CV / Cover Letter Review - coming back after 10 years

Hi,
I wonder if some of you good people could offer any constructive criticism on how to improve my cover letter / CV. I know I am not good at this sort of thing...

Short story is - I quit working for an asset management firm (Putnam Investments) in London 10 years ago and I would like to go back to it.

I want a quality firm with good, nice people who will help me develop, ideally a job I will have for 5-10 years. To quote Warren Buffett I want to be "Tap dancing to work". It will probably be somewhere smaller.

I've applied to a few places and had zero replies, I wonder if any of you good people could offer advice as to how I can improve.

Cheers,
Rob

Cover letter is below.

Hi,

I saw the role advertised on Bloomberg and I would be interested in finding out more.

Between 2006 and 2008 I was a Utilities and Telecoms analyst for Putnam Investments (at that time a $20bn large cap fund) in Mayfair, London. I quit in 2008 to work in the public sector and invest by myself. Since then I have achieved very good results (about a 23% CAGR over the entire period). I have invested successfully in small, liquidating closed end funds but have also invested in companies.

I am looking to return to professional investment to learn and develop and also to raise capital. Even though I have achieved good results I am not particularly wealthy as I have grown my capital from a very low base.

I blog on my investments at www.deepvalueinvestments.wordpress.com. Some of my more recent ideas / better ones for new money are Rasmala (RMA.L) (https://deepvalueinvestments.wordpress.com/2017/0…), this is an asset manager which has proposed returning 2/3rds of it's market cap, this would leave the rump valued at about 1/5 th of its NTAV - so it will likely appreciate.

Another idea is the Alternative Liquidity Fund - this is a fund consisting of liquid investments from unsuccessful hedge funds. When I initially invested it was trading at 1/10th of its (somewhat inflated) NAV. It has since returned cash and re-rated somewhat but there is still a good entry point as much of the fund is cash, implying a more substantial discount on other assets. In addition it has been able to buy and liquidate more assets - making this something different to the closed-end realization fund it started out as. https://deepvalueinvestments.wordpress.com/2017/0…

I have had other successes - SMIN - +50% in just over a year, TRB which has tripled in value and TJI which rose over 400%.

I tend not to have many outright, large losses - but it does happen that I change my mind / get it wrong or new information means I need to get out. Often I can get out flat / slightly up/down.

My CV is attached and I look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,

Rob

Attachment Size
blog_cv.pdf 402.59 KB 402.59 KB
 
Best Response

"Hi" - unprofessional. Switch this to dear [someone's name/ title (e/g/ director of recruitment)

"the role" - I assume you'll switch this to whatever specfic role it is

After that first sentence I would say something along the lines of "My skills and experiences make me highly qualified for this role", or combine it to "My skills ... highly qualified ... and I would like to find out more"

"...very good results" to "Since then I have achieved a 23% CAGR with my personal investments in equities and closed end funds"

"I am looking to return" -> Do not mention the low capital; that is personal info you can share during the interview. It just reads very weird here. Just end with "to learn and develop my skills" or soemthing along those lines

"Some of my more recent ideas" -> 'Recent ideas include', take tkhe out /better for new money its unprofessional

I'm honestly not sure if I would include the ideas at all - somewhat nonstandard. In your case I think it might help given your background and the fact that you blog. However, I would combined the ALF paragraph with the RMA.L one by just including the first sentence and then the link to the blog post.

Would definitely get rid of the "I have had other successes" and following paragraph.

Would add a fluff bs paragraph about why you want to work at that company in particular before the "My CV is attached."

 

Thanks for the feedback - which details do you suggest I remove ?

On the use of Hi yes it is unprofessional but its a reply to a randomn bloomberg ad to an e-mail so no name was given to send to... Usually I would go with the name....

That is also why no fluff on why I want to work for that company.

Could you guys take a look at the attached CV ?

Thanks

 

For the CF - maybe UK is different but more than 1 page is just not done in the U.S. (except in very exceptional cases). I would remove some details (this seems to go into a lot of minutiae) and make use of the white space on the left to get it down.

Once again, possible i'm completely off-base for the UK

 

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