Writing a letter of intent ...every beginning is hard

Writing a letter of intent is for many candidates one of the most difficult parts when preparing a job application. The purpose of this document is to grab the attention of the hiring manager, introduce the applicant, and inform the manager of the applicant’s abilities as well as answering several questions. All this in one page document and without copying what is written in the resume.

Here is how a young candidate is trying to get the attention of the employers and find his first job.

Email content:

Dear HR at [...],

Hello, I am […], who have just graduated from […] University of Munich yesterday!! And here I am to apply for the job: "ENGINEER ".

Maybe there is a gap between your requirement and my ability, since you are looking for some guy with at least 3 years professional experience. However I consider myself as faster learner with positive "Can do" attitude. And also I have almost 2 years experience in the industry level as a working student. So I think it won't be a problem to fit into the new environment.

Anyhow, please spend some time to have a look at my CV and Cover Letter attached in this e-mail, and I  really appreciate for your time and effort!!

Wish you have a nice day and future.

Best Regards,

[…]  

Letter of intent

Dear Sir/Madam at […],

Hi, I’m […], who just graduated from […] university in Munich on Oct 22th this year (2013).

I find myself a competitive candidate for the position ‘’Engineer” for the following reasons:  […]

Last but not least, I consider myself as a fast learner with energetic “Can do” attitude. Since I have overcome so many difficulties during my studying and working time, I believe I can and will survive in the future career. :-p

To sum up, I think myself a very excellent candidate and have confidence to handle this job perfectly. Please pay some attention on me and I won’t let you down.

Best Regards,

[…]

Do you think this candidate will be invited to an interview for the position he applied for? Do you think this approach will bring any good results at all? How would you react or respond if you were a recruiter or a hiring manager who receives such an application?

RE: Your application 32456

“Dear Ms Melita, 

Thank you very much for the interest you show for an employment in our company. 

Unfortunately, we cannot offer you an employment in our company at this time. But we are confident that your qualification and knowledge will allow you to develop yourself with regard to your profession and according to your wishes. 

We wish you good luck for your future in your private and professional life. “

It’s not easy or pleasant to receive such emails. However it’s quite inevitable when looking for a job. Like with any other rejection we need to be able to handle them properly and make the best out of the situation. Otherwise our chances to find our best potential job might drop considerably.

First of all, before starting the search it’s important to set our expectations right. That means we should expect the following:    

• We might be looking for several months before finding the job we want
• Inevitably we will receive messages like the one from above
• It could happen that we go to two or three interviews with the same company and still receive at the end a message telling us that someone else was chosen for the job
• For certain applications we will have no feedback at all
• We need to put considerable effort and to invest time and energy in order to prepare our applications, search for jobs, send them and constantly try to improve our CVs and letters of intent

Realizing all this from the beginning will not make the search process easier but will help us keep up our level of energy and confidence. One of the common mistakes people do when looking for a job is creating a CV and letter of intent and use them as they are during the whole process.

Doing the same thing and expecting different results doesn't make too much sense. Therefore applying with the same CV after receiving negative feedback it might not be the best idea.

We will never know exactly why we were rejected no matter how much we think and speculate about it. Instead of spending time thinking at the reasons the employer had, it would be more efficient to try and review our CV and letter of intent and improve it constantly.

The online environment is full with information on how to create CVs and letters of intent. All we need to do is to adapt the information to our situation and try different styles until we find the one that works for us. What we should not forget is that our CV is the first thing the employer will know about us. Even if it might sound obvious, the photo we choose to put in this document needs to be a professional one adequate for a business relation.

Having someone else checking our CV might also be very useful. If we don’t have any friends who work in HR we can look for someone who has recent experience with job applications or contact HR professionals who would be willing to evaluate our CV. We should never be happy with just one opinion. People have different experiences and points of view regarding this aspect even if they work in HR.

The quality of our application is the only thing we can really influence. All other things are speculations and suppositions.

When we understand that negative answers as well as positive ones are part of the recruitment process, our chances to go smoothly through it and to find the job that we really want will be definitely higher.  

Random applications – do they work?

         The purpose of job ads is to attract candidates who have certain skills, experience and education. They describe the ideal candidate and because most of the times the companies can’t find such a candidate they make some compromises and interview also the candidates that meet the critical requirements. However, generally the candidates are taken into consideration for a certain position if they meet at least 80% of the requirements.

Regardless of the job requirements, position, company and country I would say, the mailboxes of the recruiters are constantly invaded by random applications.

          The random candidates are those people who apply to every single job ad that they see. People that apply for Sales Manager positions but they have never sold anything in their life, people that apply for technical positions even if they have no experience or studies in that field and so on. For some, the only criteria are regarding the region in which they live. However, most of them consider no criteria.

So there will be no misunderstanding, when I say random applications I don’t mean spontaneous applications. For me, the spontaneous applications are happening when a candidate sends his application expressing his interest in a position that is not open at that moment. This kind of applications is recommended by all HR specialists because this way the candidate shows his initiative and interest in a certain company. 

        If it would be to find an explanation for the behavior of the random applicants, I would say that probably these people think that someone will see their CV, discover the well hidden potential behind their irrational application and call them to offer the job of their life. Some might even think that the recruiters will save their CV and when there will be a position corresponding to their experience they will call them right away. 

WRONG! Recruiters never save random applications. They are annoyed by such candidates that they need to go through in order to find the ones that really match the job profile. This is a waste of time for everyone. I haven’t met yet a person that obtained a job through random applications.

       Just a bit of responsibility when applying for a job would make a great difference for both candidates and recruiters.  According to Holmes and Rahe stress scale, losing a job is one of the 10 most stressful situations in life. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holmes_and_Rahe_stress_scale) Maybe this explains why some people act so irrational when looking for a job.