Chapter 5 | Identifying What You Need to Show

Once you understand the role, you need to choose the right evidence; a good cover letter is selective.

Step 1: Match your experience to the top requirements

Take the top five requirements from Chapter 4 and write one example beside each.

For example:

Requirement: Lead and develop teams

Your evidence: Managed a team of 15 across a high-volume service environment, improving consistency and morale through clearer routines and coaching.

Requirement: Improve processes

Your evidence: Introduced a new reporting process that reduced duplication and improved visibility of service issues.

Requirement: Manage stakeholders

Your evidence: Worked with senior managers, suppliers and operational teams to resolve delivery challenges and maintain service standards.

Step 2: Choose your strongest 2–3 evidence points

You do not need to include every example, choose the ones that match the role most closely, show the right level, demonstrate impact, show transferable value, and are easy to explain briefly.

Step 3: Decide what to leave out

This is just as important; leave out anything that is not relevant to this role, repeats the CV unnecessarily, is too detailed for a letter, distracts from the main message, or requires too much explanation.

Step 4: Identify your “why this role” angle

This should be practical, not overly emotional; good reasons include the role aligns with your experience, the organisation’s work connects to your sector knowledge, the opportunity reflects your direction of travel the responsibilities match your strengths, or the role oPers a logical next step.

Weak reasons include:

“I have always admired your company” without saying why

“I am passionate about this industry” without evidence

“I think this would be a great opportunity for me” with no employer benefit

Your reason should connect both sides; why the role makes sense for you, and why you make sense for the role.