A letter of application for a job is oftentimes called a cover letter, for in many if not most instances, it is a specialized form of cover letter. You are, on the whole, unlikely to send an unaccompanied letter to a prospective employer unless you are asking for a first job or perhaps a simple manual job.In most cases, the organization you are applying to will send you an application form to fill in or will ask you to submit a résumé. Your response to this will be, in part, a cover letter to accompany the other document.Let us concentrate on the more common situation, in which the document your letter will be accompanying is a résumé. Your résumé is a distillation of your life and professional experience to date. It will say a lot about you, and you will to some extent be judged on what it says. But, by and large, résumés are not "speaking documents." They tell an employer what you have done, but they do not tell him or her what you are like. Your letter of application should speak of and for you as a person, and as a practitioner of a particular profession, sufficiently to give you a chance, at an interview, to show yourself in the flesh and enable the employer to form a rounded assessment of your personality and capabilities.As has been said more than once already, letters can be tests, and this applies especially to letters of application. Most employers will welcome, if they do not insist on, good communications skills—of which good writing skills form a major part. Your letter is your chance to showcase the skills you possess—which is not to say that you should try to turn the letter into a virtuoso performance. This is not an opportunity to show off. It is, however, an opportunity to demonstrate that you can write in a competent and businesslike way, that you are able to spell and punctuate, that you prepare and revise your written work conscientiously (though it may still be advisable to ask somebody else to check your letter for you, since it is notoriously difficult to proofread your own work meticulously, especially when you set great store by it), and that you have a basic grasp of the proper tone to adopt.A letter of application can also, incidentally, be a test of your understanding. Many applications fail because applicants have not read the advertisement for the job carefully, or have not studied any literature about the job or the employer. Before you begin your letter, therefore, you should gather as much information as you can about the job and about the organization that is offering it. Make sure that you frame your letter so that it relates precisely to this job with this organization. If the advertisement or the job description mentions specific duties or specific skills, you should respond by saying whether you have those skills and how you obtained them and what fits you to carry out those duties.There are three basic areas that you have to cover in order to achieve all this: the training and experience that you have acquired, the sometimes less easily definable additional skills that you accumulated outside your formal training, and the personal qualities you possess that will make you an asset to this employer.The first of these areas includes all your formal education, any additional training you have received or courses that you have taken, and all the jobs you have done to date. In order to cover the second area, you have to think hard about what you actually did when you were employed in particular jobs. You may have been officially employed in one role, but in addition to performing the duties of that particular position, you may have occasionally been called upon to deputize for another person, say, and so have learned the rudiments of a different job. This extra experience may be as relevant to the job you are now applying for as the experience you gained in your official post. If you are naturally modest or unaccustomed to analyzing yourself and your strong points, dealing with the third area may present a problem. Try to be as honest as you can, and if you really cannot think of ways to describe yourself, perhaps ask a friend or relative to suggest a few adjectives that sum up your character. Try to give an impression of confidence, but do not boast. Do not lie about yourself, for example, by claiming to be a wonderfully organized person when you generally muddle through. But it is quite legitimate to put the most positive gloss on something. A muddler-through, for instance, might claim that he or she "is not fazed when things do not go according to plan and is used to improvising solutions to unexpected problems."You should make a note of everything that occurs to you. You may not be able to accommodate all of the material in the letter, which must be kept reasonably short, but these ideas are not necessarily wasted. You can also use them to construct or refresh your résumé, and they may come in handy if you are called for an interview.Besides giving a positive impression of your own capabilities, you should also be positive about the job. Say what it is about the job that particularly appeals to you, and how you think it fits in to the career path you are planning for yourself. Likewise, if there is anything about the company you are applying to that makes you particularly eager to become an employee, mention it.To sum up, a basic letter of application should contain- an introduction stating which post you are applying for;
- a concise statement of the experience that fits you for the job;
- a concise statement of the aspects of the job that interest you;
- a concise statement of the personal qualities that you would bring to the job and the company; and
- a reference to any documents you enclose with the letter and a statement of your willingness to attend an interview.
Such a letter might look like this: 342 Pacific Drive
Santa Lucia, California 92595-7659
(805) 925-1515 May 3, 2006 Mr. George S. Breschini
Human Resources Manager
RUH International
45 Wills Avenue
Scott Valley, California 91083-2045 Subject: Position of Personal Assistant to Financial Director Dear Mr. Breschini: I am writing to apply for the above post, which was advertised in yesterday's issue of the Santa Lucia Observer. You will see from the résumé enclosed with this letter that I have considerable experience as a secretary and personal assistant. At present I am employed with J. P. Tate & Co. in Santa Lucia as personal assistant to Mrs. Helga Brigg, the general manager. In addition to organizing Mrs. Brigg's schedule and performing general secretarial duties, I am also in charge of the company's payroll database. I am fully qualified as a secretary, am familiar with standard office software programs, and have attended two additional courses on the setting up and management of databases. The position offered by RUH International interests me for two reasons. First, I should very much like to work for an executive in charge of finance, where the experience I have acquired while running J. P. Tate & Co.'s payroll could be useful and where I might have the opportunity to increase my knowledge of financial matters. Second, I would welcome the challenge presented by working for a large company with international connections. As you will also see from my résumé, I can speak Spanish well and have traveled a little in Central America. The qualifications that I possess should, I think, suit me for this position. Mrs. Brigg will vouch for the fact that I am efficient and hard-working. I am also adaptable and, while I do not thrive on pressure, I am used to coping with pressure and remaining efficient. I would welcome the chance to discuss this position further with you at an interview. If you require any further information, please contact me at my home address, given above. Sincerely yours, April Cantelo April Cantelo Attachments (1)
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