Navigating professional norms and expectations in a country that is not your own is a challenging process for anyone. Job seekers in refugee circumstances often face this process with the added pressure of an unstable situation and the potential gaps in education and employment that come with it. 

A cover letter can be an important opportunity in job applications to introduce yourself, explain any interruptions or changes in your career, and tell your professional story beyond your CV.

Thanks to a generous $50,000 grant from the KPMG Foundation, TalentLift is making resources like this accessible to youth living as refugees, helping them put their best foot forward and pursue meaningful careers. We recently welcomed Heera Shah, a Talent Attraction Manager with KPMG, as a guest speaker at a virtual event to share her expertise on developing a strong cover letter for the Canadian (or international) job market. We’re grateful to share her insights here. 

(Note: If TalentLift has connected you to a job opportunity, you do not need a cover letter unless we request one.) 

The benefits of including a cover letter in a job application

If you’re independently searching for a job, it’s a great idea to include a cover letter, unless the application explicitly asks applicants to avoid one.

An effective cover letter can be a powerful tool for you to tell your story and reclaim your narrative in a way that a CV, as a list of your employment experience, simply can’t. Your professional history may include gaps in employment due to displacement or inability to work in your country of refuge, incomplete education, and employers that Canadian recruiters may not be familiar with. A cover letter can help bridge these gaps.

A cover can help to show extra effort. And, it’s a small window into you personally that can help differentiate you from other applicants. 

How to write a strong cover letter

A cover letter should be concise, professional, and tailored to the role you’re applying for. Aim for 1 page, made up of 3-4 short paragraphs, each 4-5 sentences maximum.

Include the following components in your cover letter:

• The addressee at the top (the employer and hiring manager if known)
• A greeting (i.e. “Dear Hiring Manager,” or “To the hiring committee,”)
• A brief introduction
• A few body paragraphs
• A brief conclusion

Use the content of the letter to focus on:

• Your interest in the role and workplace, and why you’re a strong candidate.
• Highlighting specific experiences, achievements, and transferable skills that are relevant to the role.
• Keywords from the job description that are relevant to your skills and experience. 
• Explaining significant gaps in your CV, such as no recent work experience or an incomplete degree. 
• Showcasing your career direction and why it aligns with company values and motivation.
• Demonstrating your ability to communicate effectively by ensuring that your cover letter is clear, error-free, and well-written.

Make sure to avoid:

• Personal details not relevant to the requirements of the role, such as marital status, religious identity, date of birth, or personal photos. 
• Fluff, buzzwords, and generic career goals. While you want to show how you meet the requirements of the role, avoid following the job description provided by the employer too closely. Make it personal to you.
• Using different fonts, sizing, and formatting throughout your cover letter. Be sure to keep it consistent and well-organized.
• Spelling and grammar errors, to the best of your abilities. If you’re worried about this, use spell-check, grammar tools, or ask someone to review.
• Going above one page. Part of effective communication is clear and concise writing. With cover letters, less is often more. 

When you’ve drafted a cover letter that you feel confident in, we recommend thinking of this version of your cover letter as a template that you can then customize for each role you apply for. You may not need to tailor your cover letter if you’re applying only to one kind of position and your cover letter was written with this focus. But if you’re interested in a few different job titles or different fields altogether, we strongly encourage you to tailor your cover letter to each employment opportunity.

Addressing refugee circumstances

If your career path hasn’t been straightforward, it can be tempting to use your cover letter to explain your refugee circumstances and their effects on your professional life. While this impulse is understandable, our advice is not to overexplain but rather to lead with confidence in your abilities and the value that you bring to the role. 

If you would like to address any gaps in your education or career caused by displacement, do so briefly with something like this:

• “Since relocating to (host country) as a refugee in (year), I have dedicated my time to (volunteering, obtaining a certificate, learning a new field, etc.) …”

• “During my relocation process, I stayed up to date with changes in my field by …”
• “Although I could not complete my degree due to conditions in my home country, I completed two years of study, and have continued to learn by …”

We encourage you to address the more significant gaps in your education or career in your CV as well (see how to do this simply here), so you do not need to overexplain in your cover letter.

Addressing being an international job seeker

You may also wonder if you should address that you are located outside of Canada when applying to positions with Canadian employers.

This can be a tricky aspect of the job application process for international job seekers. To help you with this, our team has made a letter of support available to all of TalentLift’s registrants that can be included in your job application. The letter explains to employers that you are open to relocating to Canada and that our team is available to support you and the employer in navigating a potential immigration process. We recommend including your letter of support from TalentLift in your job applications, along with your cover letter and CV.

You can access your letter of support through your TalentLift profile. After logging in, navigate to the “Jobs” tab and select the “Looking for jobs on your own?” button. There, you can request a personalized letter of support to be emailed to you.

We know you have a lot to offer, and a strong cover letter will help employers see this too.

Candidates living in refugee circumstances and seeking a job in Canada can join TalentLift. 

Interested in a career at KPMG Canada? Check out their open roles here.