Writing Job-Application Letters

Printed Page 411

Writing Job-Application Letters

Many of the job boards listed in Understanding Four Major Ways to Look for a Position include samples of job-application letters.

Is the job-application letter (sometimes called a cover letter) obsolete? Résumé expert Tony Beshara surveyed over 3,000 hiring officers for their opinions. Some 86 percent said the letter is “not very important” (Hering, 2011). But many experts argue that a cover letter is still important. Applicants can explain more clearly in a letter than in a résumé how their qualifications match the employer’s requirements. They can explain their professional relationship with someone in the employer’s organization or gaps in their employment history. Perhaps most important, applicants can show that they can write well. In a survey by the professional staffing company Robert Half International, 91 percent of senior managers said that a letter is valuable, and 79 percent reported that they often receive cover letters from applicants even when they do not request them (OfficeTeam, 2011).

Figure 15.7 shows a job-application letter.

Notice that the writer’s own name does not appear at the top of his letter.

In the inside address, he uses the reader’s courtesy title, “Mr.”

The introductory paragraph identifies the writer’s source of information about the job, identifies the position he is applying for, states that he wishes to be considered, and forecasts the rest of the letter.

In a letter, you can’t discuss everything in the résumé. Rather, you select a few key points from the résumé to emphasize.

Note that both the education paragraph and the employment paragraph begin with a clear topic sentence.

The writer points out that he has taken two graduate courses, and he discusses his senior design project, which makes him look more like an engineer solving a problem than a recent graduate.

Notice how the writer makes a smooth transition from the discussion of his college education to the discussion of his internship experience.

A concluding paragraph usually includes a reference to the résumé, a polite but confident request for an interview, and the writer’s contact information.

The enclosure notation refers to the writer’s résumé. Do not use an enclosure notation unless you are literally enclosing something along with the letter in the envelope.

image
Figure 15.7 Job-Application Letter