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Your resume and cover letter
- Page updated onMarch 15, 2025
Throughout your selection process you will rely on two pillars: your resume and your cover letter. Both, combined and used well, are a powerful tool. However, rarely is it taught how to bring out your full potential. In fact, people coming from the public healthcare system, in many countries may be oblivious to the keys to these documents. After all, many of their previous selection processes have probably relied more on competitive examinations and point scales for academic and research merit, for example.
Please note that although general information is provided here, there are specific codes and recommendations that may be more relevant in some countries than in others. Most of the recommendations provided here relate to European organizations, although it is advisable to check them out first.
Table of contents:
Resume for a humanitarian organization
Best brief and always adapted to the position
The resume is the key that allows you to pass the first filter, performed by the personnel department. It is also the band that acts as your opening act before in the following stages of the selection process. What's more, some of the people who will interview you will consult your resume minutes before the interview begins.
With this in mind, it's much easier to see what might work best in a recruitment process: it should be a tailor-made, synthetic, well-written and well-designed document. Your resume must show that you fit the job description after an ultra-quick 10-second glance and that you are the best possible choice in a quick 60-second read.
Two pages are more than enough for the perfect resume (in some countries, it's even less: one page). Although there are professionals in the health sector who are accustomed to writing 15-page resumes that accredit all the training and presentations at conferences they have given over the years in order to get points, it doesn't work that way in humanitarian organizations. Here it is enough to provide some administrative information at the beginning, followed by a summary of your most relevant professional experience, your most relevant training and, if you think it enriches your profile, other information (such as computer skills or hobbies).
Basic administrative information and a good summary
The basic administrative information is your name, nationality, the way to contact you, and the link to your Linkedin profile. Although sometimes we are tempted to add much more data, many of them (such as the photo or age) are accessories. Others (such as your address) are not necessary and take up space for others that are key. However, it is good to include your nationality (sometimes it allows you to know if it will be possible for you to obtain a work and residence permit in the destination country) and your Linkedin profile. Including this information allows whoever is considering contacting you to know much more about you than what you have written on these two pages, and to look for contacts that could offer references. The latter has become very important over the years in this sector.
In addition, it is usually a very good idea to include, after the administrative information and before your professional experience, a summary of 4 lines or 50 words (maximum), well highlighted, that includes everything that makes your position fit the requirements requested.
In this way, you offer those who are considering recruiting you three levels of information: First, a 50-word summary that allows them to confirm in 20 seconds that the profile should pass the first filter. Second, a two-page resume that can be read more or less carefully in a few minutes to expand on the information they consider most relevant. Third, a link to your professional profile on Linkedin where they can access additoinal information, if they are interested.
Your professional experience (include here your internships and volunteering!)
The summary of your professional experience should not include everything, but the most relevant. For each previous experience you have had, include the institution you worked for and on what dates, the title you held, and the most valuable aspects of that experience for the position for which you are applying. Did you coordinate any teams, how many people, did you produce anything particularly relevant, did you work in thematic areas of interest, did you have any notable achievements or recognition for your work?
Do not assume that your job descriptions are universally understood. They aren't. For example, "Solidaridad por el mundo health technician in the Olivos department" gives very little information to people who don't know that organization, its organizational chart, or that geographic area. You can clarify, for example, that you supervised two maternal and child health projects with an annual volume of $300,000 and $750,000, coordinating a team of five people (2 psychologists, 2 nurses and 1 nutrition specialist), with a very vulnerable displaced population in a border province. You can even add that you also led the identification and design process of one of them and that you participated in the piloting of a novel approach to psychosocial support for mothers with low birth weight newborns, developing tools to support the initiation of breastfeeding that were later used in the rest of the provinces.
If it's your first resume, you may be concerned that you don't have more than one or two items to show. But what about the relevant volunteering and internships you have done? Clearly indicate that they are unpaid experiences, but include them too! Although they may not "officially" count as professional experience, they do count highly. These experiences will have helped you to develop key skills and competencies, and to learn how an NGO works from the inside. Both are aspects that can make a difference in a junior profile.
Basic training and additional courses
The summary of your education should clearly include the basic academic background you have. If your qualifications are slightly different to those applied for, but equivalent, try to make that clear. Again, don't assume that everyone knows the schools you have studied at, or specific qualifications that may not exist in other countries.
