Brilliant Cover Letters

128 brilliant Cover L etters

brilliant

case study

And here’s Joe’s finished application follow-up letter:

JOE BLOGGS

1 Anyold Road, Guildford AN1 1CV

Telephone: [phone] (Home); 07700 900 159 (Mobile)

Email: [e-mail]

Mr. John Hammond

Sales Director

Boozy Direct Limited

Davidson Way

GUILDFORD AN7 7CV

24 June 2009

Dear Mr. Hammond,

SENIOR SALES MANAGER VACANCY – REF. ABC123

I recently submitted my CV for the position of Senior Sales Manager. As I have not yet received

a response to my application, I would like to confirm that you have indeed received it; I would

emphasise that I remain very interested in the position.

In my current role, the sales campaigns I have devised and implemented have been successful

both in developing existing buyer relationships and in generating valuable new business. I have

delivered a substantial increase in weekly sales levels – from £45,000 to £85,000 – and believe I

could make a very significant contribution to your own sales operation.

I would be more than happy to resubmit my application if necessary. Please do not hesitate to

call me on 07700 900 159 so as to arrange this.

Yours sincerely,

Joe Bloggs

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Interview thank-you letters

The goal of your speculative and advert-response letters is obviously to

get your foot in the door for an interview. Having achieved that, it’s easy

to think that the matter is now out of your hands and that it’s just a ques-

tion of sitting back and waiting to see whether the interviewer decides to

give you the job or not.

Wrong.

But that is precisely what 90 per cent of people do!

The importance of being proactive

At no stage in your job hunt should you be sitting back and waiting for

anything – not until you’ve achieved the ultimate goal of receiving a job

offer. In a tight job market you need to be

proactive and constantly keep up your

efforts to land a new job. You need to have

a follow-up strategy in place.

In exactly the same way that following up

on your original application can boost your

odds of success, so can following up immediately after an interview. You

are writing, ostensibly, to thank the interviewer for their time, but actually

you’re aiming to seize one last opportunity to make an impact on them –

to reiterate how your skills and experience meet their requirements.

Once you’ve got to the interview stage, the odds are already narrowing

down very much in your favour. There could easily have been as many as

100 initial applicants. However, less than 10 are likely to have been invited

for interview. Success is within your grasp, and one final effort at this

stage can really swing things in your favour.

Other job search letters 129

in a tight job market

you need to be proactive

brilliant

tip

You probably devoted a good few hours of your time to putting together

your application and attending the interview – and yet it doesn’t take more

than 10 minutes to knock out a well-crafted thank-you letter.

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