LETTERS OF APPLICATION

LETTERS OF APPLICATION

A letter of application is a letter that sells yourself. By applying for a job, you must arouse interest in your qualifications; b y presenting your past records and testimonials, you must convince the employer about your capacity of doing the job and you must reach the target: get an interview and then get the job. Job application letter is difficult to be written as it is not always known whom are you writing to.

First, write an application as short as possible and state that your curriculum vitae is enclosed. Your curriculum vitae must give all the details of your personal background, education, qualifications, experience. DO NOT DUPLICATE this information in your letter.

Study the advertisement carefully. From it, you can get much information about the adviser. Read the requirements for the post carefully and in the reply you must state clearly which are you able to fulfill. Answer the advertisement fully, do not omit any element. The purpose of your letter is to get the job, but first, you must get the interview. Ensure that your application is well typed, neatly presented and make your application stand for the rest.

The letter should be brief, give a lot of information in as few words as possible. Write sincerely, in a friendly tone but not familiar. Do not make exaggerated claims, show a proper appreciation of your abilities. Do not suggest that you are looking for a new job because you are bored of the one you already have. If you are asked to state the salary you expect to get, do so. If your main interest is the salary, do not state the figures you expect, mention just you are earning now. The tone of the letter must show keenness for the post.

Do not send original documents, send just copies with your application, but take the originals along with you to the interview. As the employers are busy and have little time for long correspondence, try to offer them the most concise of what is important no matter how important that information seems to be for you. Avoid generalizing, just indicate the number of years and indicate the company you worked for.

After having written the letter, read it carefully and ask yourself the following questions:

Does it look like a good business letter?

Is the opening paragraph in the position to interest the employer enough to make him read the whole letter?

Does it suggest that I am interested in that kind of work that is advertised?

Send the letter only if the answer to these questions are YES (for this you must put yourself in the position of the employer). These are only some pieces of advice that are to be taken into account before writing an application letter. Your letter is an answer to a newspaper advertisement or journal; so the name of it must be mentioned in the opening paragraph or in the subject heading. In this kind of letter, the writers address is placed on the top right corner of the letter; all the details are written at the left, in fully blocked style. Place the date at the right. Here is an example:

23 Oxford Street

8 April 2008  London

ER 34

Mr. Bob Smith

Personnel Manager

Leyland& Bailey

Nelson Works

Southampton

23EF

Dear Mr. Smith

Ref. to Private Secretary to Managing Director

I was interested to see your advertisement in todays DAILY TELEGRAPH, and I would like to be considered for the job.

(the next paragraph must contain a reference to what the applicant is doing for the time being, indicating all kind of information in very brief sentences)

In my present job of Private Secretary to the General Manager at a manufacturing factory, I have a wide range of responsibilities. These include attending and taking minutes of meetings and interviews, dealing with callers and correspondence in my employers absence, supervising junior staff, as well as the usual secretarial duties.

(you have to make reference to the job you are intending to get)

The kind of work in which your company is engaged, particularly interests me, and I would welcome the opportunity that would afford me to use my language abilities, which are not used in my present post.

(the motivation is given; no reference to income is made as nothing was mentioned in the advertisement; you are obliged to mention the documents you are enclosing for supporting your ideas)

A copy of my curriculum vitae is enclosed giving further details, together with copies of my testimonials.

(the letter is ended in a very polite way)

I hope to hear from you soon, and to be given the opportunity to present myself at an interview.

The letter may have a paragraph that indicates some names of persons who can be contacted in order to give references for the new employer ;

My present employer will be pleased to furnish you with any further information you may require, and will confirm that I am leaving his employ reluctantly and with the sole desire to improve my present knowledge of foreign languages.

The letter is supposed to be accompanied by a curriculum vitae and testimonials. The former should present all the personal details, education, qualifications and working experience. It should be presented in an attractive form so that all the information can be seen at a glance. All the details are to be presented on two pages not more. Here is a pattern: 

CURRICULUM VITAE

Name:  Johnson

Christian Name:  Thomas

Address:  24 Main Road

Middleford

Essex

Telephone; e-mail

Date of birth

Nationality

Marital status

Education

School  fromto

College fromto

University  fromto

Results obtained

Degrees and/ or other post school qualifications

Postgraduate qualifications

Special awards

Working experience

September 2000 to   engineer Bains, Hoyle, London

Interests

Published books

Referees

Dr.X.V.

Principal, Redford College

February 18, 2000  signature

As far as the testimonials, these are addressed TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN. They are given by the previous employer if they are requested; the originals are retained; only copies are given. They should contain the following details of the employee:

Duration of employment

Post(s) held

Duties carried out

Work attitude

Personal qualities

A recommendation

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

Miss X.B. was employed as Shorthand Typist in this company, when she left the secretarial college in June 20 She was promoted to my Personal Secretary in(duration of employment)

Her responsibilities included the usual secretarial duties involved in such a post, as well as attending meetings, transcribing minutes, and supervising and advising junior secretaries.

Miss X.B. used her best endeavors at all times to perform her work consciously and expeditiously. She was an excellent secretary, an accurate and quick shorthand typist, meticulous in the layout, presentation and accuracy of her work. I cannot overstress her exceptional work rate, which did not in any way detract from very high standards she set for herself. (working attitude)

She enjoyed good health and was a good time keeper. She was very personable, friendly, sociable and quick to share in a joke. (personal qualities)

In my opinion, she has the necessary character, dedication and approach to be suitable for the position of personal secretary or to enter the teaching profession. I can recommend her highly and may be contacted for further information.

