Application Letter

The letter of explanation or brief introduction accompanying your résumé. This can be sent as an initiated enquiry, or in response to an advertisement, tender and so on. It may be a connecting stage following some previous communication, such as a telephone conversation, social meeting, and so forth.
As in any marketing and sales activity, it is very important to decide on the packaging and presentation of the "product". When you market yourself to a potential employer, make sure that you "package" the "product" – yourself - in the most attractive and appealing manner.

Employers receive many applications from different applicants. A successful introductory letter can "make all the difference", encouraging the employer to read yours with greater attention, and promoting your chance of being called to the next stage, the personal interview or other tests; this, after all, is the objective.
In many cases, the employer will just skim through the letter before reading the résumé, and so the first view of your letter must create the impression that you want to make.
The letter should be constructed in a logical and continuous form, so that your qualifications and experience for the particular job stand out, and not merely be a general description of yourself.

Start with a pertinent explanation of why you are applying for the particular job in the particular office or company. Go on to detail two or three special qualifications that will benefit the employer, and end the letter by focusing on what you are aiming for: a personal interview.

Remember, you are in a race with other competitors, all of whom hope to reach the finishing line. For the most part, there is only room for one winner - preferably, it will be you.

Make sure that you always attach a letter of enquiry to suit the place to which you are applying, in every approach to every potential employer.

The aim of the letter is to provoke and arouse the employer's interest in reading your résumé, and then lead to an invitation for a personal interview.
The letter should be printed, on clean and neat stationery, and will usually contain three or four paragraphs.

Address the letter to a particular body or person in the organization. Try to avoid "To whom it may concern", or "Dear Sir or Madam". It is obviously preferable to address the letter to the main decision maker.

In this letter, you can describe your personal career goals - the reader should understand why you have an interest in the job being offered (it is recommended to suit this to the place to the particular job. The part that varies will include your professional experience and career goals, which can be changed to suit the interviewing body. Changing does not mean lying, but rather changing the emphasis, expanding certain parts and reducing or omitting the others).

For application letter examples, click on each subject:

Technology
Marketing
Legal
Insurance
Financial
Consulting
Accounting