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Job Search Letters are often circulated and many times influence whether someone is interviewed, hired or later promoted. Whenever one deals with a prospective employer he or she must make sure that all of his or her communication is professional and appropriate, and this is especially true when it involves written communications. Therefore, some different examples of the types of job search letters and the formats that they can take will be provided. However, some general tips on letter writing will first be provided.

The first tip to writing an effective letter is to make it reader rather than writer friendly. This can be done by first addressing the letter, whenever possible, to a specific person within the organization and using his or her name.

If an advertised position tells a person to send responses to a particular box number without a name given, one may need to follow that directive. This is unless, of course, he or she can network into who is handling the position on the phone.

Yet, regardless of whether one has the recipient's name, letters that use the words "you" and "your" are much friendlier than are those that "overuse" words like "I." As the expression goes, the first letter in the word "We" is a "Double You," and letters that focus twice as much on the reader, as they do on the writer of the letter, are more likely to get favorable attention.

Besides using a person's name and words like "you" and "your," it is perfectly acceptable to work personal information that a prospective employer directly shares with you into a letter, provided that it is not of an embarrassing nature. If, for example, the prospective employer indicated to you that he or she just won a golf tournament then it is perfectly acceptable to congratulate him or her again on such a wonderful achievement.

However, if a prospective employer confides that he or she is struggling with the direction of upper management such information should not be repeated in a letter. The reason is that it could do harm to a potential boss, if that information is first seen by a secretary or other employee in the company.

Additionally, a job candidate can package his or her background so that it is easier to process. For instance, on a letter of introduction, one might want to use "bullet points." Similarly, on a letter answering an advertisement and requesting specific attributes a candidate may want to insert a table that has the columns "your requirements" and "my background," if indeed he or she meets and/or exceeds each of the requirements.

A job seeker must also realize that the person who ends up reading a letter will likely have a very busy schedule. Therefore, the letter should be brief, meaning that it should only be on one side of one piece of paper, and it should look nice, so that it gets serious consideration.

More specifically, it should (1) be on high quality paper, (2) have proper margins and fonts (e.g., New Times Roman or Arial in a ten to twelve font size), and (3) be produced by either a high quality laser printer or a high quality photocopier. The reason to send a high quality photocopy, if one has an ink jet printer, is that a letter produced with an ink jet printer will smear if it gets wet.

Tip 4: Let Target Determine if Resume Should Be Attached to an Unsolicited Letter of Introduction

One needs to make a decision as to whether to attach a resume to an unsolicited letter of introduction. If an individual has a particularly strong background, and if the candidate is targeting top executives of large firms, he or she will often get better results by (1) mentioning facts about (or quotes from) the prospective boss (such as those found in trade journals) and (2) succinctly relaying what he or she offers that the executive needs without attaching a resume.

The reason for not attaching a resume is that executive secretaries will often intercept correspondence with a resume attached and immediately route it to the Human Resources Department. In fact, if one can speak with the executive's personal secretary, that conversation can be referenced in either an opening or in a Postscript and when something nice is said about the secretary's helpfulness oftentimes the secretary will relay the letter.

Because upper executives are extremely busy, a job seeker needs to decide whether he or she feels it is best to follow up with such persons. The reason is that on the one hand the person might lose some negotiating power if there would have been genuine interest anyway, while on the other hand the person might not get an interview if a follow up call is not made.

Thus, the job seeker needs to assess whether it will be better to indicate that he or she (1) looks forward to the executive's calling him or her to learn more about how he or she can help or (2) will be calling during a certain week (i.e., the week that follows the receipt of the letter). In the absence of a personal contact, who knows both the executive and the job seeker and who is willing to help arrange a meeting, the job seeker might be able to get a reading on which approach would be better from talking with the executive's secretary.

Nevertheless, while the attachment of resumes and indications that follow-up calls will be made are as a general rule counterproductive when dealing with senior executives of major companies, middle managers are not bombarded with resumes from the outside, and they more likely read their own mail. With many companies paying their middle managers modest finders' fees on new hires (since this approach costs less than paying headhunters), middle managers sometimes have an added incentive to carefully examine incoming resumes.

In either case, one should use standard mail to send these types of unsolicited letters. The reason is that sending such letters by express mail often conveys desperation and reduces one's chance of getting a job. Although one can use a 9" x 12" envelope that is hand addressed to make the letter standout and appear more personal, the envelope color should match that of the stationery being used.

Another tip is "PS: Do not forget the PS" on jobs where a person is still "selling." After the salutation and introduction, the PS is what gets someone's attention. Thus, it represents the perfect place to put one's strongest selling points, or as mentioned above, compliment an executive's personal secretary, who will likely make a decision regarding whether the boss should or should not see a given letter.

However, while the PS is recommended for letters where one wants to reinforce positives, it is not recommended for resignation letters or letters where a job seeker is rejecting an offer, since it may only serve to alienate the recipient in these cases. Similarly, it may not be advisable for a "Follow-up to Rejection Letter," since it might be interpreted as being too pushy. Moreover, on letters where one does not use a PS one might want to sign off with "Sincerely" rather than "Sincerely yours," since it is more accurate.