(Recommendation).

BANKING / HOME BUSINESS

Commercial banks offer four main services:

Accept customers deposits

Pay cheques drawn on them by their customers

Grant advances to customers

Provide a payment mechanism for the transfer of funds between its customers and those of the other banks

Correspondence between banks and customers is quite formal and standardized. Only the persons authorized by a companys board of directors may sign cheques for the company. The bank requires a copy of the boards resolution, allowing the opening of an account and stating the manner in which cheques are to be signed, with specimen of their signature.

Dear Mr

At the meeting of the Board yesterday, it was decided that cheques drawn on the Companys account must bear two signatures instead of one as formerly.

One of the signatures must be that of the Chairman or secretary and the other one that of any member of the Board. This change takes place as todays date.

There have been no changes in the membership of the Board since specimen signatures were issued to you in September.

A certified copy of the Boards resolution is enclosed.

The bank manager sends a letter to a customer who has drawn too much from his account; it is a polite, courteous letter indicating him the seriousness of an unauthorized overdraft.

Dear Mr.

On a number of occasions recently your account has been withdrawn. The amount overdrawn at close of business, yesterday, was and I should be glad if you would arrange for the credits necessary to clear this balance to be paid in as soon as possible.

Overdrafts are allowed to customer only by previous arrangement and as I noticed that your account has recently been running on a very small balance, it occurs to me that you may wish to come to some arrangement for overdraft facilities. If so, perhaps you will call to discuss the matter. In the absence of such arrangement, I am afraid it will not be possible to honor future cheques drawn against insufficient balances.

The bank replies:

Dear Mr

Thank you for your letter of yesterday. I have paid into my account cheques totaling. I realize that this leaves only a small balance to my credit and as I am likely to be faced with fairly heavy payments in the coming months, I should like to discuss arrangements for overdraft facilities.

I have recently entered into a number of very favorable contracts but they involve the early purchase of raw materials and as payments under the contracts will not be made until the work is completed, I am really in need of overdraft facilities up to aboutfor 6 months or so.

Perhaps you will suggest a day and time when it would be convenient for me to call on you.

When the payment of a cheque is stopped because of different reasons, payment is said to be countermanded. Only the drawer of the cheque can countermand the payment and it is done by notifying the bank in writing.

Dear Mr

I am writing to confirm our telegram of this morning to ask you to stop payment of cheque number for the sum of drawn payable to the

This cheque appears to have been lost in the post and the further cheque has not been drawn to replace it.

Please confirm receipt of this authority to stop payment.

It is contrary to banking custom to give information to private enquirer about its customers. When a buyer in seeking credit from a supplier gives the bank as a reference, the suppliers must approach their own bank not the buyers bank and ask them to make the necessary enquiries. As a rule, the information supplied in answer to such request is brief and formal and less personal than the obtainable through a trade reference. The supplier requests information from the bank:

We have received an order for from of 19 Drake Street, London. They ask for credit and have given the Commonwealth Bank, 10 Albert Street, Sheffield as a reference.

Would you be good enough to make enquiries and let us know whether the reputation and financial standing of the firm justify a credit of the above amount?

The bank replies:

As requested in your letter of we have made enquiries as to the reputation and standing of the Sheffield firm mentioned.

The firm was established in 1956 and its commitments have been met regularly. The directors are reported to be efficient and reliable and a credit of is considered sound.

This information is supplied free from all responsibilities on our part.

When granting an advance to a personal customer, the bank may require some form of acceptable security. The security should be easy to value, easy for a bank to obtain a good legal title and it should be readily marketable. The most common types of security accepted are life policies, shares, mortgages of land and guarantees. Normally a bank will not require security from a customer to support a personal loan. Interest on draft is charged on a daily basis, while interest on a personal loan is calculated on the full amount borrowed.

The bank does not require security for the offered loan:

In you were good enough to grant me a credit ofwhich was repaid within the agreed period. I now require a further loan to enable me to proceed with work under a contract with thefor building an extension to their Kings Road School.

I need the loan to purchase building materials at a cost of about The contract price is payable immediately upon satisfactory completion of the work on or before 30 August next.

I should be glad if you could grant me a loan of for a period ofmonths.

I enclose a copy of my latest audited balance sheet and shall be glad to call at the bank at your convenience to discuss the matter.

The request may be with security:

I am considering a large extension of business with several firms in Japan and as the terms of dealings will entail additional working capital, I should be glad if you would arrange to grant me a loan of for a period of.. months.

You already hold for safe keeping on my behalf. These I am willing to pledge as security. At current market prices, they should provide, I presume, sufficient cover for the loan.

You would be able to rely upon repayment of the loan at maturity as apart from other income, I have arranged to take into the business a partner, who, under the terms of partnership agreement, will introduce.capital at or before time when I may call on you to discuss my request, I will bring me evidence for supporting the above statement.

The customer may require an extension of the loan:

On , you granted me a loan of which is due for repayment at the end of this month.

I have already taken steps forward to prepare for the repayment, but unfortunately, due to a fire at my warehouse, a week ago, I have been faced with heavy unexpected payments. Damage from the fire is thought to be about and is fully covered by insurance, but as my claim is unlikely to be settled before the end of the next month, I should be glad if the period of loan could be extended until .

I am sure you will realize that the fire has created serious problems and that repayment of the loan before settlement of my claim could be made only with the greatest difficulty.