Also add information (very briefly) about any additional relevant training you have, as well as your language skills. This may be the key section of your resume to cover the items shown in the job description as "desirable" even if you have no professional experience in them. Although it is tempting, don't list all the short courses you have taken, nor exaggerate their importance. People reviewing your resume will be able to identify if that impressive course from a prestigious foreign university is actually a free 12-hour online course. It is more worthwhile to use this section to demonstrate your interest in continually updating your education and to highlight the two or three most relevant things.
Additional information
Don't ignore the potential of the last section, additional information. This section allows you to cover key aspects of the job requirements that may not fit in other sections. For example, you can explain your experience in the use of digital tools, as long as they add value. Knowing how to use Microsoft Word and Excel does not make a difference; knowing how to use Microsoft Teams, Sharepoint, Jira, Slack, Activity Info, or DHIS2 may make a difference. It is also the opportunity to indicate hobbies you dedicate time to that can be very positive to cope with stress and workload (such as sports that you can continue practicing wherever you go), that also give you important skills and competencies (such as music, social volunteering unrelated to work, communication, or the ability to speak in public), that show that you are an active person and with concerns, or that you can have things in common with the rest of the team.
Some organizations have their own system for entering data about your education and experience using web forms. In these cases, there is not always room to include a summary or explain something for which there is no specific data entry field. However, many of these systems do allow you to attach documents, so you can still add your resume in the format that you think works best for you, in case they want to review it.
The cover letter (or motivation letter)
Your motivation and strengths, with closeness and confidence
Imagine being given the opportunity to speak directly and introduce yourself in one minute to the people who are considering hiring you, just before handing them your resume. What would you tell them? Maybe you'd be tempted to spout the typical "self-starter, results-oriented, high-learning, team player" jargon, or try to summarize your entire resume. Honestly, I hope you show certainty, demonstrate confidence and assurance, and manage to convey why you are a person who fits the position and the organization and that you are motivated and capable enough to do well.
That is, more or less, what you should include (in a more formal tone, of course) in a cover letter or motivation letter: who you are, what has brought you here, why you want this job, and why you believe you are the best candidate for it. While the cover letter is generally considered less important than the resume (and I won’t lie to you—it's true that some employers may not even review it, believing that their selection criteria will be more objective if they focus solely on the resume), it provides a valuable opportunity to explain what you cannot convey in the rigid format of a resume, which serves its own purpose.
The professional and vocational path that has brought you here
In a first paragraph, and with a relaxed narrative format, you can explain what steps you have been taking in your academic training and professional life that have brought you to the doors of this new job and -above all- why you have decided to take each of those steps (and take advantage of the opportunities you have had).
While your resume outlines what you have done, here you can explain why you have done it and what it has brought you. This information, when well articulated, can be very valuable. It’s not about demonstrating a profound calling but rather having a candid conversation about what has motivated you to reach this point over the years.
What motivates you about this job opportunity in humanitarian aid
Next, it makes sense to explain why you have applied for this position: What motivates you to work in this organization, in this position and in this geographic location? What do you hope this experience will bring you and how do you think it fits into the career you plan to develop throughout your professional life?
Again, this does not fit on the resume either, and can be a determining factor in your hiring if your expectations are in line with those who might hire you. If this is your first job in the industry, you should also know that your desire to learn and develop professionally in an organization can compensate (at least in part) for your inexperience.
What makes you the perfect candidate for the job: your strengths
Finally, you cannot assume that motivation is everything. It is not enough to show that this new opportunity motivates you and that it fits in with your past and future career path. You must also explain why you are the best candidate.
Again, this does not fit in the curriculum. In the resume there is raw information that everyone can read to draw their own conclusions. However, here is an opportunity to do your own analysis and show the conclusions you would like your recruiters to draw when reviewing your documentation.
Explain what are your strengths for the position, where they come from, and how they compensate for the weaknesses that you undoubtedly also have. Showing that you know your weaknesses, that you are aware that you will need support or more work with them, and that these are not reasons to reject your candidacy, is the way to show yourself as someone with autonomy, willingness to grow and ability to overcome problems.
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