Now that some tips regarding letter writing have been provided, some examples of different types of letters will be given. In order, the examples include letters to (1) stimulate interest and solicit conversation, (2) answer an advertised position, (3) follow-up to either a phone conversation or an in-person interview and (4) follow-up to a rejection from a prospective boss. Letters to accept and reject an offer will be dealt with on the "Salary Negotiations" page and a letter of Resignation will be provided on the "Thriving at Next Job" page.

While the below "Letter to Stimulate Interest" does not show it, individuals often share factual information that they ask be kept confidential. For instance, it is common to see something like "Addressee Name, on a confidential basis, my previous boss retired and the division where I work has lost substantial market share under its new leadership. Therefore, I am now looking for a better career opportunity and your company, XYZ, came to mind since it is known for its strong management talent."

Lastly, before showing examples of letters, it will be mentioned that modifications to these basic letters can be made for specific audiences. For example, the Letter to Stimulate Interest can with slight modifications be sent to either a company or a headhunter. Similarly, the letter to reject an offer shown on the "Salary Negotiations" page can be slightly modified to withdraw an application from consideration.

Your marketing research company, XYZ, is well recognized for its excellence, as noted by (article in source on date), and I would like to join your department as a marketing research manager. Addressee, my interest in your company developed while I was doing marketing research work for a consumer goods company during the last five years. This means that I can offer your company the following:

Addressee, your company has the type of environment that I am seeking. More importantly, I can help you retain more clients, add new clients and enhance your department's profitability.

My resume is enclosed for your review. On (date approximately seven to ten days later) I will contact your office to see when a meeting can be arranged at your convenience. Meanwhile, I thank you for your consideration.

PS During our meeting I will provide you with some ideas that you should find helpful in terms of selling more value-added services to your existing clients.

Your ad for an Advertising Account Executive in the (Date) issue of (Publication) interests me. Therefore, I am forwarding a resume for your review.

As the attached resume shows, I have excellent qualifications for your opening. Please consider the following:

Should you agree that my background is a good match for your requirements, I welcome the opportunity to meet personally with you. My phone number where you can on a confidential basis reach me during the day is (###) ###-####.

PS You will notice on my resume that at QRS Advertising I handled the highly successful "Mom & Pop Business Ad Campaign" on behalf of Bank MNO.

As is the case for the previous two letters, the job seeker must decide whether he or she wishes to place an additional call, rather than simply wait. If the answer is "yes," the last paragraph before the "Sincerely yours" might state something like "I will call you on Thursday of next week" instead of saying something like "I definitely welcome further conversations."

I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed my recent trip to XYZ Business Consulting and for the opportunity that I had to interview for the position of Public Relations Manager. The trip was most enjoyable, and I appreciated the chance to meet with you and the other members of the XYZ interview team who did an excellent job of helping me to understand more about the requirements for the job and XYZ's vision.

The position of Public Relations Manager sounds like a challenging and exciting opportunity, and I am very interested in working with you. More importantly, I know that I have the background and skills needed to make a major contribution to your future success.

Addressee, my strong academic training in Public Relations and my strengths in business startups will enable me to help you with your desire to add technology clients. Additionally, many of the creative client promotions programs that I developed in CITY can be slightly modified to meet the needs of your clients. This will save XYZ development costs and thereby enhance the bottom-line.

Based upon your insights my interest in this position is quite strong, and I definitely welcome further conversations. Meanwhile, I again thank you for your hospitality and consideration.

PS After thinking about our meeting, I have many ideas as to how you can better crack into the website development industry, with an inexpensive E-mail campaign similar to that used by Temporary Agency DEF. It is my hope to help you to build your website development division, which you indicated is a high priority.

Before presenting this letter, one must determine how cordial his or her relationship is with the prospective boss. If the hiring manager is, for instance, a close friend of one's parents then such a letter would be quite appropriate. However, if a job candidate is dealing with a brassy business type, who sent a terse response, the following letter may not be advisable. These things being said here is an example of a "Follow-up to Rejection Letter."

Thank you for your letter of (Date on Addressee's Letter). Although I am disappointed that no openings exist in your Client Promotions Department, I certainly understand the reality of the situation.

Addressee, I remain interested in XYZ Business Consulting for the reasons that I indicated in my previous letter. In the hope that an opening may develop in the future, I will contact you periodically to see if the current situation changes.

Dr. Clark Knows that These Tips on Job Search Letter Writing Will Help Individuals Get WONDERFUL Jobs

Dr. Clark, who helps companies with promotional programs of all types as shown by clicking HERE, knows that the information in this section will provide insights, which will help individuals write professional business letters and get WONDERFUL jobs. Dr. Clark, in like manner, knows that readers will find the other pages of this website helpful.

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