you would be right. But, once we start to break it down — you will see that there is a little more to it, and this knowledge may help you get over any letter-writing hurdles you may be facing.

Understanding the fundamentals of a cover letter is crucial to writing one that is compelling to the reader. 

We often see people struggle to get past writing the first paragraph of their cover letter. Either they cannot figure out where to take their letter, or they find themselves repeating their resume line for line. 

This is not something you want to do.

Your cover letter should complement your resume — after all, these documents are meant to stand side by side as individual pieces of work.

You will nearly never be the only applicant for a job. This means the hiring team will be reading stacks of resumes. Resumes that present solid career snapshots through the use of bullet points, job titles, and (generally) a brief outline of who the applicant is. 

A cover letter, on the other hand, has the chance to be a bit more personal. It shows the candidate's professional journey, explains why they are applying, what they can offer, and if they are passionate about the role or company. Essentially, a cover letter should entice the reader to find out more about the applicant’s career by reading their resume.

A good resume should cover the applicant's experience, skills, accomplishments, and education. It should draw the readers eyes to job titles and tasks, and it should be different from the cover letter.

So, how do I make it different? 

We have posted about the fundamentals of writing a cover letter and a resume on the Clothier Careers blog page here.

When writing a cover letter and resume one of the most important things to remember is that the hiring manager will be reading those documents side by side. This means — no copy and pasting. Having the same sentence in your resume and cover letter will be obvious to the hiring manager reading it, and it won’t provide them with the insight they need to put your application into the yes pile.

Of course, this doesn’t mean you can’t talk about the same accomplishments in your cover letter. It just means you need to write differently and provide more information.

Your resume might say:

Increased sales by 300% using social media platforms Facebook and Instagram

While your cover letter might say:

Spearheaded a digital campaign through social media platforms including Facebook and Instagram, which increased online company profits by 300% in one quarter. This success led to an increased budget for the digital marketing department, which resulted in one new part-time employee joining the team. 

While this uses the same example in the cover letter and the resume, it allows the applicant to go into more detail and present new information to the reader by explaining the how of the situation.

This example also allows the applicant to continue fleshing out their marketing and management experience in the following paragraph by going into more detail.

When writing, remember — your cover letter is a sneak peek into your resume, and your resume is a sneak peek into your cover letter. These are documents that both provide insight into who you are and why your skills are right for the role.

If you are feeling stuck making your cover letter stand out from your resume, reach out to the Clothier Careers team for a chat about our services, or have a read through our cover letter writing tips here.