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How to Write Transmittal Letters to Get You Interviews

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Three Types of Transmittal Letters

You'll use a letter of transmittal in three situations: responding to a classified ad, responding to a personal lead, and sending out a mass mailing.

1.    Response to a Classified Ad

Let's take a look at an employment advertisement and then develop a letter to go after the position. Employment advertisements have four major bits of information. First, they describe the company to get you excited and interested in joining their team. Second, they describe the position in gloving terms to make you want the job. Third, they list the qualifications for the position. And fourth, they provide response information.



Writing an advertisement is difficult. The author has to fit all four bits of information into a small space. If the ad doesn't describe the company or the position in the right terms, no one will apply. If it doesn't list the qualifications correctly, the wrong people might apply. If the response information is not drafted properly, the company might get deluged with phone calls it can't effectively handle, and the department will get bogged down.

When the replies come in, guess who reads the responses? You got it: the recruiter who wrote the ad. Wouldn't it be interesting if the recruiter read his own words when he received your letter and resume?

You have reviewed the ad and feel this is the job for you. To respond, you need to create a letter that will appeal to the recruiter who will do the initial screening, probably the person who drafted the ad. There are several important strategies to consider.
  1. In the first paragraph include the position, as well as the name of the publication and the date when the ad appeared. The company may be running several ads for various positions in several different papers.

  2. Address the letter to a specific person. If no name appears, call the company, tell them you are interested in the position, and ask to whom you should address your letter. If the ad states, "No phone calls," call the main number for the company and ask the name of the employment manager. Don't indicate that you are responding to an advertisement. If the ad uses a blind box response ("send resume to Box XXXX"), and you can't even determine the company name that usually means the incumbent in the position does not know he or she is being replaced. In those cases, address your letter as stated, and then use, "Dear Employment Manager," as a salutation.

  3. Take some words or phrases directly from the advertisement and use them in your letter.

  4. Don't rehash what is already in your resume. The trick is to highlight or amplify specific qualifications.

  5. Anticipate objections. If you are missing a stated qualification for the position, offer an offsetting advantage. Give them some explanation of how you can do the job despite not having something they are seeking. They are going to match your resume, item for item, against the qualifications anyway. If you don't have it, tell them that what you do have is a lot better than what they want.

  6. Tell them not what you hope to gain but what you are going to give.

  7. Regardless of what the ad requests, never give the company your salary requirements or your current income. Income is used as a quick disqualifier. If you are too high in your present income, employers will assume you are overqualified, that the job is really beneath you, and you will quickly become disenchanted. If you are too low, they'll assume you are not qualified for such a big jump in salary, and the job would be more than you can handle. Instead, give them a five-year snapshot in round numbers. Use the figure the service gives you at the end of the year, called Total Military Compensation (TMC). They use it to show you what your compensation would be worth if you were a civilian. That gives you a wider range of qualifications. If you are borderline, according to scale, the range just might get you the interview. It also shows systematic and regular advancement.
Such a letter of transmittal differs dramatically from the usual cover letter.

2.    Response to a Personal Lead

If a friend, colleague, or acquaintance suggested you write a particular person to inquire about employment, in that case, refer to the lead's name in the first sentence.

3.    Mass Mailings

Do mass mailings work? Of course they do. For years we helped prepare thousands of letters for job seekers all over the country, and our colleagues at Word Store in Charlotte’s ville, Virginia, continue that work. The kind of response these job seekers get depends on the product they're selling. Certainly people with little experience and little strength in their resumes cannot expect a very good response. But those with good experience and good credentials can and do get results.

What kind of response? That also depends on their market. Some professions grant many interviews as a result of mail solicitations. In the legal profession, for example, most law firms do not have sophisticated recruiting systems. Most law firms in this country have fewer than ten members. They don't have the time or resources to devote to recruiting. Their needs can appear suddenly. At any given time, then, some percentage of all law firms is looking for a new associate, paralegal, or legal secretary.

The same is true of most professions and businesses. Most professional firms and businesses are small and do not have sophisticated recruiting systems. At any time, even in the depths of a recession, a percentage of employers are looking for employees. Next week or next month the percentage will probably be the same. The identity of those looking is unknown. Each week or each month the identity of those looking will change. Someone who was looking last month isn't looking now. Someone who wasn't looking last month is looking now. Direct mail efficiently and quickly seeks out those who are looking.

So what kind of response can you expect? About 1 to 2 per cent, if you're lucky. Ask anybody who has marketed goods and services by direct mail. All they expect is 1 to 2 percent. But there is one cardinal rule in direct mail, one absolute certainty: Every letter you don't send will not result in an interview, and every letter you do send might result in an interview. It's a numbers game. Does it work? Ask the young professional woman who sent out more than 1,000 letters. She got better than a 2 percent response, and more than twenty interviews.

In three weeks flat she began her new job making $12,000 more than she was making before. Or ask the young liberal arts student who sent out 300 letters to large corporations. After just one month he had the precise job he wanted in Houston.
 
 

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