Tips for the dream asset management cover letter

With so much attention given to the CV in the financial world, it’s easy to forget about your cover letter, but you’d be doing so at your own peril, because it’s the cover letter that really gets across the real you to your employers and helps you to stand out from the crowd.

Here’s our quickfire tips to making sure you get it right when you’re going for that asset management role.

Short and sweet

Remember that anything you give in is being read by a busy professional and someone who isn’t going to waste time reading anything that waffles or drones on, so you need to keep it short, snappy and specific to the job you’re applying for.

A good marker as a basis is to say why the role appeals to you, the qualifications you have that make you suitable and the characteristics that make you different to any other candidates.

That isn’t to say that you can’t include relevant anecdotes or something to make you stand out, but if you abide by a two paragraph basis, you can’t go too wrong. Remember your audience and make sure it’s relevant and readable.

Strike a balance

There’s an important balance to be hit between being a consummate professional and also not boring the reader to death – there needs to be a dash of colour and personality in there or your application will fade away.

Find the vibe of each and every firm you apply to and then try and appeal to that sentiment within your letter – whilst you must remain serious enough to be seen as a viable candidate, you equally don’t want to be seen as a robot.

If there’s an anecdote about he company which is why you applied, then that might be a good one or two line point to show that not only have you thought about this decision to apply, but you’ve also been tempted by human emotion rather than salary or prestige.

Remember what you’re applying for

In asset management, a lot of the time you’ll be working on solving problems for someone, so if you can slip that into your cover letter, you’ll be impressing the company from the get go.

By selling yourself, you’re effectively telling the company you want to work for that you can be the answer to the current gap they have in their team – if there was no gap there would be no place to apply for in the first place.

Therefore, it’s important that you fit yourself into the equation and depict how you can be the answer to the current vacancy – by making yourself the solution, you automatically make yourself desired and that can only help you progress through the first stage of the process.