EIT Manufacturing

Tips for improving your CV and Letter of Motivation

Tips for improving your CV and Letter of Motivation

On the EIT Manufacturing application portal, among the other required documents, you also need to upload a CV and a letter of motivation with a business idea that shows your entrepreneurial mindset and potential as tomorrow’s innovator.

Here is some advice for you!

Your CV

Your CV should address these questions: What do I know and what have I studied? What experience do I have? What are my skills?

Consider mentioning:

  • Education, previous and current studies, main subjects chosen
  • Other learning opportunities, such as extracurricular courses, training courses, crash courses, exchange programmes and study experiences abroad
  • Hackathons, competitions, prizes and awards
  • Relevant projects you have worked on, both in the academic context or outside university
  • Training and jobs, internships, also temporary and voluntary work, sports and artistic activities
  • Technical skills, programming languages, soft skills
  • English proficiency and other languages

Important: make your CV easy to read and clear, with an appealing layout! Online you may find very pleasant and nice CV templates to start with.

Your Letter of Motivation with an innovative/business idea

For the EIT Manufacturing application, consider that you need to write a letter of motivation (max 2 pages) which should contain both your motivations and an innovative/business idea, possibly related to the programme you are applying for (ie. Additive Manufacturing for Full Flexibility, Platforms for Digitalized Value Networks).

For the business idea, focus on a real problem, address specific needs and propose your innovative solution. Depending on your topic, the emphasis may vary, still you may consider the following as general guidelines:

  • What problem is your idea addressing, and why should we care?
  • What is the concrete output? Eg. a service, a product, a tool, an application…
  • What are the key strengths of your solution?
  • How does it meet the initial needs and requirements?
  • What are the stakeholders and what value are you bringing to them with your solution?
  • Are there possible competitors and how is your solution positioned? What competitive edge?
  • What impact could your solution have? Is it societally relevant?

We suggest that you always personalise a motivation letter according to the recipient, in this case to the EIT Manufacturing Master School, avoiding general phrases, such as “to whom it may concern”. Be focused and address it to the EIT Manufacturing Selection Committee, referring to the key features of this programme.

Try to communicate why this is the ideal programme for you and why you should be an ideal candidate for it! Find the right balance between ambition, determination and humility. Your letter shouldn’t convey arrogance nor meekness, but show your willingness to learn, to step out of your comfort zone, and commitment to move to the next level in your study and professional career!

  Other tips about how to write your CV and cover letter can be founded here, provided by our Polimi Career Service. These indications will turn out to be very useful when the time comes to apply for future job positions!