This article will show you how you can have the best of worlds, exploiting the flexibility of the letter yet working with some broad templates and guidelines to ensure that your correspondence puts you one step ahead of the average job-hunter. Before looking at what should go into letters which are designed to achieve a whole range of quite different objectives, we will take a look at a set of basic criteria which apply to all letters, regardless of their specific purpose.
- Put you in the reader's shoes. Before you even start typing your letter, get clearly in mind what the benefit to the recipient is going to be.
- Be equally clear about what your own purpose is. In the context of job hunting, it is usually, but not always, to get a meeting.
- Remember that your reader is almost certainly a busy person, with no time to waste. Ensure that your first sentence captures the reader's attention. If it does not, then the rest of the letter is likely to be at best skimmed, if read at all.
- Ask your readers questions. This makes them feel that they simply have to read on.
- Do not lapse into excessively formal language. Try to write very largely as you would speak if you were actually sitting in the recipient's office.
- Be short and sweet. Keep the letter to one side of typed A4 if at all possible. Avoid long sentences and paragraphs. Use short, punchy words rather than polysyllabic pomposities.
- Use bullet points and tabulation to make key items stand out, rather than risking them being missed because they are buried in a solid slab of text.
- End your letter with a clear and positive request for action.
- Observe the same presentational rules as for CVs - good quality white A4 paper, businesslike typeface, clear margins and spacing. Go easy, however, on emboldening and variations in type size.
- Finally, do not forget to sign the thing. One recruitment consultant estimated that at least 5 per cent of the job-hunters who write to him forget to add their signature - a sure sign either of carelessness or of bulk mailings.
Not just an ad on
Some of the greatest lost opportunities occur when people are responding to advertisements. Perhaps because so many ads end with something like, 'send your CV to . . .' many applicants say little more in their covering letter than that they are interested in the job in question and that they are enclosing, as requested, their curriculum vitae.
Put yourself in the shoes of the recruiter reading a pile of two or three hundred applications, and looking for the handful of key criteria which are going to rule each candidate either in or out. Would you not be pleased if, instead of having to wade through the whole CV each time, you found that the job had been done for you?
If the advertisement highlights five criteria and you only possess four, just list out those four and ignore the other one. Since most recruiters divide letters into three piles on the first screening -probables, possibles and rejects - you should at least end up in the possibles, if not the probables.
If you match only one or two of the criteria, you obviously cannot use this format - but then, if you are that far off the specification, you should really not be wasting your time applying at all.
Assuming, however, that you are a reasonably close match, here is the way to ensure that you go straight into the 'probables' pile.
- Avoid being too familiar. Although many recruiters put their full name on their ads, they tend to react unfavorably to a letter which starts 'Dear Bill' or 'Dear Sue'.
- Use a clear heading which quotes the title of the advertisement, the publication in which it appeared and any reference number, e.g.:
- Catch the reader's attention in the first sentence by demonstrating that you have a genuine reason for being attracted to this specific position. Do not just say, 'I wish to apply for . . .' Say something like, 'I was particularly interested in your advertisement because I enjoy the challenge involved in extensively restructuring manufacturing
facilities while continuing to operate to tight deadlines'.
- Then go straight into the main body of the letter, in which you show how you match the requirements of the post. Do be sure to use a tabulated format rather than solid text. It is so much easier for the reader to take in.
- End with a brief but positive sentence like 'I look forward to hearing from you and to having the opportunity to discuss this position with you'. While this can be preceded by a statement that your CV is, as requested, enclosed, this is somewhat superfluous. Recruiters have seen enough CVs in their time to be in little doubt as to what the document attached to your letter actually is.
Sometimes an advertisement simply says, 'Write to . . .' in these circumstances your best bet might still be to use the kind of letter discussed above and to send it off together with your CV. On the other hand, in the following situations a letter on its own is likely to have a greater chance of success.
- The advertisement may have said little, or have been vague about, the required criteria and it may therefore be difficult to produce a 'You require -I have' response.
