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Letter Of Application - Theory

THE LETTER OF APPLICATION

1. INTRODUCTION

A letter of application should accompany your CV, and these two items form a package. The letter has a number of purposes:
• It allows you to sell yourself by pointing out key features of your CV.
• It gives you the opportunity to include material that is not in the CV, especially personal qualities that you listed when making your preparations.
• It shows a prospective employer that you know how to write a letter. While this may be of decreasing importance in an electronic age, many employers still value it highly, both as a skill in its own right and as a test of your ability to communicate clearly and effectively.

Some employers may be flooded with a stack of a hundred or more CVs on any given day. In such situations, getting an interview can represent a major breakthrough for the job applicant. The job application letter you write can and should be used to substitute for that all-important interview that you may not otherwise get, regardless of your qualifications. So, construct it wisely. CVs at best put forth only a rather simple table of data depicting your past work history and educational background for a potential employer's scrutiny. Lacking in a CV are many of the individual nuances important to employers regarding the people they are about to add to their organisation. Surveys of personnel directors of the five-hundred largest organisations show that the vast majority (over 80%) have agreed or strongly agree that they want to know the following:

1 - Your personality: what you are like and what you will be like as an employee?
2 - Why have you chosen to apply for employment with this particular company?
3 - What job are you specifically seeking?
4 - What makes you feel that your education or past experience relates to that job?

2. PLANNING YOUR JOB APPLICATION LETTER:

Think of your job application letter as being constructed of three parts: the introduction, body, and...