Job applications II

If a student ask us:

What else can I do apart from looking at an organization’s aims and mission statement as mentioned on its website?

Our reply:

Websites of organizations also usually report news and events associated with the organization. Take a look at these and see how you might wish to participate with the, or how they seem interesting. Add this information to your letter and other parts of your written application.

The more the applicant knows about the job being applied for, the better.

The student may inquire:

Who should I address the application to?

Our answer:

It is always best to address an application to a specific person.

The student may object:

But the job advertisement did not mention any name of a person, just to send the application to the human resources department.

We might add:

In that case, it is worth it to look on the organization’s website to find the name of the head of human resources or just phone the office and ask for the name of the person in charge of human resources and how the name is spelled.

The student may be doubtful, and say:

Why can’t I just send the application addressed to “Dear Sir or Madame” or “To Whom It May Concern”?

We might explain:

These are very old fashioned ways of writing to people and are almost considered rude. If you are introduced to someone and call them dear sir or madame, it sounds ridiculous, as if we do not know if someone is male or female. It sounds almost as silly to someone opening the letter that has been addressed in this way.

In a similar way, To Whom it May Concern is a lazy way to open a letter, as if whoever sent it could not be bothered to find out a name to send the message to. This type of opening basically says that whoever I am writing to is not really very important and I don’t care who you are, so just anyone who has the responsibility for looking at this type of letter should look at it.

As we see, it is not very polite to address a letter this way and it is always best to take a little extra time to find out from the organization what person such letters should be addressed to. Even if the organization says to send them to the human resources department, for example, it can make a nice impression of we take the trouble to find out the name of the person in charge and take the time to spell that name correctly. It shows that as applicants, we value individual workers and staff members. This shows we respect members of the team, and this is the type of colleague that other staff would like to have working with them.

The student may wonder:

Should I reread my application documents before I send them?

We may say:

It can help to find out whether we have addressed the application to a specific person. Try looking at the application documents very quickly and see if the main points of information are clear even to someone who only spends a few seconds glancing at it.

If the application documents make a claim about us, such as stating that we have a specific talent or experience, make sure that the documents offer proof of any such claim.

• Be sure that the main point of the application, what we are looking for, is stated at the start of the application.
• Also, that details and examples are included to support the main goal.
• If the job advertisement uses key words, be sure that these are taken into account, even though it is not necessary to repeat exactly words from any advertisement in the application.
• Be sure to include the name of the person the documents are being addressed to, as well as the name of the organization.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)