- Your most recent experience may not, in this particular case, be the most relevant, and you may prefer to avoid your CV sending the wrong message.
- If your career history is a bit patchy or has gaps, you may not wish to draw attention to this, which both a chronological and a functional CV do in their different ways.
- Just occasionally there may be a case where you fall some-what short of the advertised requirements, but it is clear from what is said in the ad that you do have other qualities which mean that you could make an exceptional contribution. If -and only if - this really is the case, then it will take a well thought out letter to demonstrate your suitability.
In order to ensure that you select the right things, keep firmly in mind the purpose of the letter. Assuming that this is to get yourself a meeting, and then what you need to do is whet the reader's appetite, not cause indigestion. The format should be as follows:
- Clear heading.
- Attention-grabbing opening sentence explaining why you are interested in the advertised position.
- Succinct summary of your strongest USPs. Highlight your most relevant achievements and give a brief rundown of those aspects of your career which are going to get you an interview. For example, if you have 25 years' work experience of which 10 are in the advertiser's industry (publishing), all you need say is, 'My last 10 years have been spent in the publishing industry*.
- Better still, use at least some bullet points and tabulation -especially for the key, factual items.
- End with a positive statement saying what you want, i.e. a meeting.
Writing on Spec
A speculative letter to a potential employer may have a number of similarities to the kinds of letters we have just been looking at, but it needs even more thought before you launch into it. When you respond to an advertisement, you know that there is a position to be filled and you usually have a reasonably clear set of criteria (the person specification part of the ad) to use as a structure for your letter.
In the case of a speculative application you may be writing because you have noticed a news item which suggests that the company is likely to have recruitment needs, or you could simply be applying to a company to which you believe you could make a contribution, in the hope that they just might either have a current vacancy or be sufficiently interested in your background and achievements to create one for you. Furthermore, you will certainly not have a person specification to which to relate your selling points. You will have to identify, by intelligent research, the potential problem to which you could be the answer, and then decide which of your assets to highlight in your letter.
Your research will also have to include identifying the person to whom the letter should be addressed. This should be the most relevant decision maker - usually the chief executive in a smaller company, or a functional head, such as the finance, production or sales director, in a large one.
If you are to achieve your objective of obtaining a meeting it is better not to ask, in so many words, for a job, but rather to use phrases like 'seeking a new challenge', which imply that you would welcome a job offer but also leave the way open for a more general discussion.
This leads to the question of whether you are more likely to achieve your defined purpose by sending a letter on its own or whether to accompany it with your CV. There is no hard and fast rule - you have to make a separate judgment on each occasion. Where only limited aspects of your career are relevant, use a letter on its own. Where there are a number of areas which could appeal to a prospective employer, include the CV as well.
Whichever choice you make, the format of the letter will be broadly the same:
- a brief, attention-grabbing introduction explaining why you are writing to that particular company and what benefits you can offer to it;
- a statement of your USPs - either one or two paragraphs, or a series of bullet points;
- a clear request for what you want, i.e. a meeting;
- a closing sentence mentioning that you will be telephoning within a few days to arrange a convenient date and time.
The main difference when you are writing on spec to headhunters and agencies is what you say in the opening paragraph. Whether you like it or not, recruitment consultants always want to categories you. Partly because of the way their minds work, and partly because of the way their computerized databases are constructed, they like to be able to define you in terms of:
- your core discipline, e.g. finance, HR, IT, production, sales;
- the business sector(s) in which your experience lies;
- the kind of job you are looking for;
- your salary expectations;
- the locations you will consider.
Another thing which at best irritates recruitment consultants and at worst completely scuppers your credibility as an applicant is being too vague about what you want to do. It is instant death to say, 1 am open to anything' even if, in your heart of hearts, you are. Headhunters expect you to be focused and even agencies, who want to be able to market you widely, expect you to be clear about those options you will consider and those you will not.
